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OUR CHILDREN (1.2`,) OUR DESTINY
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Vol.0, No. 3
"Education, Employment and Equality"
Published by the Urban League of Portland
Winter 1997
10 North Russell St. Portland, OR 97227
(503) 280-2600
"Doing The Right Thing Day"
Urban League rallies to celebrate inner city youth
The Urban League of Portland joined more Jefferson High School's football field and
than 100 Urban League affiliates across the a student talent show at Jefferson.
country on September 21, 19% to
celebrate inner city youth who are "Doing "Our goal was to start the school year by
the Right Thing." The new annual event focusing the community's attention on
honors inner city youth who are "doing the youth who are doing the right thing," said
right thing" at school, home, and in their Urban League of Portland President
community.
Lawrenct J. Dark. "We as a community
must help change the public image of
"Doing the Right Thing Day" kicked off a youth -- especially African American and
five-year campaign of celebratory events other youth of color -- who are not gang
for youth sponsored by the Urban League involved or affected."
of Portland. The initiative is funded by a
grant from the Borden Foundation.
More than 25 local youth and community
programs set up booths at the jamboree
Local students in the Urban League's E.
and more than 400 people took part in the
Shelton Hill Achievers Corps, a leadership march. Youth development is the current
development group, planned many of the focus for the National Urban League
day's activities. Portland events included Movement. The National Urban League
a march from the Urban League to has chosen "Our Children = Our Destiny"
as its motto through the year 2000.
U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield
Sen. Hatfield to speak at
Equal Opportunity Dinner
U.S. Senator Mark 0. Hatfield will be
guest speaker at the Urban League's Equal
Opportunity Dinner February 27, 1997 at
the Portland Hilton. A reception begins at
6 pm, with dinner at 7 pm.
Senator Hatfield, who will retire from the
Senate in January, sponsored Oregon's
More than 400
people turned out
September 21 for a
march on Martin
Luther King Jr.
Blvd organized by
the Urban League to
celebrate inner city
youth who are
"doing the right
thing."
historic Public Accommodations Law as a
young state representative in 1953. The
law made discrimination in public places
based on race, religion or national origin
illegal. Senator Hatfield will share his
views on the state of equal opportunity and
civil rights in America today.
The dinner theme is "Equality in the
Workplace." The focus will be equality
issues in the workplace and how the Urban
League works with job seekers and
employers to build workforce diversity.
(continued on page two)
Equal Opportunity Dinner
to the bench by Governor Tom McCall in
1970. She was re-elected to her fourth
(continued from page one)
term in 1990. Since 1993, Judge Deiz has
A highlight of the evening will be the been a Senior Judge (retired) and counsel
presentation of Equal Opportunity Awards at the law firm of Tooze, Shenker, Duden
to Judge Mercedes F. Deiz and Kenneth et al.
Lewis.
Among Judge Deiz's accomplishments are
receiving the Oregon State Bar's
Affirmative Action Award and the Oregon
Senior Circuit Court Judge Mercedes F.
Deiz is Oregon's first African American
woman attorney and judge. She became Women Lawyers' award named in her
active in the Urban League of Portland honor for outstanding contribution to the
She is a
soon after she arrived here in the 1940's. advancement of minorities.
Judge Mercedes
Deiz with her
husband Carl
Kenneth Lewis,
national chairman
"I Have A Dream"
Foundation
founder and director of the National Kenneth Lewis is chairman of the national
"I Have A Dream" Foundation and a cofounder of the foundation's Oregon
program. The retired president of Lasco
Shipping has been a leader of many civic,
arts, and business organizations. He is past
A Pledge of Responsibility for Children
president or chairman of Oregon Ballet
Theatre, Port of Portland Commission,
We have received several requests for copies of this poem, which was read by Sweeta Temple Beth Israel, and the World Affairs
and Hilson Darrow at the Urban League's 1996 Annual Dinner. The poem, written by Council and has served on the boards of
many other organizations.
Ina Hughs, tied in with the dinner's theme and the Urban League's new motto: "Our
t.
Children = Our Destiny."
