Children's Institute Combats Chronic Absence

Chronic absence is a huge problem in Oregon. Last year, one out of every six students was chronically absent. That means almost 94,000 students missed at least one out of every ten school days. Data shows, these kids are more likely to perform poorly academically, as well as drop out before high school graduation.

This isn't okay, and the Children's Institute is determined that Oregon do better for its children. First step, spread awareness of the issue.

Because many schools don't even track chronic absence among their students, educators and families often don't realize how big an issue it is. That's why the Children's Institute worked with the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) to collect and release data about chronic absence in Oregon during the 2014-15 school year. As hoped, ODE's data has put the problem of chronic absence on the radar for school districts and communities across the state.

One of the key findings of their research was this: attendance habits in kindergarten can predict attendance habits and academic performance in high school. That brings us to step two of the Children's Institute's plan to combat chronic absence.

The Children's Institute has partnered with two schools (Early Boyles Elementary and Yoncalla Elementary) to establish and run two Early Works preschool programs. By making attendance a priority early on, Early Works helps families and students establish good habits that will carry through kindergarten and beyond. As an example of the impact they're making, in 2014-15, students in the Earl Boyles preschool program averaged a 94 percent attendance rate.

Thanks to ODE, the Children's Institute and the Oregon schools that have already experimented with intervention programs, we have plenty of data and good examples to learn from. We know which groups of students have the highest rates of chronic absence (Native Americans, special education students, low-income students and Pacific Islanders), so we can focus our efforts accordingly. And we know that the best way to combat chronic absence is with early family engagement in preschool and kindergarten.

Learn more in the Children's Institute's Showing Up, Staying In report.

The Children's Institute is a Kaiser Permanente Community Fund partner. They have also received funding through Northwest Health Foundation Sponsorships and the President's Opportunity Fund.

Native Community Wins Indigenous People's Day For Portland

Teens gathered around a drum at A Youth Gathering of Native Americans.

For too long, the U.S. federal government has recognized Columbus Day as a national holiday. Fortunately, thanks to the hard work and advocacy efforts of Native community leaders, including our friends and community partners at the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), Portland, OR is one city that does not celebrate Columbus Day anymore.

Columbus Day has been observed as the day that Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas. For many, that isn't something that deserves celebrating. Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas marked the beginning of a painful period for indigenous people--a period that included enslavement, colonization, displacement and the needless deaths of thousands of people, the effects of which are still felt today. That is why many Natives and their allies have set about reclaiming this holiday.

On October 7, 2015, Native community members testified before the Portland City Council; and the Portland City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution, declaring the second Monday of October as Indigenous People's Day.

"This generation gets to grow up knowing the truth," said Klamath/Leech Lake Ojibway actor Dyami Thomas, who attended NAYA College Academy.

Thank you and congratulations to NAYA, the Grand Ronde Tribe and the other Native leaders who successfully ushered this resolution through City Council!

The Native American Youth and Family Center has received funding through the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at Northwest Health Foundation, NWHF's Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Initiative, Sponsorships, the President's Opportunity Fund and Learning Together, Connecting Communities.

Community Alliance of Tenants Declares a Renter State of Emergency

Supporters at the September 15th Renter State of Emergency press conference.

Northwest Health Foundation applauds Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT) for declaring a Renter State of Emergency in Oregon, and in particular the Portland metro area.

Too many Oregonians have been unfairly evicted or forced to move due to drastic rent increases. Everyone deserves a safe, stable and affordable place to live, but right now, that isn't possible for hundreds of families and individuals.

CAT has called for a moratorium or suspension of no-cause terminations for one year, and a longer notice period for rent increases over 5%. "30-days’ notice is not enough, either to move quickly or absorb a shocking rent increase, especially in today’s disaster-like housing crisis."

NWHF staff pose with the Renter State of Emergency placard.

As part of the campaign, CAT is collecting renter SOS stories on a Tumblr account. They also invite supporters to use the hashtags #rentersos and #RenterStateofEmergency on social media and/or take a photo with a Renter State of Emergency placard.

