Page 6
November 5. 2014
New Prices
Effective
May 1,2010
Martin
Cleaning
Service
Carpet & Upholstery
Cleaning
Residential &
Commercial Services
Minimum Service CHG
$45.00
A sm all distance/travel charge
m ay be applied
CARPET CLEANING
2 Cleaning Areas or
more $30.00 Each Area
Pre-Spray Traffic Areas
(Includes: 1 sm all H allway)
1 Cleaning Area (only)
$40.00
Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area
(Hallway Extra)
Stairs (12-16 stairs - With
Other Services): $25.00
Area/Oriental Rugs:
$25.00Minimum
Area/Oriental Rugs (Wooly.
$40.00 Minimum
Heavily Soiled Area:
Additional $10.00 each area
(Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying)
UPHOLSTERY
CLEANING
Sofa: $69.00
Loveseat: $49.00
Sectional: $109 - $139
Chair or Recliner:
$25 - $49
Throw Pillows (With
t h& >
Other Services): $5.00
%
ADDITIONAL
SERVICES
• Area & Oriental Rug
Cleaning
• Auto/Boat/RV Cleaning
• Deodorizing & Pet
Odor Treatment
• Spot & Stain
Removal Service
• Scotchguard Protection
• Minor Water Damage
Services
SEE CURRENT FLYER
FOR ADDITIONAL
PRICES & SERVICES
Call for Appointment
(503) 281-3949
Help for Some of Our Most Vulnerable Children
New hope for kids
in foster care
by
M arian W right E delman
While we rarely hear good
news these days about Congress,
I have some to share. Continuing
a long tradition of bipartisan lead
ership on behalf of abused and
neglected children, last month both the
House and the Senate passed and the Presi
dent signed into law the Preventing Sex
Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act.
This new legislation im proves the child
w elfare system to prevent children and
youths in foster care from becom ing vic
tims o f sex trafficking and protects foster
care youths who are already victim s. It
offers new hope of perm anent fam ilies
for children and extra support for those
youths who end up aging out of foster
care.
T he C h ild re n ’s D efense Fund and
many other children’s advocates strongly
supported this bill, and we applaud Rep
resentatives Dave Cam p, R-M ich., and
S ander L evin,D -M ich.; S enators Ron
W yden, D -O re. and O rrin H atch, R-
U ta h ; an d R e p r e s e n ta tiv e s D a v id
Reichert, R-W ash. and Lloyd D oggett,
D-Texas, who led the charge in respond
ing to som e o f our m ost v ulnerable
ch ild ren ’s needs.
T here are m ore than 400,000 children
in foster care, and though intended to be
tem porary, the average length of
stay for children in foster care is
nearly two years, w ith nearly one
third staying longer.
Too many of these youths —
over 23,000 — end up leaving fos
ter care w ithout perm anent fam i
lies. These youths are particularly
vulnerable to child sex trafficking. W hile
there is no good national data, there are
state and local statistics that confirm how
vulnerable children in foster care are to
being victim ized.
For exam ple, in C onnecticut 98 per
cent of child victim s o f sex trafficking
were reported to be involved in the child
w elfare system , and in New York for 85
percent of the child victim s there was a
sim ilar pattern. The new federal law
requires child w elfare agencies to deter
mine appropriate services for these youths
who are trafficked and provide new data
on youths who are victim s o f trafficking.
A gencies also m ust report to law en
forcem ent about agency children who
are victim s o f trafficking or have run
away from foster care, w hich adds an
other layer o f protection for those at
special risk of being victim ized. It estab
lishes a N ational A dvisory C om m ittee on
the Sex Trafficking o f Children and Youth
in the U nited States.
The new law encourages more opportu
nities for youths in foster care to lead
“normal” lives by making it easier for their
foster parents to allow them to participate in
age or developmentally-appropriate extra
curricular and enrichment activities that
currently often require permission from the
child welfare agency.
It empowers older youths in care by
giving them a voice at the table when
decisions about their futures are being made
and making sure they are advised of their
legal rights and provided essential docu
ments, including a birth certificate, Social
Security card, and driver’s license or state
ID, which they’ll need to successfully tran
sition from care at age 18 or older.
Te new law helps prom ote perm anent
fam ilies for m ore children in foster care.
It extends funding for Fam ily C onnection
G rants and will prevent children from
lingering in long-term foster care. It im
proves the A doption Incentive Program
and adds fiscal incentives for the first
tim e for states that move m ore children
from foster care to legal guardians. It
also requires states to fund post-adoption
and post-guardianship services to keep
children from re-entering foster care.
The new bipartisan law shows good
things can happen when members of C on
gress work together.
Marian Wright Edelman is president
o f the Children's Defense Fund.