Mr. Lewis has also been active in several
We accept responsibility for children
civil rights battles, including the No on
We accept responsibility for children
who spend all their allowance before
Measure Nine Campaign and work with
who sneak popsicles before supper,
Tuesday,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store the American Jewish Committee.
who can never find their shoes.
and pick at their food,
The "I Have a Dream" Foundation
who like ghost stories,
sponsors college educations for whole
And we accept responsibility for those
who shove dirty Clothes under the bed,
classes of inner city elementary children
who stare at photographers from behind
and never rinse out the tub,
who graduate from high school. Mr.
barbed wire,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who can't bound down the street in a
who don't like to be kissed in front of the Lewis co-founded Oregon's first class of
"dreamers" at King Elementary School and
new pair of sneakers,
carpool,
continues to be deeply involved with the
who never "counted potatoes,"
who squirm in church or temple and
Oregon
program. There are four classes of
who were born in places we wouldn't be
scream in the phone,
"dreamers" in Portland, including 460
caught dead,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and
students. The national program assists
who never go to the circus,
whose smiles can make us cry.
more than 15,000 students.
who live in an X-rated world.
Judge Deiz earned a law degree from the Association for Women Judges and served
Northwestern College of Law in 1959 and on Oregon's Supreme Court Task Force on
was a trial attorney until she was appointed Racial/Ethnic issues.
We accept responsibility for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of
dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their
lunch money.
And we accept responsibility for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind
them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's
dresser,
whose monsters are real.
And we accept responsibility for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves
to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.
This year's Dinner Chairman is Marty
Brantley, President and General Manager
of KPTV-Oregon's 12. The event is the
Urban League's major annual fundraiser.
Tickets are $150 per person, $1500 for a
table of ten. Proceeds support Urban
League programs that build economic and
social justice through education and
We accept responsibility for children who employment.
want to be carried
For more information, contact the Urban
and for those who must,
League at 280-2615.
for those we never give up on and for
those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother... and for those
who will grab the hand of anybody kind
enough to offer it.
President's Column
expressed the belief that we must step up
our efforts to improve the quality of
education in poorer communities. By a
2-to-1 margin, they said they were willing
Scapegoating must end for
welfare reform to work
to pay higher taxes to finance such
improvements. What about Oregon?
By Lawrence J. Dark
President and CEO
Welfare Reform.
Economic insecurity has unleashed all sorts
Measure 47.
of anger and scapegoating that wedge
When I
politicians have
hear these words, I get a knot in my
stomach. Each of these issues is about
William Junius Wilson, a member of the
faculty at the University of Chicago for 24
years and currently the Malcolm Weiner
Oregon -- is becoming, these divisive
tactics will destroy America if we don't
Lawrence J. Dark
cease and desist.
Professor of Social Policy at Harvard
American neighborhoods and America's
cities that have fallen out of the economic
loop.
their wild behavior subsided and they
It
seems that
employers insisted on sober, disciplined,
orderly behavior which carried over into
their private lives.
Much the same occurred with blacks in
Philadelphia in the mid-20th century, when
we finally benefited from the urban
industrial revolution. But it didn't last.
Economic
The responsibility for restoring civility and
respect rests with the media, which decides
what is news and what to broadcast.
Ultimately, the responsibility rests with
forward-thinking citizens who are
We mist cut the urban poor in on ongoing
job acnons in their communities. If we
don't make a concerted effort to connect
the poor to the local economy, then
This connection between work and crime employers. will keep on following their
has been clear for years and true of all natural instinct to hire suburbanites and
What happened in
sorts of ethnic groups. Irish and Italian newcomers.
D.C.
Washington,
during the 1980's
immigrants in Philadelphia at the turn of
illustrated
what
I
mean.
Nearly 90,000 net
the century were a raucous people with a
new
jobs
were
created.
Yet
DC residents
high murder rate. But once they were
landed
only
2,700
of
them.
fully absorbed into the Philly economy,
caused less trouble.
exploited.
color, native-born Americans against legal
immigrants, and the world against welfare
moms. Not since the darkest days of
segregation have such crass appeals
resonated with so many voters. Given how
ethnically diverse our country -- including
people, people the Urban League of
Portland has partnered with for more than
50 years to attain economic selfsufficiency.
