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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 2011)
WWW . THESkANNEr . COm O CTOBEr 12, 2011 P OrTLANd , O rEGON V OLumE XXXIII, N O . 50 25 CENTS i nSiDe Oklahoma page 7 Bourbon at the Border pag 8 Black and Broke C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow Found! Jobs for Women pag 4 Occupy pOrtland Q&A with Connie Ashbrook of Oregon Tradeswomen A the Skanner news: Talk about the report that came out recently—what did it say? connie ashbrook: The report is talking about the importance of making training work so that people of color and women have access to the high-wage and high- skilled trades careers that are available in the transportation industry. It’s looking at roads, bridges, light-rail, and other transportation infrastructure. TSn: I remember a few years ago when President Obama announced the stimulus funding for jobs programs, that Oregon Tradeswomen actually received significant funding for jobs training. Connie how many jobs did your trainees get? ashbrook: Because of stimulus dollars we were able to educate over 130 women a year for the past two years about careers in the blue collar fields. For free. So also women last year, 79 of them got jobs in the trades, and their average wage is $13.89 an hour, and that’s just a starting wage. Typically that will grow over time through their apprenticeship because a core part of the apprenticeship is that you start at an entry-level wage and every six months, as your skill and training advances you get a higher wage. We’re continuing to work with all of them to move them into employment somewhere between 67 and 70 percent of our graduates are becoming employed in the trades so we’re very pleased with that. For instance 27 women so far have PhoTo bY helen SilviS national study issued last week sin- gled out Oregon Tradeswoman as one of the most effective job equity institutions in the country for work training in the transportation industry. the Skanner news spoke last week with their Executive Director Connie Ashbrook about the group’s mission, their training programs, and how local women can sign up for free training in blue-collar trades. Protests against wealth inequality have spread across the country with Portland and Seattle joining the national campaign, Occupy Wall Street Cornel West Says: Occupy Your Hood N ew Yorker Malik Rahsaan was dismayed that few Blacks and Latinos were represented at the Occupy Wall Street Protests. That led him to create a movement aimed at includ- ing people of color: Occupy the Hood. The protests aim to highlight the growth of wealth and income inequality in the United States. They started in New York with the Occupy Wall Street movement and have now spread to at least 70 cities in the Unites States and others across the world. Dr. Cornel West told Malik he supports the protesters. “The hood ought to be the first community to be here because we have been suffer- ing than any other community with the exception of our indigenous brothers and sisters on reservations,” West said. “In terms of education, hous- ing, not enough jobs with a liv- ing wage, and the refusal of people to really come to terms with the suffering of the chil- dren. We have 42 percent of Black children 42 percent of Brown children and 42 percent of Red children living in poverty. The richest nation in the history of the world: That’s a moral disgrace.” Also on board the Occupy the Hood movement are the Rev. Al Sharpton, who spoke to the crowd in New York Monday, California Congress - woman Nancy Pelosi and Georgia’s Rep. John Lewis. The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread to cities all over the country, and beyond. In Oregon, Monday Oct. 10, protesters marched and rallied at the Oregon capi- tol in Salem. Organizers plan to camp indefinitely at Salem’s Wilson Park. In Portland, the Occupy Portland demonstrators have been camping in Chapman Square, since the march and rally Thursday Oct. 6. Occupy Portland came together in sup- port of the New York protest- ers ‘Occupy Wall Street’. Both in the United States and across the world protesters are turning out to protest rising inequalities and policies that they say favor corporations and the wealthy. Individual protesters brought other issues to the march, including the continuing U.S. military pres- ence in Iraq and Afghanistan. The diverse and good- See occupy on page 3 See aShbrook onpage 33 inDeX News ..............2,3,8-10 Opinion ..................4,5 A & E ......................6-8 Obituaries..................9 Bids/Classifieds ........11 Local Educator Tackles Achievement Gap Augusta Mann headlines Teaching with Purpose conference by bruce Poinsette For The Skanner News K aranja Crews wants to tackle the achievement gap in Portland Public Schools. The Vernon School teacher has organized the Teaching With Purpose Conference 10 Year Anniversary to help provide tools for educators and community members to address this problem. Crews has planned the one day seminar for the state in service day on Friday, October 14. It will run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event will include workshops and a screening of . Crews organized the first Teaching With Purpose Conference ten years ago as a stu- dent at Portland State University. At the time, community activist Ron Herndon and the Education Crisis Team were protesting PPS over the achievement gap between middle class whites and minor- ity and low-income students. Crews brought in over 150 educators and national consultants to the event, including keynote speaker Bob Moses and Augusta Mann, who is returning as a presenter this year. See Teaching on page 3
