D ecember 29, 1993 • T he P ortland O bserver
P age 4
Pedestrian Safety
Do's And Don'ts
W h o WiBl C a r e F o r O u r C h ild r e n ?
In Milwaukee’s inner city, a pro­
gram that teaches parents how to
handle their frustrations is helping
keep their children away from drugs.
In Boston a team of nurses takes lime
to help parents who have children
with disabilities make a smooth tran­
sition into school. And in rural Ten­
nessee, a publicity campaign directed
toward parents is providing informa­
tion on the benefits children with
disabilities are eligible to receive from
Supplemental Security Income.
Although these RWJF-tunded
programs are as diverse as the areas
they serve, all three and children by
reaching out to the people w ho best
understand their needs-parents.
The result is better care for the
children from caregivers who learn
through parents how to best meet the
families’ needs.
C o n sid e r the case o f Sue
Hammond. For two years, she stood
by helplessly as her son was taken
repeatedly from her home and sent
away to a psychiatric hospital.
“I felt like I had no part in what
happened with my son,” she said. "It
was very frustrating.”
That changed two and a half
years ago w hen the K entucky
homemaker’s son was accepted into
RAW JF’s Mental Health Services
Program for Youth (MHSPY). The
program brings together the child’s
mental health professionals was a
team, with the parents as key players.
“Now,” says Hammond, “if I
think my son needs in-home therapy,
one-on-one or group therapy, (the
professionals) listen. They take my
advice first.”
That approach has kept her 13-
year-old son out of the hospital and
home with his family for the last two
and a half years.
With projects in eight states, the
five-year,$20.4 million Mental Health
Services Program for Youth is the
largest privately funded children’s
mental health project in the country.
Those involved in the program are
reforming mental health care by unit­
ing into a team the health and social
service progressional that treat each
child. This approach is directed at
keeping children with their tamilies,
away from the foster care system and
institutions.
Parents are brought onto the team
because “they have more commit­
ment to the child than anybody in the
(mental health) system,” explained
Eleanor McLean, coordinator for the
MHSPY project in Dane County, W is.
For Hammond and other par­
ents, caring for an emotionally dis­
turbed child at home is challenging,
but the RWJF project helps ease the
task by offering professional advice
and support meetings.
Parents Join Fight Against Drugs
No parent can protect his or her
child from the temptation of drugs
and alcohol. Yet parents greatly in­
fluence their children’s decisions
through their own values.
Crime Stoppers Case For The Week
Of December 27, 1993: Arson
An RWJF kid, part o f the non-profit organization's interactive
disability program
M ilw aukee’s Fighting Back
project helps inner-city parents
through its support group and educa­
tion programs.
“parents need to learn to talk to
their kids so they understand what
they’[re going through,” explained
James Mosley, project director for
Milwaukee Countv F if fh t in a R a c k
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1
1. Continue tocross a street if the
Don't Walk sign begins Hashing while
you arc in the crosswalk, but do not
start crossing, because you will not
have time to cross safely.
2. Be alert to turning traffic even
if you have a Walk signal at an inter­
section.
3. Avoid jogging or walking in
the street if sidewalks are provided.
4. Walk on the left, facing traffic,
on two-lane roads where there are no
sidewalks.
5. Wear retrorcflectivc materials
or carry a flashlight if you walk at
night. Wearing while at night, while
helpful when traffic is moving at
speeds below 35 mph, docs not make
you safe when traffic is flowing at a
higher speed.
DRIVERS SHOULD:
1. Wait until you pass an End
School Zone sign or a sign indicating
an increased speed limit before you
resume normal speed.
2. Realize that the advance pe­
destrian crossing sign and the ad-
vanceschoolcrossingsignsarcplaccd
1Q0 or more f feet
m frQm
100
from a crosswa,k
crosswalk l0
to
warn you that a pedestrian crossing is
ahead.
3. Be alert if you see the crossing
sign, which has lines at the feet of the
figures, because it signals a cross­
walk, in which pedestrians have the
right-of-way.
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C O A 1 L 1 [ T
1
A Homeless Couple
This holiday season celebrates
one of Christianity's most sacred days
- Christmas - the mass celebrating the
birth of Christ. For most Americans,
this is a holiday time. The children
are home from school; the parents
from work. Families gather; friends
frolic. Frenzied shopping and frantic
pasrtics mark the season.
Yet, we should not let this holy
day be reduced simply to a holiday.
Last week, a national survey of 26
major cities found that the number of
homeless families with children seek­
ing food and shelter had increased
30% this year. Families arc now over
40% of the homeless. These tend to be
young people who have lost their jobs,
their homes and their bearings.
What docs this have to do with
Christmas? In a sense, it is the point
of the story.