How can you help? Share your renter SOS story here. Donate to the campaign here. Download the placard here. Or, if you're a landlord, sign the Landlord Pledge here.

NWHF supports the Renter State of Emergency campaign. In addition, NWHF has funded CAT through Sponsorships and the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at Northwest Health Foundation.

Latino Network Prepares Spanish-speaking Kids and Parents for Kindergarten

After multi-racial students, Latino and Hispanic students are Oregon public schools' fastest growing demographic. In 2014, 22.4% of students enrolling in Oregon schools identified as Hispanic/Latino, compared to 17.25% in 2008. With many of these students coming from Spanish-speaking households, additional support is integral to the academic success of these students.

While Oregon has taken big steps toward helping these kids with recent English Language Learner (ELL) legislation and efforts to increase the number of bilingual educators in schools, some nonprofits are stepping in before kids even start school. One of these is Latino Network.

Spanish-speaking children, ages three to five, in Latino Network's Juntos Aprendemos (Together We Learn) program learn early numeracy and literacy skills, how to behave in a classroom setting, how to interact with peers, and Latino culture and heritage. Spanish-speaking guardians learn how to teach numeracy and literacy, positive communication skills, how to navigate the U.S. educational system, and how to be an advocate for their child in and out of school.

Juntos Aprendemos graduates are better at learning reading and engage more positively with their peers when they start school. In addition, the guardians of these students are more involved in their children's schooling, where before they might be unsure how to show up for their children in a majority English-speaking school system.

This year Latino Network is celebrating Juntos Aprendemos' 15th year! "Juntos Aprendemos was created in 2000 by a group of Latino parents and community members who wanted to ensure Latino children were entering kindergarten prepared to succeed." Even more exciting, Juntos Aprendemos is expanding into a fourth school district this fall and is now operating in seven schools. 

Juntos Aprendemos is funded in part by the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at Northwest Health Foundation.

Energizing Portland's Jade District

On the evenings of August 15th and 22nd, nearly 20,000 people converged on SE 82nd and Division, the center of Portland's Jade District, for the Second Annual International Jade Night Market.

Many local businesses set up booths where visitors could buy various wares and delicious multicultural foods. There were also two stages with music and performances, many fair-style games and a beer garden serving Portland Brewing's Night Market Special Lager. 

Visitors could also wander into the Jade/APANO Multicultural Space (JAMS)--a community space for neighborhood events, activities and meetings, which has taken up residence inside an old discount furniture store. Recently, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) used JAMS to host the Vision Zero kick off event. (The Vision Zero Task Force aims to improve traffic safety for Portland neighborhoods.) This Fall, JAMS will host Our Families, Our Homes, a film series about gentrification and displacement. And many more events are sure to come!

These events are all part of the effort to energize the Jade District around common goals. The Jade District seeks to unite the community around vibrant culture and commerce, making the Jade District a "must-see destination" for visitors, as well as a better environment for its multicultural residents. So far it seems to be working pretty well!

(Even better, the Jade District's Steering Committee is entirely made up of community members who live, work and/or own property in the Jade District!)

NWHF supported the 2015 Jade Night Market through a sponsorship grant. In addition, APANO is funded through both the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund and Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities.

VIDEO | Momentum Alliance and Metro Ask About Equity

What do community members in the Portland metro region have to say about equity? Momentum Alliance and Metro found out, and they made this video so that we could know too!

We will show up for equity, Metro and Momentum Alliance! Thanks for asking, and thank you for including voices that represent the diversity in our region.

...

A short history: Momentum Alliance started with a video--a documentary actually--called "Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth." The founders of Momentum Alliance were members of the youth crew that helped produce and distribute "Papers" nationally. Since their founding, Momentum Alliance remains committed to being youth-led and youth serving. Their board is two-thirds youth (under 25).

Momentum Alliance was founded with a grant from the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at NWHF. They are also a Lead Organization for one of our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Organizing Grant communities.

