Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 2003)
November 19. 2003 www.portlandobserver.com Comm itted to Cultural Diversity tTlte ^ n rtía n ú (©hserüer C o ni ni u n i t y a l e n tl a r The coalition provides resources for people to gather data, assess and solves their problems. - Lila Wickham, the county's environmental health manager Holiday Meal St. Andrew Catholic Church of fers free Thanksgiving dinners from noon to 3 p.m. on Thanks giving day, Thursday, Nov. 27. D inner is served at the St. Andrews Community Center, on northeast Alberta Street between 8lh and 9,h avenues. For more in formation, cal 197 I -244-0339. Home Improvement The Community Energy Project holds free workshops on water conservation and w eatheriza tion. A workshop on weatheriza tion is from 6 to 8 p.m. on Nov. 20 at Parkrose High School, 12203 N.E. Shaver St. and from 1 to 3 p.m. on Nov. 22 at Buckman El ementary School, 320 S.E. I6lh Ave. Turkey Trot Get ready for Thanksgiving din ner by joining the Oregon Road Runners Club on a four-mile run/ walk through Washington Park and the Oregon Zoo. For more in fo rm a tio n , call o r v isit www.oregonzoo.com. Samba Class )- The World Dance Office pre sents an 8-week fall samba work shop with live music from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thurs days through Nov. 25. Classes are at the Peter Stott Center, Room 207. $6. For more information, call 503-725-5670. Chimps Gone Wild Jane Goodall brings enthusiasts closerto nature with "Wild Chim panzees,” through May at the Omni max Theater, 1945 S.E. Wa ter Ave. Tickets are $8.50. For m ore in fo rm a tio n , v isit www.wildchimpanzees.org. Doors of Creativity Northwest Medical Teams spon sors the multi-mediaexhibit “Win dows of Need, Doors of Hope” through 18 at the Doubletree Inn, Lloyd Center. For more informa tio n , v isit www.nwmedicalteams.org orcall 503-624-1000. Get in Shape P rovidence H ealth S ystem s o f f e r s W e s ts id e f i t n e s s classe s at 4015 SW M e rc an tile D riv e , L ak e O sw eg o . C lasses in clu d e step, ball and bar, ca rd io m ix, card io step, g e n tle-p ac ed fitn e ss, group strength train in g and Tai ch i, to name a few. F o ra full sched ule, call 503-574-6595 or visit w w w .p ro v id e n c e .o rg / c la s s e s . Friends with Corduroy Celebrate Ch i Idren’ s Book Week at the library with lovable Cordu roy, one of children’s literature’s favorite characters. The event is from 7 to 7:30p.m. Nov. 20.3605 N E 15lhAve. Wild Oats Wellness Wild Oats Wellness Center pre sents free w o rkshops at 3535 N.E. 15th Ave. (at Frem ont) in S tudio A, upstairs. A talk on “ Loving W hat is” will be held from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 3. A class on H ealing D ep res sion and A nxiety is from 7:30 p.m . to 9 :30 p.m . Dec. 10 and a class on the benefits o f cloth d iap erin g is from 3 to 5 p.m . Dec. 13. P re -reg ister at 503- 281-3262. A Healing Song Sankofaa Health Institute offers a free diabetes support group from 6to7:30p.m. every third Thursday at AlbertaSimmonsPlaza,611 N.E. MartinLuther King Jr. Blvd. For more information, call 503-285- 24X4 I photo by M ark W ashington /T he P or i land O bserver Noelle Dobson, Charles Bishop and Kevin Odell survey unsightly property in the Humboldt neighborhood of north Portland for air quality, trash dumping and overall livability. Community Livability Begins At Home work and changes as well. A coalition was formed to identify north and northeast P ortland's environmental health inside homes and throughout the neighborhood. The team is backed by the Multnomah County Health Department, the Albina Community Development Corp., the Department of Environmental Quality, North/ Northeast Neighborhood Coalition, Port land State University and other community groups and leaders. They call themselves PACE-EH, the Pro- Environmental health surveyed by J aymee R. C un T he P ortland O bserver Health consciousness is a sign o f the times. The public is bombarded with mes sages about lowering cholesterol, increas ing exercise and reducing the waistline. But building a healthy community takes hard tocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health. The group has identified five neighbor hoods— Humboldt. Vernon, Eliot. King and Boise— as pilot communitieselectingto make strides in environmental assessment. According to Lila Wickham, the county's environmental health manager, the coalition provides support for a