The skanner., February 11, 2015, Page 3, Image 3

News
Insurance
Commemorating Bobbie Olive
from this time last year.
In addition, another 90,223 people have enrolled in ACA-
compliant private plans outside the exchange in Oregon.
According to Oregon officials, as of Jan. 30, 2015, 78 per-
cent of residents who signed up were eligible for an average
of $203 per person/month in advanced premium tax credits.
Eight out of 10 Marketplace enrollees nationally, as of
If you don’t sign up in 2015,
next year you face Internal
Revenue Service fines of $325
per person or up to 2 percent
of your annual income,
whichever is greater
December 2014, could obtain coverage for $100 or less
after any applicable tax credits in 2015.
“We are working to meet consumers wherever they are,
whether that is online, over the phone or in person,” accord-
ing to a statement released by the U.S. Department of
Health & Human Services.
“Consumers should visit HealthCare.gov to review and
compare health plan options and find out if they are eligible
for financial assistance, which can help pay monthly premi-
ums and reduce out-of-pocket costs when receiving
services.”
In Oregon: To sign up for individual and family cover-
age, visit: https://www.healthcare.gov/apply-and-enroll/
On the phone, customers can call “all day, every day,” at
1-800-318-2596. TTY users should call 1-855-889-4325.
Assistance is free and available in 150 languages.
For more information about Health Insurance Market-
places, visit: www.healthcare.gov/marketplace.
The family of Oregon’s first heart donor,
Bobbie L. Olive, is honoring his memory with
an annual event during the Valentine’s Day
holiday. In cooperation with the nonprofit
group Donate Life Northwest, Bobbie’s
daughter Shannon Olive, above at left, and
her mother Martha Van Arsdale are hosting a
gathering Thursday, Feb. 12 at the Olive
Garden restaurant to celebrate the gift of life
he gave to recipient Wesley Merrill of Battle
Ground, Washington, in 1985. Olive was
Black and Merrill, who died in 1990, was
white. For more information call 503-875-
1725 or email shannon.olive15@pcc.edu. To
learn more about how you can save a life
through organ donation, go to
www.donatelifenw.org.
Information is available on the web at
www.HealthCare.gov and in Spanish, at www.CuidadoDe-
Salud.gov.
And in find local help at www.Localhelp.healthcare.gov.
In Washington: Washington residents can enroll at
www.wahealthplanfinder.org.
To talk with a real person, Washington customers can call
1-855-WAFINDER (1-855-923 4633.)
The Exchange is boosting its hours at the toll-free Cus-
PHOTO BY JERRY FOSTER
continued from page 1
tomer Support Center on Feb. 14 from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
and Feb. 15 from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Enrollment events
are taking place this weekend in downtown Seattle, the Fed-
eral Way Commons Mall and the Vancouver Mall. To view
the complete schedule of events, go to www.wahbex-
change.org/how-enroll/community-events.
For more information on the Washington Health Benefit
Exchange go to www.wahbexchange.org.
Poverty
continued from page 1
three key programs:
• Successful Families 2020: a five-year commu-
nity transformation effort that aims to raise
children out of poverty. The program will focus
on black and other minority children hit hardest
by the cycle of poverty.
• Community Strengthening: funding 30 non-
profits working with low-income families to
reduce poverty.
• Community Safety Net: short-term funding for
programs that help families with housing, food,
heat and crisis assistance.
Thomajan, just named Nonprofit CEO of the
Year by the Portland Business Journal, says
breaking the cycle of poverty demanded a new
approach.
To get there, United Way’s leadership group
rewrote their funding policies. Instead of doling
out grants check by check to worthy programs,
Instead of funding each nonprofit to work alone,
United Way would ask them to work together
they would make a bigger long-term commit-
ment to a smaller group of organizations. And
instead of funding each nonprofit to work alone,
United Way would ask them to work together.
The new community transformation strategy,
Successful Families 2020, is at the heart of the
new plan. It will fund six nonprofits for five
years: Self Enhancement Inc., Albina Head Start;
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organiza-
tion; Latino Network; Metropolitan Family
Service; and the Native American Youth and
Family Center. Self Enhancement Inc., is the lead
organization.
The six will share $75,000 a year for the next
five years, a total of $3.75 million. The money is
unrestricted, but it comes with a mission. All six
organizations must work together to shift the nee-
dle on poverty.
Across the region, 100,000 –that’s one in five –
children are living in poverty. Successful Fami-
lies 2020 will work with around 5,000 of those
children, helping them graduate from school. Up
to 200 of those students should be able to attend
college, improving the group’s expected lifetime
earnings by $150 million.
“These are all organizations that are getting
outsize outcomes,” Thomajan says. “Our belief is
that if we can start to amplify success for these
families we will begin to see systemic change.”
Child Poverty by
Race in Multnomah
County
White Alone: 18%
African American:
52%
American
Indian/Alaska Native:
49%
Asian: 15%
Native
Hawaiian/Pacific
Islander: 43%
2+ Races: 19%
Hispanic/Latino: 38%
Rape
continued from page 1
Despite being a virgin at the time and under
the care of the state, few people bothered to
inquire about the details of the pregnancy.
Plus, the fact that he had threatened to kill
her, kept Perry’s mother silent.
“Maybe, as a Black person, they just saw
this as another teenage pregnancy, and
nobody really asked any questions,” Perry
said, trying to explain the unexplainable. “I
can’t say with certainty…but I’m thinking
that if she was White in a foster home and
her belly started to grow, then maybe a flag
would’ve went up somewhere and some-
body would’ve investigated more as to why
this foster child is pregnant.”
In subsequent years, freed by the Oprah
episode, Perry’s mother became more forth-
coming.
“As I grew up, she told me more details of
the attack. It was like she had been carrying
this
around
the
whole
time.”
But opening that door triggered another set
of emotions in Perry.
“I went through different feelings of inad-
equacy, feeling like I had to
overcompensate because I was a child of a
rape. Even now, when I say the word ‘inad-
would say when asked about her father.
Perry chose to say that he was dead, that he
had left, or that she didn’t know him,
depending on the questioner. But even
‘My mom was awesome, she never talked down
to me…. But I felt like…I owed it to her to be
perfect so she doesn’t feel like keeping me was
a mistake’
equate,’ I get choked up,” she said, her
voice trembling with emotion.
“My mom was awesome, she never talked
down to me….my mom always praised me,
always gave me love,” Perry said. “But I
felt like…I owed it to her to be perfect so
she doesn’t feel like keeping me was a mis-
take.”
And there was the question of what she
while denying his existence, there was also
a deep craving to know about this man,
wherever he was.
Wanted to know her roots
More than anything else, she did not want
her mother to feel badly.
“I didn’t rape her, but when I was
younger, I used to feel like it was my fault,”
she recalled. “The dreams that she probably
could have fulfilled – if she had stayed that
innocent virgin who wanted to be a lawyer
– she wasn’t going to be able to fulfill those
because I was here.”
Instead of pursuing her dreams, Perry’s
mother had to shift her focus, looking after
the needs of an infant rather than look for-
ward to a career as an attorney.
“Sometimes she was a little more para-
noid than I would think is regular,” Perry
said. “When I was growing up my mom was
so strict, or smothering, when it came down
to me, particularly.”
Once, her mother sent her to the corner
store for a few items. There, she ran into a
family friend, an older man. He offered to
buy her something – she chose cookies –
and they parted ways.
She thought nothing of it – until her moth-
er went into a rage.
See RAPE on page 8
February 11, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3