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Volume X X V I, Number 16
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Committed to cultural diversity.
A p ril 17, 1996
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From Welfare To Work Step By Step
Low-Income Energy
Assistance Funds
Funds are still available through the
Albina Ministerial Alliance a for residents
of inner-North and Northeast Portland who
need help paying their energy or water j
bills. Low-income people who have not
recieved energy-assistant funds since Oct.
I, 1995 or think they might qualify for a
discount on water bills call 240-0828.
PCC Offers Grants
The Portland Community College Foun
dation is offering scholarships to students
who will attend P C C during the 1996-97
academic year. Criteria for scholarships
vary, but most require students have at
tended P C C for one term before applying.
Funds are designated by student, field of
study,age geographical residence and oth
er factors. Last year the foundation granted
165 scholarships totaling $122,500. Ap
plications are available at PCC financial
aid offices. Deadline for applications is
May 1. Call 977-4385 for more details.
Urban League Annual
Meeting
The Urban League of Portland will hold
its annual membership meeting Wednes
day, April 24 from 6:80 to 8:30 p in. in the
Amphitheater at Providence Medical Cen-
ter4805 NEGIisan. The event will include
the installation of new officers, presenta
tion o f the annual report and a awards
presentation. Those who plan to attend are
encouraged to R S V P at 280-2600.
Steps staff members Lelia Lomax, Georgiana McElheny and Bill Miller confer. Program Coordinator Gary Coleman
By C C Jackson
Down a long corridor in an old church
school building is the path more than 5000
people have taken to get from welfare into the
Young African American
Men Honored
The Distinguished Youth Gala Celebra
tion of Academic Achievement will be held
Sunday, May 19at 3 p.m. at the Red Lion Inn
at the Quay. The event salutes distinguished
African American Young Men in Portland
area high schools. Anthony “Tony” Melson
of Jefferson High School is the event’s dis
tinguished Scholar of the year.
Relatives of Diabetics
Sought For Research
Legacy Emanual Childrens Diabetes
Center is looking for relatives of diabetes
for free screening as part of a research
project. Individuals 3 to 45 years old and
are siblings, parents, or children of people
with type one diabetes or individuals 3 to
20 years old and are an aunt, uncle, niece,
nephew, grandchild, half-sibling or cousin
of persons with type one diabetes. Call
4 13-3288 for more details on the program.
Spring Schedule For
Forest Friends
Forest Friends, a classroom series for
preschoolers age 3 to 5 begins April 23 at
the World Forestry Center. Ihe classes
feature stories, music, crafts and nature
games. The series includes three parent-
child classes that will teach about the life,
habits, and ecology of forest creatures
featured in the classes. Call 228-1367 for
further information
Hospice Volunteers
Needed
Volunteers are needed to provide emo
tional support and physical care for Kaiser
Permenente hospice patients and their fam
ilies. Volunteers commit to eight hours a
month for six months. Free training is held
at 3704 N. Interstate Ave. Thursdays and
Tuesdays from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. from
April 25 to May 28. C A II 499-5285 or
(360) 694-2210 (Washington state) for
more information.
Conference To Build
Garden For Childrens
Hospital
Home is Where the Habitat is, a week
end environmental conference will build a
natural garden to attract wildlife to the
Children's Garden at Legacy Emanual
Childrens Hospital, 2801 N. Gatenbein.
The workshop, April 20-21, is sponsored
by the National Wildlife Federation. Sara
Stein author of “Noah’s Garden” is the
keynote speaker. Registration is at 8:15.
SU B M ISSIO N S: Community
Calendar information will he given
priority if dated two weeks
before the event date.
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workforce.
