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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2021)
Minority & Small Business Week October 6, 2021 Page 3 INSIDE L O C A L N E W S O PINION page 8 M ETRO page 13 Black excellence is celebrated as part of a new billboard campaign to target community violence that is sponsored by Youth Organized and United to Help, a Black-led organization founded by Imani Muhammad, a long time youth mentor and educator. Billboards are Call to Action Arts & ENTERTAINMENT page 7-8 C LASSIFIED /B IDS pages 10 Established 1970 USPS 959 680 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 2008 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. The Portland Observer--Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publication--is a member of the National Newspaper Association--Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association PO QR code Publisher: Editor: Mark Washington, Sr. Michael Leighton Office Mngr/Clasfds: Lucinda Baldwin Admin.Coord.: Quayuana Washington Creative Director: Paul Neufeldt Office Asst/Sales: Shawntell Washington CALL 503-288-0033 • FAX 503-288-0015• news@portlandobserver.com ads@portlandobserver.com• subscription@portlandobserver.com Postmaster: Send address changes to Portland Observer, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 Subscribe ! 503-288-0033 Fill Out & Send To: Attn: Subscriptions, PO Box 3137, Portland OR 97208 $45.00 for 3 months • $80.00 for 6 mo. • $125.00 for 1 year (please include check with this subscription form) Name: Telephone: Address: or email subscriptions@portlandobserver.com Youth group’s anti-gun violence campaign In an era of gun violence, a COVID pandemic and financial uncertainty, Youth Organized and United to Help (Y.O.U.th) has decided to give its attention to what should be celebrated: Black Excellence. In a counter-response to the school-to-prison pipeline epidemic that is evident in Oregon and across the nation, 16 billboards are being featured across the Portland area to help shape a more eq- uitable picture of the Black experience by focusing attention on Black ingenuity, creativity and the in- spirational potential of Black youth. “We want our Black youth to know, believe and achieve Black excellence,” noted Y.O.U.th’s vision- ary founder Imani Muhammad. The billboard campaign is part of the initial launch of the Public Safety Village, an initiative overseen by the Portland Opportunities and Indus- trialization Center and Rosemary Anderson High School, in partnership with 11 grassroots, Black-led organizations. Muhammad, a former educator and administrator for Portland area Boys and Girls Clubs, including the Blazers Boys and Girls Club, founded Y.O.U.th in 2007 in response to the shooting death of one of her 14-year-old students in northeast Portland. The billboards, which went up this month, consist of three images: Two promote the group’s brand and logo; the third is a backdrop picture of five Black youth with the words “Black Excellence.” Y.O.U.th’s mission is to motivate, inspire and empower youth, family and educators to dismantle the school to prison pipeline by challenging existing systems and structures. For more information, visit youthpdx.org Increasing Access to the Trades Portland Community College president Mark Mitsui recently announced that PCC was adopting the Construction Careers Path- ways Framework, a program that aims to head off a forecast short- age of skilled labor by increasing access to the trades for women and people of color. Spearheaded by Metro regional government, the framework fo- cuses on recruitment and retention of women and people of color into skilled labor jobs that have histor- ically been dominated by white Mark Mitsui men. As the region continues to grow and workers reach retire- the years to come. The barriers the construction ment age, trade unions say they expect to be short of workers in program aims to address include direct barriers, like racism, sexism and harassment in the workplace, to indirect barriers, like access to child care and other supports for workers. “This program builds stabil- ity and careers for our region’s workers, and helps keep construc- tion costs low by having a trained workforce ready to deploy on any project,” said Metro Council Pres- ident Lynn Peterson. “By using public projects to establish the program, we can make it easier for construction projects every- where to use these principles and a diverse workforce.” Continued on Page 15