neighborhood to identify and solve its own problems. "The coalition provides resources for people to gather data, assess and solves their problems," said Wickham. “W e're a backbone for them; we provide resources." PACEofficialsare meeting with community leaders and the public to help identify prob lems such as lead paint, moldy walls, pest infestations, contaminated brown fields, rot ting leaves and trash, and other problems that degrade a neighborhood’s health. Joice Taylor, community services direc tor for Albina Community Development continued on page 116 African American Coalition Honored Ambitious Agenda The A frican A m erican Health Coalition was hon ored with the Crystal Award for spending well and creat ing goodwill in the com m u nity. The Willamette Valley De velopment Officers, a non profit resource group for de velopment professionals, is the largest group in Oregon to recognize excellence in the nonprofit fund develop ment field. The AAHC was rec o g nized at a reception at the Oregon Convention Center earlier this month for its ef ficient spending in programs directed at reducing cardio vascular risk factors among African A m ericans in the Portland metro-area. Meets Reality Affordable health care advocates set new priorities R. C i ti / T he P ortland O bserver The goals of Oregonians for Health Security have changed drasti cally since the group's inception a year ago. Before some lawmakers put the Oregon Health Plan on the chopping block last January, the organization had inspired plans for bringing prescription drug coverage to Oregon seniors, expanding health care access to kids, getting more workers enrolled in health insurance plans and regulating gifts from pharmacy managers to doctors. "We started with quite an ambitious agenda . . then the session starts and reality hits you over the head like a big stick.” said Maribeth Healey, the group's executive director. Staff and volunteers began organizing for what they saw as a threat to the foundation o f health care access to all, especially when several of their expanded access bills were not even getting a hearing. “Because everyone thought the health plan was dead, we couldn't let that happen because you can't look at any kind of expansion if the whole basis of the health plan is decimated." she said. “We worked to save the Oregon Health Plan and pass the prescription drug purchasing pool bill,” Healey said. The approach was to put a human face on the health care struggle. Healey and her colleagues gave legislators a “daily dose” of reality by profiling the medically needy and dropping off the stories and photos in legislators' mailboxes. To a limited capacity, the Oregon Health Plan still functions, al though 85,000 Oregonians are still at risk of losing OHPbenefits if a plan that raised taxes to balance the state budget is overturned in a potential referendum election. The g ro u p 's current struggle is blocking anti-tax advocates from collecting enough signatures by a Nov. 25 deadline to put the budget package on the ballot in February. “When Oregonians know w hat's at stake and they value the Oregon Health Plan, they will think first before signing the petition and will vote to support the revenue referrals," Healey said. by J aymee Keith Dempsey, Corliss McKeever, Lou Radja, Collaine Faddis, Kamesha Robinson and Marsha Jordan, staff at the African American Health Coalition, are awarded the Crystal Award at the Oregon Convention Center. Whooping Cough Burgeons in Portland Whooping cough has been masquerading around the state as the common cold. With symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose and low-grade fever, it’s easy to mistake a cold for something more serious. Oregon Health Dept. officials report that an 11 - week-old baby died of w hooping cough earlier this year, and reported cases of the condition are up significantly from last year. Oregon Health and Science University has seen 10 cases of whooping cough, called pertussis, this I season and several other cases were reported around the Portland metro area. Infants are at greatest risk with half o f O regon's infants being hospitalized and one in every I .(XX) children younger than I more likely to suffer severe complications from the disease. “The fact that we are seeing more cases o f pertus sis underscores the need for childhood immuniza tion." said Dr. Paul Cieslak, manager of communicable disease programs in the Oregon Department of Hu man Services.
