Happy Birthday, Americans with Disabilities Act!

July 26th, 2015 marked the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and some of our partners went all out with their celebrations.

Southwest Washington Disability Alliance (SWWADA) hosted a picnic for people with disabilities, their families and friends. The afternoon included field games, sensory play, friendship and the opportunity to connect with an accepting environment and community resources.

SWWADA's two most popular members, Rojo and Smokey the therapy llamas, attended as well, both wearing superhero costumes. They gave the guests lots of carrot-y kisses.

The Portland Office of Equity and Human Rights, the Portland Commission on Disability and their community partners hosted an event the same afternoon at Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization (IRCO). Members of the Disability community were invited to share their stories. Storytellers included Keith Scholz, the chair of OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon's Bus Riders Unite Leadership Committee, and Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company (IAVDC).

In the evening, Disability Art and Culture Project (DACP) held a Happy Birthday dance at Zoomtopia, where guests rocked out to "We Are Family," "Don't Stop Me Now," and "Got to Give It Up." So, all in all, it was a pretty fantastic day.

IRCO, OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon and DACP were all funded partners in our Learning Together, Connecting Communities cohort. SWWADA is funded by a Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Organizing Grant.

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.

Highlands Neighborhood Association Hosts Awesome Advocacy Training

Highlands Neighborhood Association partnered with Habitat for Humanity to host a two-day Participatory Leadership & Advocacy Training at the Washington state capitol in June.

Representatives from 20 organizations attended, including a few of our Southwest Washington partners. Experts coached participants on the importance of community leadership and inclusion, and shared how to plan well-organized strategies and approach legislators for effective policy change. 

All we can say is, WOW! Props to Highlands Neighborhood Association. We love it when our community partners find ways to share skills with other organizations in their region. And we love it even more when they are building power for advocacy, leadership, organizing and policy change! This is how we will achieve better health for everyone in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Highlands Neighborhood Association is the lead organization for Highlands Grows and Shares, an Organizing Grant Community funded by our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Initiative.

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.

When We Count: From Data to Action

This the story of a Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) project funded by Northwest Health Foundation. The Coalition of Communities of Color and Portland State University worked together to generate data about the lived experience of people of color in Portland. The result: “Communities of Color in Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile.”

For the first time in the city’s history, diverse communities held a leadership role in such a project. It was also the first time such robust data was generated for many populations, such as the African immigrant community.

Read the reports here.

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.

Thomas Cully Park - A Dream Realized

When the sun is out, the children of Portland’s Cully neighborhood transform parking lots into soccer fields. The neighborhood, which shines with cultural flare and ethnic diversity, still has concentrated poverty, and an overall lack of access to nature. In fact, Cully, in outer Northeast Portland, has the lowest income per capita in the City. Many of the streets are without sidewalks and streetlights, and many more aren’t even paved.

While the regional average for residents per acre of public land is about 780 Cully has over 2,780 per acre of public land. Most people in Cully agree that they need – and deserve – a park in their neighborhood.

“The story I keep hearing from parents and kids is that that they don’t have a safe place to play. Soccer balls fly right into Killingsworth St.,” said Tony DeFalco, project coordinator for “Let Us Build Cully Park!” 

“We have heard very clearly,” he says, “‘I want a place to play soccer and I shouldn’t have to walk on streets that are dangerous to get there.’”

Responding to the community’s need, Portland Parks Bureau purchased a 25 acre landfill in the Cully neighborhood in 2002 with the intention of turning it into a park. After years of open houses and design meetings, the City Council finally agreed on a master plan, featuring sports fields, walking trails and an estimated price tag of up to $18 million. Although the plans were approved, funding was not.

In 2010, a $150,000 Northwest Health Foundation / Convergence Partnership grant enabled Verde to develop the first stages of transforming the landfill into a flourishing community space called Thomas Cully Park. Verde works to build environmental wealth through social enterprise, outreach and advocacy.

“This funding builds on existing enthusiasm and transforms it from public will to the actual construction of the park,” said Defalco. “We will develop the ability to design and build the park, and have that be our community asset to transform the needs we have around health, and a place to gather as a community.”