Oregon's COFA Islanders are this close to winning health care coverage

A bill passed during the 2015 Legislative Session may finally lead to health coverage for many of Oregon's Pacific Islanders.

Citizens of Palau, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, subject to a U.S. diplomatic act known as the Compact of Free Association (COFA), are allowed to live and work in the U.S. and join the U.S. military. They also pay taxes, yet they have severely limited access to Medicaid. This is a particularly heavy burden for COFA Islanders, as many suffer from chronic health conditions due to U.S. use of the COFA Islands as a nuclear test site in the mid-nineties.

This summer, COFA Alliance National Network (CANN), with support from the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and other partners, organized to advocate for health coverage. They succeeded in raising awareness of the issue, convincing several Oregon legislators to champion their cause, and ushering House Bill 2522 through Congress. 

HB 2522, which was signed by Governor Kate Brown, directs the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services to begin designing a premium assistance program for COFA Islanders.

We're crossing our fingers for more definitive action during the short session in 2016!

Read more about this issue in the Portland Business Journal.

Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon is a Kaiser Permanente Community Fund funded partner. They are also a lead organizer of one of our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Collaboratives.

Have you heard about Cully buying the Sugar Shack?

This story has already received a ton of news coverage, but we think it deserves even more! One NE Portland neighborhood has succeeded in buying a former strip club, and everyone is pitching in to transform it into a community-friendly space.

After more than a dozen years of operating across the street from two community centers, a pediatric health clinic, school bus stops and affordable housing, the "Sugar Shack Strip Club" posted a For Sale sign last summer. Cully neighborhood nonprofits quickly organized to raise money to purchase the building.

Verde, Hacienda Community Development Corporation (Hacienda CDC), Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) and Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East combined forces to fundraise. Multiple foundations awarded grants; Craft3 extended a $2.3 million loan; and Portland Development Commission contributed a $250,000 loan. In addition, 528 individual funders donated a total of $54,094 through an Indiegogo campaign.

The sale closed this summer, and volunteers immediately started to clean up the property, doing everything from picking up trash to weeding to painting a mural! A celebration is planned for August 4th from 4-8pm. There will be food, music, arts and crafts, and community members will be invited to share their vision for the future of the neighborhood.

This is the miraculous kind of thing that can happen when communities organize!

Verde, Hacienda CDC, NAYA and Craft3 are all Kaiser Permanente Community Fund funded partners. NAYA is also funded by our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Initiative and Learning Together, Connecting Communities.

Fair Shot for All

This week we're celebrating the Fair Shot for All coalition, which saw four out of five of its priority bills pass during the 2015 Oregon legislative session!

All four bills are huge wins for hardworking Oregonians! All told, they require employers to offer their employees paid sick days, ban questions about criminal history on job applications, reform Oregon's retirement savings system, and increase law enforcement's accountability for profiling.

The best thing about Fair Shot for All? It is a coalition of community-led organizations! This means that the people who are most affected by these policies are the ones leading the effort to change them. When putting their agenda together, Fair Shot for All sat down with employers and businesses, as well as employees, to talk about how this legislation could work for them. Fair Shot for All put time and thought into creating an agenda that all Oregonians could benefit from, and it shows in their success.

Fair Shot for All includes several of our past and current partners: Family Forward Oregon, Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon, CAUSA, Oregon Action, Partnership for Safety and Justice, PCUN, the Urban League of Portland, VOZ Workers’ Rights and more.

Fair Shot for All is funded in part by the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at Northwest Health Foundation through a grant awarded to Family Forward Oregon. 

Regional Equity Atlas 2.0

Both Northwest Health Foundation and the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund support Coalition for a Livable Future's Regional Equity Atlas 2.0.

While interactive maps can tell a story about how public policies shape our opportunities for health, there are also stories that can highlight the everyday impact our policies have on the health of our neighbors. Thus the Equity Stories project.