Christmas isrcally abouta home­
less couple. It is about Mary, a teen­
age mother and her husband, Joseph,
a poor carpenter, struggling to sur­
vive under occupation. Although she
was with child, they were ordered to
travel far to report for a census. They
had no right to vote, but they would
have to pay taxes. A homeless couple.
They traveled to Bethlehem
where they had no place to stay. The
innkeeper looked at their tattered
garments and told them there was no
toom. Business was good; he had no
time for the poor. Of course, if he had
known who Mary was carrying, he
would have offered his own bed. But
he could not sec the hope in the
homeless couple.
Mary had the baby outdoors, in
the staple. There was no heat. It was
not weatherized. Straw privided the
carpet. She wrapped the Child in a
blanket and placed Him in a manger.
The baby might have died, but the
stars aligned in the night to provide
light and warmth.
What is Christmas about? It is
not about Christmas cards, for they
had no address. It is not about parties,
for they stayed alone i the cold stable.
Il isn't about going into debt tobuy
gifts for the children, for they had no
money. It is about a homeless couple.
It is also about a people living
under cruel occupation. Their lives
were seamed by poverty, struggle and
war. They built up a tremendous ex­
pectation that God would send a sav­
ior, a messiah, to deliver them from
their oppression. “And He will be
called Wise Counselor, M ighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace... And
the government shall rest upon His
shouldrs.”
This was insurrection. No won­
der Herod, the local governor, was
uneasy. Nothing is more frightening
to a corrupt elite than an independent
leader. That is why the Haitian gener­
als so fear Father Aristide. He is not
perfect, but he is endependent. In
Jesus' time, corrupt elites used spies
to spread false rumors to try to dis­
credit Him, just as the CIA has tried
to do with Father Aristide. Christmas
is about fundamental challenge to an
unjust order.
Yet Christ came not on a chariot
in golden armor, as many expected,
but as a baby, bom in a stable to a
homeless couple. With all the expec­
tation about a mighty deliverer, the
question was whether people would
miss the message and messenger be­
cause of the package he came in.
W ise men - men o f wisdom -
left their flocks, follow ed the stars
to honor the new king. They u n ­
derstood - enen when the star led
them to the stable - that the S av ­
ior had com e. If He had been born
in H erod's house, He w ould have
been, He was born among the poor,
the disp laced , and wise men came
to honor the hom eless couple and
the new born C hild.
We can't let the froth of the holi­
day blind us to the sustenance of the
Holy day. Christmas is about a home­
less couple. If only the innkeeper had
known, we think, but that is not the
point. We must place out hopes in
every baby. We must insure that each
child has a chance to fulfill his or her
potential. It should not matter whether
the fatheris unemployed or the mother
is young, or the couple is without
shelter. We cannot know what genius
lies within each soul, so we must
affirm that all.
And as He taughtm we must turn
from petty politics of manuever, of
cynicism and positioning, and em ­
brace a powerful movement of prin­
ciple. Protect the babies in the dawn
of lige. Care for the sick; shelter the
homeless. Work forthe promise of
peace without end. Challenge the
unjust and the callous. That's the
point. Merry Christmas!
Tragic Fire Often Preventable
fabric
*Limited to stock on hand
*Does not apply to interfacing
*40% Discount does not apply
to Special Purchases or previously
discounted or marked-down items
PEDESTRIANS SHOULD:
Dog Houses Now
Available
The Oregon Humane Society's
annual dog house drive has netted
about 40 houses which are available
Portland Police Bureau and Port­ ture and contents was estimated at to people who need shelter for their
land Fire Bureau Arson investiga­ $450,000.
outdoor dogs.
W hile the fire, which was
People interested in obtaining a
tors, in cooperation with Crime Stop­
pers and the Oregon Council Against determ ined to have been in ten ­ dog house can contact the Society at
Arson, are asking for your help in tionally set, dam aged all three 285-7722 ext. 217 Monday through
identifying and apprehending the businesses occupying the build­ Friday and ext. 200 on Saturdays to
suspect or suspects responsible for ing, Arson investigators believe Sundays. There is no charge for dog
intentionally setting fire to a com ­ the “ targ e t” of the arson fire was houses. The Society can also provide
D ot's Cafe.
plans for an inexpensive, simple to
mercial building.
Crime Stoppers, in cooperation build house for those who want to
On Monday,November29,1993,
at 3:17 in the morning, the Portland with the Oregon Council Against construct their own.
