FEATURE ARTICLES Memo Calendar Memo Pad Business Memo's Loaves & Fishes Letters Home
Parkrose mother serves community
Summer begins at Parkrose Community Fair
I-205 light rail concerns Gateway leaders
“Prevention” programs disappear in social service cuts
Fun-O-Rama returns with a host of family oriented events
Wired remains wired
Corrections
OPERATION MEMO
Pen-Pal

About the MEMO
MEMO Archives
MEMO Advertising
MEMO Web Neighbors
MEMO Staff

© 2003 Mid-county MEMO
Terms & Conditions
“Prevention” programs disappear in social service cuts

Family Works loses funding for services that keep people functioning

LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

There is an old joke that since there is no cure for a cold, wait until it becomes pneumonia before seeing your doctor, since he CAN cure that.

The same principle applies to social services in Multnomah County these days, and it is no joke.

Family Works, a social service agency that serves the area east of 82nd Avenue, has seen extensive cuts in the last few years in funding, according to director Khadim Chisti and her staff. “Our emphasis is on prevention,” she told the Memo. “We help build capacity within communities. We help stabilize families that are going through stress.”

Family Works staffer Georgina Jackson says. “We have children moving into adolescence, acting out more, hanging out with the wrong crowd, and their parents’ tactics for discipline don’t work any more.”

Their help is especially needed in hard times such as the present. Staffer Georgina Jackson says, “The community is impacted now in so many ways. We have breadwinners laid off, children expelled, a community very stressed, and now we’ve taken away the places they might have gone to for help.”

For instance, Chisti says, “We had a specialist who dealt with attention deficit disorders. There was a tremendous need for those services, there was no one else doing it, and we lost that - a whole niche not done anywhere else that’s completely gone.”

Another worker, Rachel Blumberg, worked with adolescent girls in cooperation with the Parkrose School District. She helped them create an oral history of the neighborhood, which was presented at last year’s Rossi Farms Harvest Fest. She has been laid off.

North Parkrose Target Area organizer Christine Charneski, who is based at Family Works, says, “No one ever said these programs weren’t effective. They’re much more effective than putting people in psycho wards.”

Yet, that is what’s left. “Psychiatric treatment and hospitalization is all the county is funding now,” Jackson says.

“You have to wait until the problem is really serious before you can get help.”

“We used to get youth who were diverted from the criminal justice system who were assigned to counseling for petty crimes,” Chisti says. “That’s gone now, so all youth are charged with low-level misdemeanors, and there’s nowhere to put them until they’ve committed multiple crimes.”

Another change for Family Works is that referrals to the agency have increased in both numbers and the level of problems of those referred. “We’re seeing twice as many referrals as we used to for counseling mandated by the courts,” staffer Nancy Simpson says. Those seeking help include the chronically mentally ill and those who can function only with considerable medication. Many of these referrals are “inappropriate,” Chisti says. “We’re not a mental health clinic.”

So why do other public and private agencies send such cases over? Because there really isn’t a place anywhere to help such people. Intake specialists “always want to give a referral, so the inappropriate referrals keep happening,” Jackson says. “The county has run out of resources, so they refer people to us, and we refer them somewhere else. They get a run-around, and are stressed over and over.”

Name:
Family Works
Address: 12630 S.E. Stark St., Building J
Phone: 503-256-2330
Website: www.lcsnw.org/offices/familyworks
E-mail: familyworks@lcsnw.org
Service area: Northeast Marine Drive to the Clackamas County Line, 82nd to 162 Avenues
Staff one year ago: 35
Staff today: 25
Budget one year ago: $1.2 million
Budget today: $878,000
Source of funds: Multnomah County general fund, private grants
Mission statement: As part of Lutheran Community Services Northwest, to build a partnership with individuals, families and communities for health, justice and hope.
Values:
• Recognizing and building on the assets of families and individuals
• A diverse and culturally competent organization
• A safe, nurturing, supportive work environment
• A technologically and operationally effective state of the art organization
• Local autonomy while affirming our connectedness to the larger agency
• A clear sense of purpose and mission rooted in traditions of service, spiritual calling, and social justice
Memo Calendar | Memo Pad | Business Memo's | Loaves & Fishes | Letters | About the MEMO
MEMO Advertising | MEMO Archives | MEMO Web Neighbors | MEMO Staff | Home