University, has written a provocative new
book entitled When Work Disappears. In
it he argues that chronic joblessness
undermines every value we cherish if it's
allowed to fester, as it has in the inner city
for going on three decades. Work dictates
many healthy rhythms of life. Idleness
leads to aimlessness and apathy.
shamefully
They've turned whites against people of
insecurity
has
unleashed all sorts of anger
and scapegoating that wedge
politicians have shamefully
determined to make America's future work
for all Americans, rather than clinging
nostalgically to a past when it worked
mostly for whites.
It's time for those elected officials and
opinion leaders in every segment of
American society who set the tone, to set
a different tone. Time for a total cease-fire
on scapegoating and incendiary rhetoric.
In the coming months, we at the Urban
League will advocate, monitor, and, if
necessary, agitate around the complex
issues of Welfare Reform and Measure 47.
A recent experience with welfare
reinvestment dollars in Oregon
demonstrates we must stay on top of these
important people issues.
exploited.
According to historian Roger Lane, "As
black unemployment began to climb back
into the double digits, crime and family It is important for Americans to realize that
instability began to climb as well."
city-suburban integration is the key to the
health of metropolitan regions and to the
Thirty years of economic isolation and nation as a whole.
suffering is long enough. It is time to end
the Great Depression in America's inner Polls suggest that the American public is
cities. Had what has happened to inner ready to act.
Based on its extensive
cities hit the entire nation, Washington polling in 1989, the Gallup organization
would long since have intervened to solve concluded that the public is ready for
the problem, they way FDR did. We're "tradition shattering" changes in policies
talking here about American citizens. that govern education. More than 80%
We welcome the opportunity to partner and
collaborate for the good of all Oregonians.
But we must always advocate for the
League's constituents, who could be
disproportionately negatively impacted by
these issues. Your support will be key and
critical. It will help determine what kind
of community we will become.
As one of the songs from my church
hymnal asks, "Do you really care, do you
know how to share with people
everywhere, do you really care?" We at
the Urban League care, and our actions
will demonstrate our caring.
Donors step up to
support Big Brothers/
Big Sisters program
The Urban League
management team accepts
benchmark award from
Progress Board Co-Chairs
Portland Mayor Vera Katz
and Multnomah County Chair
Beverly Stein. From left
Commissioner Stein,
Lawrence J. Dark, Michael
Pullen, Larry Foltz, Christian
Camp, Mayor Katz, and Ivy
Chilcote. (Photo by Pat
Pollak)
The Urban League's mentoring program,
Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Metropolitan
Portland, has received extensive cash and
in-kind support from the community within
the last three months. In-kind or cash
donations have come from Knoll & Co.
Advertising, Logistical Support Inc., and
the O.L. Moore Foundation.
Knoll & Co. Advertising, a Portland
advertising and public relations firm, is
producing a 30-second television
Urban League cited for benchmark success
commercial focusing on volunteer
recruitment within the African American The Urban League of Portland has been recognized as a leader in designing programs that
community. It is being produced with help help our region meet its benchmarks for livability. Benchmarks are measurable indicators
from rap artist Tone Loc, photographer of social progress. An example of a benchmark is "Decrease the percentage of people
Everard Williams, Will Vinton who are homeless." This year the Portland Multnomah Progress Board, which reports on
Production's Jaime Haggerty, Downstream benchmark progress, honored the Urban League for its "evolving use of benchmarks and
Editorial Services, KPTV 12 and others. outcomes in the management of all its programs." The Urban League cited 41
The advertisement is designed to recruit benchmirks it is helping our region achieve.
male volunteers, especially African
American males, into the program. It will
air initially on KPTV 12 beginning in
January and will continue into February'
and March.
Knoll and Company estimate the value of
this package exceeds $270,000.
Logistical Support Inc. (LSI), a Lake
Oswego-based marketing firm, has created
a world wide web site for the program.
