Page A6
February 28, 2001
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St. John’s Celebrates With Community Pride Dinner
St. John’s Community Pride
Dinner atJamesJohnE lemen-
tary School.
The Feb 15 event was the
fulfillment o f the vision of
school principal Mike Verbout
to celebrate contributions that
businesses, volunteers, resi­
dents and organizations have
brought to the neighborhood.
Roberts spoke about some
o f the past year’s accomplish­
ments o f these supporters, in­
cluding the creation o f the
Portland ReliefNursery, which
offers respite care and sup­
port for families living in the
St John's area, and the imple­
m e n ta tio n o f the SUN
(Schools Uniting Neighbor­
praises the
hoods) School at the north
accomplishments o f volunteers.
Portland elementary school.
Roberts said that this type o f ad­
vocacy and support is typical o f the.
ormer Gov. Barbara Roberts
St. John’s community, which has a
addressed a full house o f
long history o f proactive accomplish­
over 200 St. John’s support­
ment.
ers and activists at the First Annual She also credited community
F
members with being more politi­
cally aware and ready to step
forward to promote community
development.
Roberts has been an active
supporter o f the relief nursery,
modeled after programs in Salem
and Eugene.
The SUN School at James
Johns seeks to offer a verity o f
academic, social, health, and rec­
reation programs for youth and
residents this fall. Already, over
215 children have participated in
before and after school programs,
while some 50 adults enrolled in
evening ESL (English as Second
Language) classes. SUN School
co-manger C J Doyle, presented a
slide show that identified the sup­
port from a variety ofbusinesses,
schools and conununity organi­
zations. Entertainment was pro­
vided by 4th and 5th grade stu­
dents from James John, who sang
and also performed a reader’s
theater.
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Multnomah County Commissioner Serena Cruz are guests o f honor at the St. John's Community
Pride Dinner.
Census Shows Blacks More
Educated and Affluent
AMERICAH FAM IIY
IN S U R A N C E
A UTO HO M E BUSINESS HEALTH LIEE *
I
All Your Protection Under One Roof.
American Family Mutual Insurance Company and its Subsidiaries. Madison, Wl 53783-0001 www.amfam.com
African Americans are bet­
ter educated, more likely to be
employed and have higher
household incomes than ever
before, according to data re­
leased by the U.S. Census Bu­
reau.
A frican A m ericans now
represent 13 percent o f the
total U.S. population, up from
12.3 percent in 1990. They
spend $572.1 billion annually
on consumer goods, or roughly
$270 billion more than they
spent a decade ago.
That means African Ameri­
cans now represent two out of
every three dollars spent by
minorities, making them the
largest buying power group,
a cc o rd in g
to
Diversitylnc.corn’s Business
Case for Diversity.
The census information pro­
vides further insight into this
increasingly affluent and edu­
cated group. For example, the
median income o f African-
American households has been
on the rise and topped $27,910
in 1999. Moreover, 51 percent
of married African Americans
reported incomes o f $50,000
or more compared with 60 per­
cent o f w hites. H ow ever,
single-family households are
more common among African
Americans. O fthe 8.7 million
African-American families re­
corded in 2000, single women
headed 44 percent and single
men headed 8 p e rc e n t.
Roughly 47 percent o f all Af­
rican-A m erican households
owned their otvn homes.
t