Fire Bureau responded to a report of Arson, is offering a cash reward of up
Dog houses can be picked up at
a fire at Dot’s Cafe, 2521 SE Clinton. to $1,000 for information reported to the Oregon Humane Society at 1067
Upon arrival fire fighters found the Crime Stoppers, that leads to an ar­ NE Columbia Blvd. in Portland dur­
building, which housed Dot's Cate rest in this case and you need not give ing regular business hours 1 lam to
and two other businesses, engulfed in your name. Call Crime Stoppers at 7pm Monday through Friday and
10am to 6pm Saturday and Sunday.
smoke and fire. Damage to the struc­ (503) 823-HELP.
A
‘They help shape their children’s
values to make good decisions.”
The Milwaukee program is one
of 14 RWJF-funded Fighting Back
projects across the country. RWJF
began funding the S26.4 million, five-
year initiative in 1992.
Each Fighting Back project is a
comm unity-wide effort to bring to-
gethcr groups interested in fighting
drug abuse, from police, politicians
and business leaders to mmister, teacti­
ers and youth groups. Law officers
and business leaders learn to be sen­
sitive to teens, while teens and par­
ents learn how to work with commu­
nity leaders. Such cooperation brought
anti-drug messages to 60 billboards
in Milwaukee, after parents com­
plained to billboard owners that signs
for alcohol and cigarettes promoted
abuse.
“We’reattempting tohelppeople
think comprehensively,” Mosley ex­
plained. “Fighting Back enables the
community to build the kind of plan
that fits the community.”
Education Cam paign Brings
More Health Benefits To Children
The Campaign reaches out to
parents of chronically ill children
through social worker, therapists and
other caregivers. Campaign leaders
inform these professionals that a 1990
decision by the U.S. Supreme Court
has opened the door to SSI for hun­
dreds of thousand of children who
previously were ineligible.
Most
Most children
children who
who receive
receive SSI
SSI
also receive free medical care through
Medicaid.
Partly because of this effort, the
number of children receiving SSI in­
creased 40 percent in 1992.1nachang-
ing environment of health care re­
form, these programs already are
showing how to improve the way we
care for children most in need.
Although on the decline, tragic greatest contributing factor to chil­
fires still occur far too often in the dren misusing fire is Availability.
City of Portland. Fires begin in a Most children who accidently start
variety of ways. Approximately 8% of fires do so with matches and lighters
the lime (or about one in twelve) they found within their home.
The Portland Fire Bureau offers
children arc the cause, much like the
a
program
to assist parents in educat­
deadly fire that left a Portland mother
ing
their
children
about the dangers
dead early Christmas morning. Chil­
of
fire.
Over
2,500
children and their
dren cause an average of one half
parents
have
participated
over the
million dollars in property loss each
past
eight
years.
Although
the pro­
year and ohild set fires will cause, on
gram
is
very
effective,
it
is
only
able
average, one death each year (some­
to
respond
after
an
incident
has
oc­
times the child and sometimes oth­
curred,
which
is
often
too
late.
If
ers). These figures apply to the City of
parents
follow
a
few
basic
quidclincs
Portland only.
What happened to this family relating to fire, hundreds of unneces­
cannot be changed. What may hap­ sary fires along with injuries and
pen to other families can be influ­ death could be avoided.
PARENT GUIDELINES FOR FIRE
enced i f th c ncccssa ry re spec t for, anti
SAFETY
awareness of, fire issues is under­
1.
Keep
m
atches and lighters
stood by both Parents and Children,
out
of
sight,
reach,
and unavailable
primarily parents.
to
all
children.
Better
yet, remove
C hildren, particularly young
them
from
the
home
completely
if
children, arc dependent upon their
matches
and
lighters
have
no
com­
parents to create a safe environment.
A safe environment means one free of mon uses.
2. T reat m atches and lighters
deadly or dangerous items. A list of
like
the dangerous tools that they
such things might be guns, knives
are
and
treat them with the appropri­
household chemicals, strangers, and
Matches and Lighters. The single ate respect.
3. Lead by example. Children
cannot be expected to treat fire with
any more respect than the respect they
see parents give it. Actions speak
louder than words.
4. Explain to children why it is
not okay to use fire. “Don’t” rarely
gives children the information they
need to make the “right” decisions.
5. Reward and/or praise children
when they do the right things with
fire, rather than only punish when the
wrong behavior occurs.
6. Encourage your child’s school
to emphasize fire and life safety is­
sues. A fire and life safety curriculum
is available to all schools in the State
of Oregon and fire agencies arc avail­
able to help them. There is no better
learning environment than thcchild’s
school.
If these guidelines prove ineffec­
tive, the Portland Fire Bureau, as well
as most fire agencies throughout O r­
egon and Washington, offer programs
to help families get to the root of their
child’s fire related problems. In Port­
land contact our Juvenile Fircsettcr
Program at 823-3806. Fire safety starts
at home.