Back to the
Drawing Board
ODOT to
consider
buildable lots
over I-5
See Local News, page 3
Established in 1970
Humanity
Shines in
“Sweat’
A timely insight
into today’s
economic woes
See Metro, page 6
PO QR code
Volume XLVIV • Number 4
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • January 22, 2020
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Putting Kids and Families First
photo by b everly C orbell /t he p ortland o bserver
Bahia Overton, the new executive director of Portland’s Black Parent Initiative, has only been on the job since Jan. 3, but has big plans for the nonprofit.
Bahia Overton is the
new leader for Black
Parent Initiative
b everly C orbell
t he p ortland o bserver
A frequent problem facing teachers,
social workers and others providing re-
sources to African-American children and
their families is a lack of cultural aware-
ness, since most of them — in the whitest
major city in America — are white, which
by
can lead to unintentionally missing cultural
clues.
Bahia Overton, the new executive di-
rector of Portland’s Black Parent Initiative,
has been on the job for less than a month,
but her direction is clear: To improve the
cultural awareness social workers and oth-
ers have in providing resources to the black
community and grow support for programs
the group sponsors to help black kids and
black families become successful.
The Black Parent Initiative has been
helping families attain educational success
for their children while also helping the en-
tire family achieve financial, educational
and spiritual growth since its founding in
2006.
Programs start at birth, with BPI’s Sa-
cred Roots Doula program, where trained
professionals help families through the en-
tire birthing process, from pre-natal coun-
seling to home visits after the baby is born.
The agency also offers breastfeeding
and lactation education and support, in-
cluding home visits. The idea is for African
American women to have the best possible
circumstances for bringing babies into the
world, and then to prepare them for edu-
cating their children to eventually become
self-sufficient adults.
Overton, whose first name is pro-
nounced Ba-HEE-ah, said BPI also offers
employment and financial counseling and
even provides help with in setting up bank
accounts including a nest egg to help peo-
ple get started.
“We try to help families with employ-
ment instability to become stabilized
through coaching, and we partner with
Worksystems Inc., Portland Public Schools,
C ontinued on p age 5