WWW . tHESKANNER . COM
J ANuARy 25, 2012
P ORtLAND , O REgON
V OLuME XXXIV, N O . 4
25
CENtS
i nSiDe
Cassow’s Newest
page 2
King Breakfast
page 6, 7, 12
Healthy Food
C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
Legacy
Emanuel
Layoff
page 8
Red CRoss Wins
Over 50 Secretaries
and housekeepers to
lose jobs
By helen Silvis
of The Skanner News
Photo By LiSa Loving
L
egacy Emanuel is letting go of about
50 support staff, according to several
Legacy Employees who approached
the Skanner news. Both full-time and part-
time employees: some with, some without
benefits, will leave.
The layoffs are part of a 400-person work-
force reduction, first reported in a story
posted Jan. 18 by The Lund Report. More
workforce cuts across the Legacy system
are expected to be announced by Feb. 15.
“What people are asking is, ‘Do we really
need 20 vice-presidents when they are lay-
ing off housekeepers?’” said one current
staff member who asked not to be identified.
“The housekeepers work their a**** off.”
Thirty-five unit secretaries, some of
whom have been answering phones and
coordinating services for years, have been
laid off along with 12 housekeepers, 2 trans-
port staff, a sterile supplies technician and a
dispatch support staff. That’s according to a
list employees say they received Friday.
Diane O’Brien a unit secretary for 13
years, said she is lucky. Her husband can
easily afford to support the family while she
plans her next career move. “The worst part
for me will be leaving all the friends I’ve
made during 13 years at the hospital,” she
said.
Legacy owns six area hospitals: Emanuel,
Good Samaritan, Meridian Park, Mt. Hood ,
Salmon Creek and Randall Childrens Hos-
pital. Emanuel is the most unionized hospi-
tal and also handles more indigent care than
the others.
Brian Terrett, director of public relations,
said that 400 positions are being cut. At least
230 of the layoffs would come from admin-
istration, he said — medical group, labora-
tory and research functions and support
positions, such as IT, marketing, public rela-
tions, legal and accounting.
Terrett could not comment on the Legacy
Officials at the Red Cross Columbia Willamette announced this week that their Annual Martin Luther King Blood
and Donation Drive made 101 percent of its blood donation goals, and signed up 35 new people for its bone
marrow donation registry. Here, Raymond Paschal, equipment system specialist at the Red Cross, staffed a table
at the Skanner News Martin Luther King Breakfast, passing out pins and information on the need for more donors.
Anyone who didn’t get a chance last week can still donate blood or sign up to be on an organ donor registry by
calling 1-800-RED-CROSS, or going to www.redcrossblood.org/NW. Also look for them on Facebook at Red Cross
Blood.
SEI Coach Wins Sportsmanship Honor
Naaman Yarbrough grew up within the organization’s programs
By helen Silvis
of The Skanner News
F
or
coach
Naaman
Yarbrough football is
more about winning lives
than winning games. He cares a
lot less about blocks, tackles
and scores than he cares about
the hearts and minds of his play-
ers.
“The boys are my main con-
cern,” he says. “Because when
you look around at our commu-
nity, we’re lacking men. We’re
starting with these little boys
See LayoFFS on page 3
inDeX
News ...................2,3,9
Opinion ..................4,5
ML King .............6,7,12
Food..........................8
A&E .........................10
Bids/Classifieds ........11
and we’re trying to guide them
through all this garbage out here
and turn them into men.
“That’s when we win. We
don’t win at the finish line. We
win when we see them gradu-
ate.”
Yarbrough, in his fifth year of
coaching at the youth develop-
ment nonprofit Self En hanc e -
ment Inc., has just won the
prestigious
2011Wellnitz
Award, for outstanding Sports-
manship.
Supremely modest, he insists
that it’s not him, but the entire
SEI family who deserves the
award. Yarbrough goes down
the list of everyone who con-
tributed to his success, starting
with his fellow coaches,
Anthoney Deloney, Tony Mel-
son, Alex Robinson, and his
assistants
Donovan
and
Damien; and going on to credit
the boys on his 3rd and 4th
grade and 7th and 8th grade
teams, his own mentor Richard
Fortson and several more SEI
staff before ending up with SEI
president Tony Hopson and the
donors who “make it all possi-
ble.”
“It’s kind of a collective
award,” he says. “I’m not really
sure how I won it.”
That’s news to SEI’s head
coach, Tony Melson. “Naaman
is committed, dedicated and just
flat out a good coach,” Melson
says. “This is an extremely dif-
ficult award to win, and it is
well-deserved. Naaman had
quite a few younger and inexpe-
rienced kids on his team this
year. Not only did he coach
them to victory, he managed to
See CoaCh on page 3
Mayor’s Office Pushes College Readiness
‘Future Connect’ now has scholarship money, support for kids
By Bruce Poinsette
Special to The Skanner News
A
s the Class of 2012 prepares to grad-
uate in June, there are many students
who either won’t finish high school
or don’t have the resources to be successful
in post secondary education.
“Applying to college is not an easy
process,” says Kali Ladd, education strate-
gies director under Mayor Sam Adams. “We
want to eliminate the barriers. Sometimes
the biggest barrier is not knowing.”
Portland Parks and Recreation is partner-
ing with the Mayor’s Office to help Portland
area students finish their post secondary
education and build careers through the
Future Connect Initiative.
According to a study done by the Oregon
Department of Education in 2011, one in
three students in 2009-2010 dropped out.
The numbers are even worse for Black
students in particular, who have a 49.8 per-
cent graduation rate.
Ladd says the goal of Future Connect is to
make the process of post secondary educa-
tion more transparent.
The program provides services like one on
See Future on page 3