From the project website:

The exceptional quality of life in the Portland-Vancouver region should be accessible to all who live here, but disparities in the distribution of resources and opportunities mean that not all communities benefit from the opportunities the region provides. The Coalition for a Livable Future’s Regional Equity Atlas allows us to visualize the region’s geography of opportunity, but behind every map are real people who are living with disparities every day. CLF launched the Equity Stories Project to share the experiences of people throughout our region whose lives are affected by the patterns shown on the Equity Atlas maps.

Visit the project.

Adelante Mujeres Nourishes the Community

In Washington County, research shows the health outcomes for Latinos are significantly worse than those of other ethnic backgrounds. The concentrated poverty for immigrant farmers, challenges of adapting to a new culture and poor urban planning have all added to the poor health of Washington County’s Latino population. However, it is also evident that lifestyle choices have also played a large role. For Adelante Mujeres, a Forest Grove, Oregon-based nonprofit, the solution lies in holistic education about health, food, and nutrition to inspire positive lifestyle changes.

“Nourish the Community,” one of Adelante Mujeres’ newest initiatives, aims to incorporate nutrition education into their already established programs such as their Adult Education, Chicas, and Early Education programs. Nourish the Community was funded with a $200,000 Kaiser Permanente Community Fund grant in 2011. “This is an initiative where the values of health, wellness and nutrition are disseminated throughout all of the programs,” said Kaely Summers, Adelante Mujeres’ Farm Coordinator.

“It’s been encouraging and helpful to have the support of NWHF and Kaiser for organizational capacity. Now we have the time to planning this all out the best way possible.”

Adelante Mujeres focuses on education and access, and “one way of doing this is the farmers market,” said Summers, “We have this resource here that we’re bring all of this great food and local fruits and veggies and organic food to the people of forest grove and the greater community. Through our matching program, people come with food stamps or with their WIC checks and can get that same amount matched up to 10 dollars a week. Essentially if they swipe their card for 10 dollars they’ll get 20 dollars in total!”

Adelante also focuses on microenterprise. “We have a microenterprise goal so that our producers, our farmers, as well as food producers like the tamale makers are now contributing to the community as producers of a health resource,” said Summers, “Obviously if people are financially sound they can make healthier choices in their life.”

Finally, Adelante focuses on community advocacy. “We want our participants to be more politically, and civically active in the community and what they’re doing.” said Summers, “we want them to learn things in the walking club and share them with their neighbors and extended families.” 

Adelante acknowledges that the Forest Grove community represents many different levels of health and wellness. “Some people are struggling with diabetes and don’t know a carrot from a radish, and others are farmers who are producing kale and eating that, and are walking every day,” said Summers.

“We want to meet people where they are and work with them so they not only become healthy themselves in the choices that they make, but so they can contribute back into the community.”

THE DREAMER SCHOOL: HIGHER EDUCATION BEGINS IN FIRST GRADE

This is the story of Alder Elementary School, the first “Dreamer School” in the nation as part of an innovative collaboration between Friends of the Children and the “I Have a Dream” Foundation of Oregon. The project serves some of the community’s most vulnerable youth and encourages higher education beginning at a young age. Through a $50,000 implementation grant from the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, the project builds on the success of the “I Have a Dream” foundation, and will expand the number of students served from 300 to 3,000 per year over the next decade.

Improving Health for Iraqi Refugees

When calculating the costs of war, we often neglect the health and economic costs of traumatized immigrants coming to the U.S. as refugees from violent, and prolonged, conflicts in places such as Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Despite being tens of thousands of miles from the war zone, Oregon’s Iraqi population is still struggling with the resonating consequences of violence and displacement. Many who sought refuge and asylum in the United States from the first Iraq war continue to deal with lingering trauma - more than twenty years after immigration.

Research shows that refugees from wars and civil conflicts are particularly vulnerable to ill health. The Iraqi Society of Oregon (ISO) is dedicated to helping immigrants deal with the trauma they experienced in their home country, the culture shock of adapting to new lifestyles and systems, and economic and social isolation they still experience today. These challenges have been identified as “triple factors” of trauma that make so many immigrants vulnerable to ill health.