The web site features a number of "pages"
with information on "How to Become a
Big Brother or Sister", "Program
Information", "Program Wish List", "Meet
a Match" and an RSVP form. The web
site should be up and running in January.
Finally, the Urban League received a
generous, unsolicited donation of $2000
from the O.L. Moore Foundation. The
Moore Foundation previously was located
in Hawaii and supported the local BB/BS
affiliate there.
This community
support has already
allowed the program to enhance its
services and serve more young people in
need of adult mentors. To find out more
about the Big Brother/Big Sister Program,
contact Daniel Blue at 280-2627 or Lisa
Wilson at 280-2657.
Urban League teams with
Portland State to create
research center
problems in the African American
community have been studied to death by
The Urban League and Portland State
University's Institute of Portland
assist real people."
Metropolitan Studies have joined forces to
create an innovative research program that
applies university research know-how to
inner city issues.
The center's mission is to provide strong
The first research project of the Center for
Community Research (CCR) will be a
report on The State of Our Children:
African American Children in Multnomah
and Washington Counties. A summary of
the report will be released at the Urban
League's Equal Opportunity Dinner on
February 27 and the full report will be
published later in 1997. The Collins
Foundation is funding the project, which
builds on the National Urban League's
current theme,
Destiny."
"Our Children = Our
"In the Information Age, he who has the
information has the best chance of solving
the problems," observed Urban League
President Lawrence J. Dark.
"Many
outsiders, with no impact on the root
causes.
Our goal is to design research
projects that will get at the root causes of
inner city problems and help us better
social science research to community-based
organizations in the Portland-Vancouver
region. A director coordinates the program
in which Portland State students perform
much of the research. Plans call for the
center to develop and implement research
projects for other community groups if
funds can be obtained.
For more information, contact the Urban
League's David Brody at 280-2611 or
CCR Director Karry Gillespie at 280-2606.
Our Mission
The mission of the Urban League of
Portland is to assist African
Americans and others in the
achievement of parity and economic
self-sufficiency.
Economic development: the new moral high ground
By Leon Smith
President/CEO, Albina Community Bank
and board member,
Urban League of Portland
For most of my career I have happily been
an anonymous banker. In recent years I
have been pushed to the forefront as a
highly visible advocate for economic
development in the African American
Oregon flagship.
I
to advocate again as the President and
I recently asked myself, "Why is this tide
sweeping me along?" The answer is
simple and compelling.
Economic
development is critical to the health and
welfare of the African American
community. Economic development has to
do with creating wealth. Wealth, by some
measures, is money and banks are where
the money is.
Progress in creating a whole and healthy
African American community will come
only when we treat economic achievement
with the same urgency, conviction and
organization as when we occupied the
moral high ground to achieve unfettered
civil rights. Whenever we have occupied
the moral high ground we have always
been able to galvanize our community and
by so doing shape the core values of our
nation and move it forward.
Leon Smith
In the 50's and 60's, the high ground was
the struggle for political and social
equality.
What moral high ground have we held
since that time?
Affirmative action?
Maybe. But that notion, no matter how
well justified, has been disingenuously
perverted into a disdain for quotas.
However, just last year, we showed how
powerfully we can seize the high ground
through that wondrous event called the
Million Man March.. but more on that in
a moment.
that
one
million
African
money behaves poorly."
How can we seize the high ground on In Black Lies, White Lies, Brown writes
"Racism is not the primary reason Blacks
economic achievement? The answer is
are at the bottom of the societal ladder.
simple and compelling. Through collective
economic effort. Can we do it? The civil
Blacks are subordinated primarily because
their own lack of economic
organization."
of
rights struggle in the 50's and 60's was
succeskful in large part because of our
collective economic effort... we called If billions are too much money to talk
them boycotts.
about, let's talk about a few million. On
the same day as the Million Man March,
How can we seize the high
ground on economic
achievement? Through
collective economic effort.
an economic tragedy occurred in the
African American community.