From Oct 1990 Steps to Success North
has worked to provide welfare clients —
mostly women, mostly single and all parents
oise Neighborhood
Considers Pub
by
L ee P earlman
overabundance of liquor outlets. The Bu
he fate of the proposed Easy
reau of Licenses tends to frown on new
Street Pub and Grill at 915 N.
liquor licenses in such areas for establish
Shaver St. may be decided at
ments that emphasize the sale of liquor as
a special meeting at 7 p.m. April opposed
22 at to providing it in conjunction with
the Albina Youth Opportunity School,
food, unless there are unusual circumstanc
37 1 0 N. Mississippi Ave.
es involved or a strong show of community
According Larry Jacobson of the Ore support
gon Liquor Control Commission, and M ike
So far, Jacobson and Sanderson have
Sanderson of the Portland Bureau of L i received 14 letters opposing Easy Street’s
censes, both agencies are waiting to hear
license application. They have also received
from the Boise Neighborhood Association
eight letters of support, all of them form
before making their recommendations on
letters with identical language produced by
the license application.
the same printer, and in four cases without
Boise discussed the issue at its April
an accompanying address.
general meeting, bu, declined to take any
Housing Our Families plans to build a
action because interested neighbors were nine-unit low-income housing project on a
not notified that it would be on the agenda.
vacant lot across the street, and the pub
Instead, the association’s officers decided
abutts more housing to the north. Other
to call a special meeting, and notify all
opponents cite past problems with alcohol
residents and property owners within two sales in the area.
blocks of the establishment.
Leah Van Horton, owner of a recently
The property is within the city’s North-
renovated historic building on North
Northeast Liquor
Mississippi Avenue, wrote, “Given the his
Impact Zone, where the city believes
▼
there are alcohol-related problems and an
Continued to page A6
T
-- with the tools necessary to get jobs and
keep them.
The program, staffed by Portland Com
munity College under a subcontract from Mt
Hood Community College, works from a
vision of a strong community and a mission
to empower its clients
All Adult and Family Service clients and
applicants for public assistance with a child
one-year-old and up must be in the JO B S
program. They must participate in 40 hours
ofclient activities that may include job search,
daily networking and attending Steps mod
ules that teach skills such as resume writing,
interview
techniques and stress management.
Everyone goes to Pod on Fridays where
outside speakers address subjects like how to
file for earned income credit and what to do
about a criminal record. Those who have
found employment are acknowledged and
hot job leads are announced
Once in the Steps Program clients are put
on tracks toward self-sufficiency. Each track
-- employability, career focus, life planning
and A B E/G ED - is geared toward individual
needs.
Those with low-level learning abilities
like dyslexics and illiterates are placed on the
employability track, that combines job search,
basic skills and self-esteem building. For ten
weeks clients are helped to get a new star,
with a fresh look at their skills and how to
apply them. The career focus track is an
intensive two week version of the modules
with regular coaching and support.
Those with no employment experience at
all -- usually single mothers -- find them
selves spending five weeks in life planning. It
▼
Continued to page A6
Ebony Fashion Fair
he 38th annual Ebony fashion
fair “The Power of Color” will
appear in Portland at the Ore
gon Convention Center ballroom on Fri
day, April 19th, 1996, at 8:00 p.m. The
world's largest traveling fashion show is
produced by Ebony Magazine and Is
sponsored by The Portland Chapter of
the Links, Inc., for the benefit of The
Links educational and scholarship fund.
T
Mrs. Eunice W. Johnson, producer and
director of the show, personally selects fash
ions from the exclusive collection o f famed
designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar
De La Renta, Valentino, Bob Mackie, Giorgio
Sant’Angelo, Fabrice and Biuce Oldfield.
Proceeds from previous shows made it
possible to contribute to many local charities
such as: PO IC, N A A C P (Lo cally and nation
ally), St. Vincent DepaulChild Development
Center, Volunteers of America Fund, Port
land State University, Multnomah Associa
tion for Retarded Children, United Negro
College Fund (Locally and nationally), Amer
ican Cancer Society-Oregon Division, K id
ney Association of Oregon, U .N .I.C .F Ethi
opian Aid (Africare.lnc.), American Heart
Association of Oregon. Head Start, Peninsu
la Little League, and many other groups and
organizations.