In December 2011, the Iraqi Society of Oregon received a $50,000 capacity-building grant from the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund to gain social, psychological, and medical support for Iraqi immigrants. “This project will work on researching, educating, and healing the immigrants and refugees so they gain life skills for a positive health attitude and create a change to seek a healthy lifestyle,” said Baher Butti, executive director.

“Many traumas take place, and most are not dealt with properly.”

Even after 20 years, the Iraqi population of Oregon still experiences high levels of poverty, poor health, and isolation, much of it a result of the different phases of loss that they went through in the refugee process. “The local Iraqi community lives in isolation,” Butti says.  “Most arrived as early as the 1990s, after the first Gulf War.”

Baher Butti was a practicing psychiatrist in Iraq until he fled from the most recent war in 2006. He was exiled in Jordan when Dr. David Kinzie, a professor of psychiatry at OHSU, invited him to a world conference to speak about the psychological trauma. Dr. Kinzie ultimately helped him find asylum in the U.S.

Through the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, the Iraqi Society, the Center for Intercultural Organization, and the Beaverton Mayor’s Office are now working collaboratively to respond to the Iraqi population’s needs by coordinating culturally-specific services, mental health, city government, and schools. This solution moves Iraqi immigrant “upstream” by bringing together social and economic integration with a holistic mental health approach.

“Health inequities are reflected in unjust distribution of resources, power, and opportunities that lead to poor health outcomes for the refugees and immigrants,” said Butti, “However, this project is solution oriented, and aims to achieve multicultural health equity through community members, community organization, and policy and system change.”

“There is an honest desire from the larger community to reach out to new communities, especially refugees and immigrants.”

While the wider community will now have the opportunity to connect with the Iraqi community, Butti says the newcomers have a responsibility too.

“Inclusiveness is a mutual process where people provide support and embrace the newcomers to facilitate their healing,” said Butti, adding, “and the new comers will contribute with their values, and productivity, and even historical background to the new community.”

Urban Oasis: Village Gardens and Village Market

Village Gardens and the Village Market are both examples of what can be accomplished when neighborhood residents, non-profits and government come together in support of people’s health and well-being. The project was funded by the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, among other organizations.

Health Grants for a Financial Institution

MIRIAM AND JOSE WENT TO INNOVATIVE CHANGES TO BUILD THEIR CREDIT.

The answer makes sense once you know more about the nonprofit financial institution, Innovative Changes, and the grant maker, which in this case is the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund.

Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) is a partnership between Kaiser Permanente Northwest and Northwest Health Foundation. The fund invests grantmaking dollars in the places “where health begins” —projects and organizations whose work addresses the social determinants of health.

As the staff at Innovative Changes can tell you, financial issues can very often be connected directly to health. Research shows a strong correlation between high income and good health. Likewise, financial struggles often lead to a downward spiral culminating in emergency rooms, shelters, hospitals, or even the streets.

People in financial crisis often turn to payday loans, which almost always exacerbate the situation.  A $300 car repair can mean that a single mom with a stable job cannot get her children to daycare or herself to work. This can result in lost wages, and an increase in family stress. If monthly bills aren’t paid, a payday loan can push her into an unsustainable cycle of debt. Her credit and rental history are damaged, and her struggles only get worse.

“We know that financial stress can have serious health effects on an individual and also on family members,” says Victor Merced, a member of the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund advisory board.

Innovative Changes offers an alternative to predatory payday loans by providing comprehensive financial education, small dollar, short-term consumer loans, and credit building opportunities to help people manage short-term financial needs in order to achieve and maintain financial and household stability. 

“This initiative helps ensure that there is an affordable and socially responsible alternative to the provision of predatory financial products and services,” said Mary Edmeades, Vice President and Manager at Albina Community Bank. “The integrated approach to partnerships with the mainstream financial industry, other social service providers and most importantly, the clients themselves, is a collaborative model that promotes innovation, accountability and sustainability.” 