Independence Bank of Chicago, the largest
and most profitable African Americanowned bank in the country, was sold to a
non-African American-owned bank for $31
million. The sale followed an unsuccessful
How would it work today? Minister Louis
Farakahn recently negotiated $1 billion in
assistance for the African American
community from Libya. To date, he has
been unable to collect it because U.S.
foreign policy considers Libya a rogue
In the Civil War, the high ground was
righteous opposition to the institution of nation state that gives aid and comfort to
slavery.
submit
Americans (or one-third of the so-called
"talented tenth") spill more than $1,000 in
beer each year. As Tony Brown says, "It
isn't that we are poor, it is only that our
community. In 1994, I answered the call
CEO of Albina Community Bank, a new
community development bank created to
serve North and Northeast Portland.
annual income, it would only take 2% to
generate $10 billion in deposits to fund $8
billion in lending capacity: The problem is
African Americans spend only 3% of their
income with other African Americans.
When I last totaled the deposits in all forty
of America's African American-owned
banks, it was less than $2 billion. For
comparison, an $11 billion bank would be
three times the size of Bank of America in
Oregon and second only to U.S. National's
two-year effort to raise capital in the
African American community or sell the
bank to another African American-owned
financial institution.
I wake up at night from a recurring dream
in which Million Man March participants
international terrorists.
pass a hat for $31 each to raise enough
But, let's consider journalist Tony Brown's
American business success in African
American hands.
What a wonderful
outcome that would have been to move
from the moral high ground to the
money to keep this jewel of African
instruction that "You should never ask
someone else to do for you that which you
will not do for yourself." Let's assume
that on the one-year anniversary of the
Million Man March, one million African
Americans had invested $1,000 each to
capitalize a national development bank.
That $1 billion in capital could then be
leveraged into $8 billion in lending
economic high ground.
My message is simple and compelling.
Individually (with some exceptions), we
will continue to drift aimlessly through the
American
economic
landscape.
capacity, using conventional capital to asset
ratios for domestically chartered banks.
Collectively, we can achieve anything.
Where would we get the deposits? Since
African Americans earn $500 billion in
Indeed, as Marcus Garvey said earlier this
century, "Up! Up! You mighty race. You
can accomplish what you will."
Letters
Annual Meeting inspires
The Urban League wishes to thank Frank
Damiani for sending this letter after he
attended our 1996 Annual Membership
meeting:
If not now, when?
The following excerpt is from The
Community Visioning and Strategic
Planning Handbook, the first in a
series of publications from the
Alliance for National Renewal. Urban
Dear Mr. Dark:
League elects two
new board members
The Urban League of Portland board of
directors has elected Paula Kinney and
Dr. Lesley Hal lick to the board. Ms.
Kinney is the District Arts Administrator
for Portland Public Schools. She is a
sponsor and board member for the Portland
chapter of the "I Have A Dream"
Foundation.
Dr. Hal lick is Provost and Vice President
for Academic Affairs at Oregon Health
Sciences University (OHSU). She is also
Interim Director of the Biomedical
Information Communication Center and
Professor of Molecular Microbiology &
Immunology at OHSU.
Large Portland
delegation attends
national conference
I've never been an optimist and these days
I often wonder how anyone could be. But
occasionally I experience something which
restores my faith in humanity. I had such
an experience yesterday when my wife and
I attended the annual membership meeting
of the Urban League of Portland. The
sense of fellowship that I felt, as well as
the level of commitment to the mission of
The Urban League so many displayed,
touched and moved me. I'm not a churchgoer, but last evening's meeting was the
kind of experience that helps to "restoreth
my soul."
Thanks for reminding me that there is good
being done in this world.
Frank Da/hiani
Portland
League is a "pacesetter"
for United Way campaign
The Urban League was honored with the
Urban League of Portland Board Chair designation of "pacesetter" agency during
James Boehlke and President Lawrence J. the 1996 United Way fund raising
Dark lead a delegation of 13 staff, campaign. Pacesetter agencies begin their
volunteers and clients to the National internal United Way campaigns several
Urban League Conference in New Orleans months early to build momentum for the
in August. More than 4,000 attendees community-wide campaign. The Urban
from around the country gathered to debate League and several other agencies were
solutions to issues such as affirmative selected based on their fund raising
action, youth development, political action, performance during the 1995 United Way
campaign, when 100% of Urban League
and race relations.
staff contributed.