The classic casual wear from Louis
Ferand Red Jumpsuit, yellow coat and
green suede vest with yellow suit and
red coat. Both outfits with red fur hats.
Community Service Award Nominations Sought
he Oregon Community Founda
teer service in the greater Portland area.
tion is requesting nominations
Nom inees should demonstrate lead
for the George A. Russili Com
ership, vision and initiative as well as
munity Service Awards, a $2 ,0 0 0 award
service. Candidates for public office and
given to an individual who has performed
holders o f public office are not eligible,
exceptionally useful and effective volun-
Aw ards are not made posthumously.
T
The George A R u ssill Award was
established in 1978 by the friends of
George R u ssill, a Portland attorney who
was an active volunteer in city and state
politics.
Nomination forms for the George A
R u ssill award are available through The
Oregon Community Foundation, 6 2 1 SW
Morrison Street, Suite 725, Portland,
Oregon, 9 7 2 2 5 ,(5 0 3 ) 227-6846. Dead
line for nominations are A p ril 18, 1996
at 5 p.m.
Chefs’ Night Out Benefits Local Hunger-Relief
ancy and Rick, struggling to
rants, Oregon Food Bank will be able to help
support 10 month old twins on
local liuugci relief pauliies and agencies get
Rick’s $6-per-hour job at a local
food to hungry families, including Nancy and
grocery store, recently received a stag
R ic k ’s.
gering blow. The grocery store has
The ninth annual C h e fs Night Out will be
closed and Rick's out of a job. They
from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, April 22 at the
were barely making it before; now they
Portland Center forthe Performing Arts, 1111
need help. The family has turned to St.
S.W . Broadway. Participants will offer
Francis Catholic Church in Sherwood,
delectables from at least 30 restaurants, many
an Oregon Food Bank network food pan
Oregon wineries, microbreweries, coffee
try. They’ve received a food box, but
brewers and mineral water purveyors. T ic k
especially appreciate baby formula,
ets are $50 per person and are available from
which Nancy estimates would cost them
center’s box office or from Fred Meyer Fastixx
$100 to $ 1 5 0 a month. “St. Francis has
outlets.
been an unbelievable help,” Nancy says.
Organizers hope to raise at least $45,000
N
As a beneficiary o f Chefs’ Night Out, the
annual fundraiser which invites local food
lovers to sample the creations of local restau
from the event. Oregon Food Bank will
share 80 percent of Chefs’ Night Out pro
ceeds with: Foodtrain.aSt. Vincent de Paul
program that “rescues" prepared and perish
able foods; Sisters of the koad Cate, a
nonprofit restaurant in Northwest Portland
that serves low-income and homeless people;
and Klam ath/Lake County Food Bank, an
Oregon Food Bank network agency in K la
math Falls.
C h e fs’ Night Out is Portland’s ver
sion o f a nationwide event, Taste o f the
Nation, organized by Share Our Strength,
a Washington, D C.-based anti-hunger
reliefagency. The rem aining 20 percent
o f the event’ s proceeds w ill go to Share
Our Strength to help international re lie f
efforts.
"We appreciate our partnership with Share
Our Strength and the local community in
implementing C h e f s Night Out," said Rach-
el Bristol Little, Oregon Food Bank’s exec
utive director "We are blessed with wonder
ful restaurants, planners and volunteers who
make our event a success each year The
ongoing support provided by Share Our
Strength fosters greater awareness of hunger
in our communities and support for our fight
against hunger.”
As Oregon Food Bank copes with drastic
cuts in federal emergency food assistance,
funds such as those raised from Chefs' Night
Out will be used to make up for these losses
by targeting new sources of food For every
dollar received, Oregon Food Bank distrib
utes 9 pounds of food.
For more information about Oregon Food
Bank's and Chefs’ Night Out, call (503)282-
0555.