Miriam and José (pictured) came to the U.S. 32 years ago as they fled the civil war in their native El Salvador, and are two appreciative clients of Innovative Changes. Their story demonstrates the strong network of community partnerships developed by the nonprofit. In this case, Innovative Changes worked with two of their partners, Proud Ground, and the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA).

“We’re glad we came here and got help,” José said.

Jose works as a pastor associate and deacon at a Catholic church and works extensively with the church’s Hispanic community.

“One of my goals is to be a better administrator of my money, in order to help the community manage their money better as well.”

When asked to comment about the support they received from the nonprofit, Jose explained that “they made us feel secure.”

Miriam added, “This is real.”

“Innovative Changes helped us build our credit,” José said.

“They gave us hope for the future.”

Highlands Does Better with a Community Coach

The Highlands neighborhood in Longview, Washington has, for decades, gone without many of the advantages enjoyed by other communities – a strong retail district, an adequate park, thriving social service organizations, etc. It’s also one of the poorest districts in the state and has some of the highest rates of unemployment, drug use, and debilitating medical conditions such as lung cancer and diabetes to be found anywhere. 

Clearly, the people who live there deserve better.

In 2006, the Longview City Council made revitalization of the Highlands a top priority, and in 2008 the City of Longview adopted the Highlands Neighborhood revitalization Plan. Soon afterward, the city and the newly formed Highlands Neighborhood Association applied for a Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) grant to employ a community member to improve connections among the people in the Highlands.

As one City employee said in requesting the KPCF funds, “to make a difference in the Highlands, change needs to come from within the neighborhood.”

The grant request was funded, and after some searching, they finally found the right person for the job.

Meet Elizabeth Haeck, Longview’s “Community Coach.”

Most people in the Highlands already knew Liz. She volunteered everywhere from the Homeless Outreach programs to the Juvenile Detention Center, so she met a lot of the 4,900 residents who live in the neighborhood.

What she envisions, she told the Longview Daily News is a “‘front porch society,’ where neighbors know each other and help each other as needed.”

To do this, she brought people together, mostly through the newly formed Highlands Community Center.

Now the Highlands has a thriving community garden. And a new walking and biking trail is under construction.

The community center is full of programs, such as:

• Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops
• Foster family support groups
• Teen outreach programs
• Roundtable conversations about health
• Medical screenings
• A community library
• Volunteer clean-up groups

“All it took was an opportunity,” she says.

Everyone agrees that the community coach grant has been a success. Despite that, Liz works outside the coaching job to find other partners and ensure that the progress continues long into the future.

“It’s now so much more than the coach work,” she says. “The city continues to be involved, and other foundations have become interested. Parks and Rec has completed a planning process for remodeling the outdated Archie Anderson Park. There are many improvement projects that have been identified that would benefit residents of the Highlands.”

“It’s not one big thing that will make a difference.” she points out. “It’s a network of activities.”

When asked about the health impact of all this work, her response is immediate.

“Reducing isolation.”

One influence of her work is that people in the community are beginning to know and communicate with each other. “For so many people, the norm was to be afraid of your neighbors and isolate yourself,” she says. “This is terrible for health outcomes.”

“Social connections are very important but so is educating people about where to access services. When money is scarce, it’s hard to know where to begin to find the social services you’re entitled to. The community center has helped people with that.”

Now, a local family health services program comes to the community center and provides information for people, instead of waiting for people to come in on their own. “Riding a bus to these places can take half of a day, so when services come to the community center, it makes a world of difference,” she says.

This has carried through to even the police department, which has worked with the community center. As a result, she says, “people are beginning to see the police as their friend – not their enemy.”

She adds that the recent National Night Out also went a long way in helping build more social trust and community cohesion.

Despite the outstanding success that the community coach role has achieved, there’s much more work to be done. The Highlands Neighborhood Association remains critical to future success, and its sustainability will be essential to keeping the positive momentum that is currently underway.

Attendance for Neighborhood Association-sponsored programs must increase, and new funding partners will have to be added in order to ensure financial stability.