Among the featured speakers were new
NAACP Executive Director Kweisi United Way funds are crucial to many
Mfume, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, The Urban League programs. In the 1996/97
Rev. Calvin Butts, Housing and Urban fiscal year, the local United Way
Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, contributed $225,408 to Urban League
A programs, or 10% of the agency's budget.
and U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel.
conference highlight was a tribute to the We urge Urban League supporters to give
late U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron generously to United Way and to use the
Brown, who was a longtime Urban League donor option if you wish to direct your gift
to support Urban League programs.
staffer.
League President Lawrence J. Dark
offers it as a message of hope.
We have it in us to create communities
committed to deeply held values,
shared purposes, economic viability,
self-renewal, and the release ofhuman
possibilities -- communities that have
mastered within their own boundaries
the secret of wholeness, incorporating
diversity
and
helping
others
accommodate it as well.
Let's tell people there is hope. Let's
tell them there's a role for everyone.
Let's say to everyone who will listen:
"Lend a hand -- out of concern for
your community, out of love for your
country, out of the depths of whatever
faith you hold. Lend a hand"
As a people we are capable of laxity
We are also
and self-indulgence.
We have
capable of greatness.
tremendous resources of strength and
spirit -- but we need to strike a spark
to release that spirit. The time has
come.
HIV/AIDS program wins
Fabric of Life grant
The Urban League's HIV/AIDS education
and outreach program was a recipient of
this year's Fabric of Life fundraiser for
local HIV/AIDS charities. An August fund
raising gala at the Arlene Schnitzer
Concert Hall raised funds for the Urban
League's program. Funds will also be
raised through the sale of a Fabric of Life
compact disc, with original music by Bill
Lamb and Michael Allen Harrison. To
purchase a CD, which features Urban
League President Lawrence J. Dark and
other local celebrities, contact the Urban
League's Terry Durst at 280-2655. CD's
cost $15.
Portland Urban Parks
Advisory Council
members take a break
from park planning.
From left: Michael
Houck, Jim Gillen,
Rome lle Esplin, program
coordinator Domonic
Boswell, Bob Zyback,
Leonard Jordan, Dick
Hollenbeck, Lavern
Brooks, and Daniel Blue.
Urban Parks Project obtains its first park site
Childhood lead
poisoning described in
Urban League report
Childhood lead poisoning is the most
serious pollution threat affecting Portland's
inner city residents. That is the bottom
line of the Urban League's first report on
an environmental issue, "Portland's Silent
Epidemic: Lead Poisoned African
American & Latino Children."
The report is a sign of the League's
increasing
role
as
an
advocate
on
environmental issues that affect African
The first neighborhood park site to be
developed through the Urban League's
Portland Urban Parks Program has been.
identified. The program has received a
10,000 square-foot vacant lot on Northeast
Shaver Street. The tax-delinquent property
was awarded by Multnomah County to
Portland Parks & Recreation, which will
maintain ownership. Urban League staff
and volunteers will work with the King
Neighborhood Association and neighbors
to develop plans for a pocket park.
Urban League parks staff are also assisting
with implementation of the master plan for
the Whitaker Ponds site in Northeast
Portland. The master plan calls for an
environmental center, canoe access to the
Columbia Slough, fishing ponds, and
baseball fields, all within a few blocks of
inner city Portland.
Finally, Urban League staff recruited
several students who helped produce the
Oregon Symphony's summer concert-inthe-parks series, which included a concert
at Alberta Park in Northeast Portland.
The Portland Urban Parks Program is a
partnership of the Urban League, Portland
Parks and Recreation and Trust for Public
Land. The project is funded by a four-year
What does our
logo mean?
The National Urban League has used
three circular logos since its founding
in New York City in 1910. The first
logo was introduced in 1911 when the
organization was called the National
League on Urban Conditions Among
Negroes. In its center a human figure
stood in front of a hall of "justice".