The development of Cully Park’s master plan has been a collaborative effort between community members and a coalition of local groups. The planning committee has involved the community in all aspects of the development and construction, through surveys and other methods of engagement.

Seventeen organizations are currently part of the planning coalition, including Hacienda CDC, Native American Youth and Family Center, Rigler and Scott Schools, Department of Environmental Quality, and the Oregon Health Authority.

“We want to bring the community voice into all the design elements,” DeFalco says. “We want to draw from the community to find workers, to educate young people about the technologies that going into building a park, and to train people in the kinds of environmental technologies we’re going to have in this park.”

Phase One will include a community garden, walking trails, restoration of the north slope of the park to make it habitable for wildlife, a native plant gathering area, an off-leash dog area, a nature play area, a youth soccer field and basketball court, and a 40 car parking area.

“This is all a part of a larger Cully Ecodistrict called Living Cully,” Defalco says. The idea is to bring environmental investments to the neighborhood and build environmental wealth.”

“This is a replicable model for how to engage a community so the community is in charge,” he says. 

The first phases of the park are scheduled to begin in 2012, with subsequent activities occurring in 2013.  To follow the progress of the park, visit the “Let Us Build Cully Park!” website.

Moving the Health Care Constituency

OSPIRG is a 35-year old advocacy organization, with a full-time legislative presence at the capitol, tens of thousands of members across Oregon, and an online activist network of thousands of people.

In 2009, OSPIRG collaborated with Oregonians for Health Security (OHS), a leading voice in healthcare advocacy in Oregon, to split a one-year, $40,000 grant. The funding enabled the two groups to reach out to 30,000 Oregonians at community events, on the phone, online, and through media – all in an effort to mobilize support for a legislative bill to improve access to health care for all Oregonians.

Influenced by this, and fifteen other healthcare advocacy efforts funded by the Foundation, the Oregon Legislature passed two bills that are expected to cover 95% of Oregon’s uninsured children and extend coverage to an additional 35,000 low-income adults while instituting a reformed model of healthcare delivery for Oregonians.

“This may be the most important piece of legislation that we pass out of this building this session. This is a good deal for Oregon,” said Senator Alan Bates (D-Ashland).

Friends of Public Health in Coos County

County public health agencies throughout Oregon are struggling to deliver vital services, especially in rural counties hit hardest by the recession, and the recent loss in dedicated federal timber revenues.

In Coos County, volunteers actually collected spare change for childhood immunizations—just one of the ways a local non-profit group raised close to $10,000 for the county health department. The funds plugged holes in key services and kept Coos County commissioners from handing over public health services to state government.

Now, officials across Oregon and in other parts of the country are paying attention to how this rural coastal county created this non-profit, modeled after Friends of the Library, to educate the general public and raise money for the health department.

When the idea to start a non-profit came to Frances Smith, Coos County Public Health administrator, and Molly Ford, a retired public health educator, it made perfect sense. They called the new organization, for which Ford serves as president, Coos County Friends of Public Health.

“Local service clubs are limited to funding non-profit 501(c)3 organizations,” Smith said. “I’ve been trying to argue that a government-run health department is also a non-profit —  it’s a public non-profit.”

Northwest Health Foundation (NWHF) is proud to have helped draft the organization’s by-laws, and to have organized several meetings with board members to help clarify the organization’s goals and complete legal paperwork. The first annual meeting of the Friends was held on January 16, 2008, and by-laws were approved and officers were elected. 

NWHF also helped support a local ballot measure initiated by the Friends of Coos County Public Health in 2008. The measure would “impose $450,000 each year for three years to fund operational costs of County Public Health Department beginning in 2009 (which could) cause property taxes to increase more than three percent.”

Although the measure didn’t pass, Coos County Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean was optimistic. “It was supported by more voters than any other ballot initiative last year,” he said.

He tipped his hat to the non-profit. “Had it not been for their help and support we would have been in severe trouble last year.”

“You hear how important healthcare is,” Stufflebean said. “But you don’t hear anybody talking about the public health system, which is an essential backbone to individuals in poverty.”