“It’s still fragile. We still haven’t built a solid foundation for the people to thrive, and that’s what we’re after,” she says, adding, “I’ve completely fallen in love with the people of the Highlands.”

“Many struggle and none of them deserve to.”

——

Thanks to photographer Hakan Axelsson for his portraits of some of the residents of the Highlands neighborhood. More photographs can be found here.

Appendix: 2010 Census Statistics for the Highlands Neighborhood of Longview, (Cowlitz County) Washington:

• Population: 4,858
• Housing Units: 1,778
• % City Population: 13%
• % Youth under age 18: 33% (City’s highest)
• % Elderly Persons: 6% (City’s lowest)
• % Latino Population: 21%  (City’s highest - up from 12.7% in 2000) (City’s highest)
• % Family Households w/ children: 47% (City’s highest)
• % Single Parent Households: 24% (City’s highest)
• Poverty Rate: 44% (City’s highest)
• Median Household Income $24,000 (City’s lowest)
• % Public Assistance: 20% (City’s highest)
• Unemployment Rate: 18% (City’s highest)
• 25+ years old without h.s. diploma: 36.60% (City’s highest)
• 25+ years old with Bachelors: 3%  (City’s lowest)

Healing Decades of Trauma Through Oral History

During the mid-1970’s, the radical Cambodian Khmer Rouge killed nearly one-fourth of the entire Cambodian population through executions, torture, starvation, disease and exhaustion. The regime sought a nation completely exempt from Western influences such as education, religion, and city life. As a result, 1.7 million Cambodians lost their lives.

Many Cambodians escaped the war, and settled in Oregon and Southwest Washington in the early 1980s as refugees. Even after thirty years, many Cambodians are still traumatized from their experiences, and are still unable to speak about them. As Cal State Long Beach sociology professor Leakhena Nou pointed out in Street Roots Magazine, the long term stress of this trauma can linger for decades, manifesting in diabetes, stroke, drug addiction, alcoholism, and family violence. “When you cut yourself deeply, a scar remains. That’s how I see the state of mind for the Cambodians.”

By 2010, there were as many as 10,000 Cambodian-Americans living in Oregon and southwest Washington.

Funded in part by a $50,000 Kaiser Permanente Community Fund grant, the Cambodian American Community of Oregon (CACO), began a unique and creative project to help Cambodian-Americans begin to heal.

The Cambodian Oral History Project had young Cambodian-Americans interview their parents and grandparents about their lives, without shying away from the brutal and repressive years under the Khmer Rouge. Eventually the interviews would be compiled into a 35-minute documentary film, and screened for public viewing encouraging community members to speak out in order to heal.

“By having the youth understand their parents and grandparents history, they will hopefully appreciate the freedom and liberty they have; and take the opportunity to educate others about the effects of genocide,” said co-director of the project, Mardine Mao, “Similar to the Holocaust survivors, Cambodian-Americans have a culture of silence when it comes to sharing their story of the genocide.”

20 adults and 19 youth, age ranging from 13-75, volunteered to participate in the interviews. Interviewers were given formal training with a two-session oral history workshop. Interviews and recording were spread out over a two month period.

Many of the youth felt that the interview process brought them closer to their elders than before speaking about the traumatic experiences in Cambodia.

“I already think of my mother as wonder woman and my hero, but with this project it just makes me think even more of her, if that was even possible,” said Kimberly Im, who interviewed her mother with her sister as part of the project, “Learning about her struggles and her life story makes me put things into perspective.”

"She feared for her life, her family’s life. She had no food to eat, no safety, nothing. The experience robbed her and her other commmunity members of that. She lost her childhood and the innocence that I got to have freely and without struggles,” said Im.

The documentary has had viewings in over 15 venues, including high schools, universities, nonprofit and community-based organizations. CACO hopes to pursue a screening on public television.

“Being a part of this project opened my eyes. It made me more compassionate and aware. I am closer to my mother after this,” said Im.