In 1948 the National Urban League
introduced a new logo that showed
two black and white figures striding
forward together against a background
of city skyscrapers.
In 1968 the League introduced its
current logo: an equals symbol in a
circle. The logo is a reminder of the
League's commitment to equality.
grant from the Lila Wallace - Reader's
Digest Fund.
For more information,
contact Domonic Boswell at 280-2614.
Americans, other people of color, and lowincome residents.
"African American and Latino children in
Oregon are three times more likely than
their white counterparts to be poisoned by
lead," notes the report's author Don
Francis. "Lead causes many serious health
and neuro-behavioral problems in children.
Yet the epidemic is preventable. What is
lacking is a properly designed, funded and
executed lead poisoning prevention and
education program."
In Multnomah and Washington counties,
children are overexposed to lead primarily
from lead-based paint chips and dust.
Simple prevention practices can eliminate
much of the danger.
For copies of the report, contact the Urban
League's Pollution Prevention Community
Organizer Don Francis at (503) 284-6027.
Governor Kitzhaber proposes new
Office of Education and Workforce Policy
As part of his recommended budget for
1997-99, Governor John A. Kitzhaber has
established funding for the Office of
Education and Workforce Policy (OEWP).
The office will provide statewide policy
direction regarding education and
and maintain
stakeholders' involvement in the process.
workforce
issues
be assisted by the
Governor's newly created position of
The
office will
Education and Workforce Policy Advisor.
The office will also be assisted by a policy
cabinet comprised of workforce and
education agency administrators and by
groups of workforce and education
stakeholders. The office will replace the
Workforce Quality Council and the Office
of Educational Policy and Planning.
The new office is part of a package of
1997-99 budget proposals that focus on
investing in education and infrastructure.
The governor's budget is available in
greater detail in the "Budget in Brief',
which is available for free by calling (503)
378-3106.
It is also available on the
Governor's world wide web page:
www governor. state. or. us
Event Calendar
February 27: Equal Opportunity
Dinner, Portland Hilton
March 15: Bowl For Kid's Sake
fundraiser for Big Brother/Big Sister
April 11: Career Connections Job
Fair, Memorial Coliseum
April: Urban League Annual
Meeting (date/location TBA)
July: Urban League Annual Dinner,
Oregon Convention Center
Thank you to our
holiday donors
The Urban League connected more than
130 families and 250 children with holiday
gifts from a number of local donors in
December.
Our special thanks to the following
organizations and individuals for their
donations and assistance:
* Albina Ministerial Alliance
* Bonneville Power Administration
* Columbia Distributing
* Geffen Mesher & Co., P.C.
Urban League to
* Pete Hub ler
form Boy Scout troop
* Luxury Towing
* Metropolitan Disposal & Recycling
Youth and adult volunteers who are * Mark New & Family
interested in outdoors activities and * Susan Newton
leadership development are encouraged to * Mary Nolan
join a Boy Scout troop being formed at the * The Oregonian
Urban League. The League is compiling a * Diane Perlman
list of interested youth and adults and * U.S. Marine Corps
hopes to have enough sign-ups to begin a * Urbah League board members
troop this winter. For information, call * Western States Chiropractic College
Joel Broussard at (503) 280-2602.
Holiday Wish List
A gift to the Urban League is a gift to
the community we serve.
The
following items would help us to
better serve our clients:
* Passenger van with wheelchair lift
* Passenger van to transport students
* HP taser primers
* 486 computers
* Electric typewriter
* Two and flute drawer file cabinets
* Office furniture
* Camcorder
* Overhead projector
* Copiers and colored paper
* Incentive gifts for students, seniors
* Fax machine
* Office supplies (pens, paper, etc.)
* $300 to buy library books
* Your Urban League membership!
A special thank you to Chenyl Perrin
and Fred Meyer for their donations
after reading last issue's wish list.
*IP
Urban League of Portland
Urban League Plaza
10 N. Russell
Portland, OR 97227
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Portland, OR
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