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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2013)
Local News Award SummerWorks Baskin Glover, president of Tennessee State University; Cheryl Pearson McNeil, senior VP with Nielsen; and Julie Griffith, founder of J Griffith Public Relations. Sheryl Lee Ralph, one of the original Dreamgirls, spoke about her work in HIV and AIDS prevention and education. The Tony Award-winner founded the Divinely Inspired Victoriously Anointed Foundation, to raise money in memory of friends she lost to AIDS. The foundation holds an annu- al luncheon where everyone wears gloves, a work with the National Conference of Black Mayors, where he chairs the education reform task force A new slate of officers was elected to the NNPA national board and to the NNPA Foundation. Cloves Campbell, Jr., publish- er of the Arizona Informant, was re-elected to a second term as NNPA chairman. “I am honored that my colleagues have chosen to give me another term as chair- man,” Campbell said. “It was a strong vote of confidence for our leadership team.” The other NNPA officers elected are: First Vice Chair: Mollie Finch Belt, Dallas Examiner; Second Vice President: John B. Smith, Sr., Atlanta Inquirer; Sec- retary: Natalie Cole, Our Week- ly; and Treasurer: Lenora Alexander, Denver Weekly News. Officers elected to the NNPA Foundation are: Thomas H. Watkins, Jr., New York Daily Challenge; Jackie Hampton, Mississippi Link; Mary Denson, Windy City Word; Beverly Stanton McKenna, New Orleans Tribune; and Pluria Marshall, Wave Com- munity Newspapers. Cloves Campbell, Jr., publisher of the Arizona Informant, was re-elected to a second term as NNPA chairman way to drive home the message: “No glove: No love.” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was one of the keynote speakers. Johnson, who attended with his wife the controversial educator Michelle Rhee, spoke about his PHOTO BY EMILY VOLPERT, AN INTERN IN THE MULTNOMAH COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE continued from page 1 Commissioner Loretta Smith kicked off the SummerWorks internship program July 8. Smith is pisctured here with Deonta McFerson and his sister De’Ontria McFerson. Close to 200 low-income youth will have the opportunity to work and learn this summer thanks to the program, funded by Multnomah County and the City of Portland, through jobs nonprofit Worksystems. Scafé continued from page 1 bat for former felons? Well for one thing, he knows exactly what it’s like to battle the perception that a felony conviction means you can’t be a good per- son. In the summer before his senior year at Virginia Union University, he made a terri- ble mistake. Under the influence, he took part in a robbery with a group of friends who had embarked on a criminal path. “I knew better; I came from a two-parent family; I had a religious upbringing,” he said. “But I still wound up making the wrong decision. Alcohol and drugs played a part. I wouldn’t have done it if I had been in my right mind. But I made a terrible deci- sion that will affect me for my whole life.” Price never returned to the Historically Black College he’d grown to love, and the learning he treasured. Instead at age 20, he was sent to prison to serve four years, 10 months and 27 days. “That was the worst experience of my life,” he said. “I’ve done my time and I’ve served. So for me giving back and helping these guys is important because I know how hard it is. I know people will not take you seriously, and they will constantly brand you. They have concepts about what a per- son who goes to the penitentiary is. So I want to debunk that myth.” SCAFÉ officially won its 501C3 nonprofit designation last Novem- ber, but for Price it’s the culmina- tion of 10 years of work. He got his start at the House of Umoja, counseling youth leaving gangs. Now he works part-time with the Center for Intercultural Organiz- ing, as a racial justice policy advo- cate; and part-time with psychologist Joy DeGruy’s youth mentor- ship program. “The nonprofit world really has opened its arms to me,” he says. “That’s where I feel most comfortable is in the nonprofit, social justice, equality movement, because we’re all going for the same goal: that is the com- mon good of all people.” An internship at Multnomah County, where Price worked with county chair Jeff Cogen and public safety administrator Roberta Phillip cemented his determination to form a nonprofit to help men facing the community groups reach out to people and offer tutoring. The community organiza- tions took the idea and ran with it. Cassandra Minnieweather and Lakeesha Dumas are working through Straightway Services to offer GED tutoring as part of the organization’s other support services for et ministry, through fliers, Facebook, Twit- ter, at low-income housing facilities and out on the street. “Sometimes it takes incentives, maybe a meal, to bring them here,’’ she said. “People need to see success stories. They also need to understand that timing is key, and they’ll bundle of joy.” But at 35, he is still playing catch up. He’s still a year short of his bach- elor’s degree. Yet he is determined to make a difference. His family taught him to think about oth- ers and give before taking, he said. His mother is so generous he remembers her feeding everyone, including homeless people. It was hard to feel that he had let them all down so badly. Giving back is a way to make amends, he said. “I really wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I wasn’t doing something for other people.” Donate business attire to SCAFÉ or volunteer at 4310 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. 503-866-6250 www.scafe.org Attend SCAFÉ’ s Coffee and Conversa- tion, held from 10a.m. to noon every third Saturday at the office: July 20 on Independ- ence and entrepreneurship; Aug. 17, the Back to School drive. SCAFÉ’s mission is to show that people who have made mistakes and taken responsibility for them, can be mature, hardworking, and loyal. same barriers he has faced. “That really catapulted me to get serious about the social justice movement,” he says. “That experience was one of the most valu- able I’ve ever had. I just learned so much.” Today Price is a doting father to a two- year-old daughter – he calls her, “my little GED continued from page 1 com ; Africa House, 621 N.E. 102nd Ave., 503- 802-0082 ; Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, 717 N. Killingsworth Court, 503-797-7222 info@portlandoic.org ; SE Works, 7916 SE Foster Road, Suite 103/104 503-772-2300 ; Community colleges also have GED courses. Call the Londer Learning Center to help find your best option at 503-319-1899 Antoinette Edwards, director of the Port- land’s Office of Youth Violence Prevention, is planning to push the GED closeout mes- sage right under people’s noses: in church bulletins, on public transportation, in fast food restaurants, on grocery bags. “This is more of a mass callout, a shout- out,’’ Edwards said. At a recent Gang Violence Task Force meeting, she talked about her plan to have People who haven’t completed the test by the end of December will have to start over families struggling with crime, addiction and poor access to education. They were excited to become part of the closeout campaign when they heard Edwards talk about it. The main challenge will be to persuade people to come to classes, Minnieweather said. She plans to promote the program in church, at the food bank, at the clothes clos- have access to tutors and other free resources. “Just to diminish the costs, that’s half the battle,’’ she said. According to the American Community Survey’s five-year estimates (2006-2010), there are more than 271,000 Oregonians (age 18-64) without a high school diploma or GED certificate. Of those, the people who held jobs earned on average $471 a week in 2012, compared to $652 for high school graduates and $749 for those with some college or an associate degree. The Oregon Employment Department projects that between 2010 and 2020, of about 728,000 job openings, 30 percent will have no educational requirement. About 68 percent will require a high school diploma or an equivalent, said occupational econo- mist Brenda Turner. So the odds of getting a job might double with the GED. More than 16,000 Oregonians are enrolled in the GED process but haven’t fin- ished, said state GED administrator Marque Haeg. The current version was introduced in 2002, and since then, between 9,000 and 10,000 people have received their GEDs in Oregon every year. In 2001, before the former test changed, 14,000 people got their certificates. Haeg is expecting a similar turnout this year. July 10, 2013 The Portland Skanner Page 3
