Portland, OR. The Assistance League of Greater Portland’s thrift and consignment shop reopened for a one-day sale on August 15th. The money raised at the sale is earmarked for the Operation School Bell Program, which clothed 4,196 children last year in the Beaverton, Hillsboro and Portland Public Schools districts. Janice Cushman, Vice President of Marketing/Communications says the Assistance League’s motto is “No child should wear poverty to school.” Cushman said one of the biggest challenges will be finding which kids need vouchers or clothing the most, as students initially will not be in schools. School counselors will be working on identifying the children most in need.
The Assistance League also provides Fred Meyer shopping vouchers for kids in need.
“My family has experienced homelessness for a long time and last year we finally had a place to call home,” said one parent. “It was a blessing to have my kids chosen for this [Operation School Bell] program. It made them feel special. They told me, ‘Now with my new clothes, I won’t be picked on in school.’ I cried happy tears.”
Every child should have adequate clothing to wear to school.
Assistance League members also coordinate three additional philanthropic programs. ASK (Assault Survivor Kits) distributed 153 kits to 17 local hospitals and facilities to provide victims of rape and assault with clothing and personal items. Thirteen Portland Community College scholarships were granted to students pursuing careers in trades. Funds for tuition, books and materials help students develop skills and expertise to earn a livable wage. Cordero House, a Janus Youth program, is supported by members to enrich the lives of teen boys as they rebuild their lives with bi-monthly activities.
The Assistance League is always looking for volunteer members which make up its backbone. Members work in Thrift and Consignment helping with selling, inventory, prepping donations and more. There are a variety of committees where member skills are put to use in fundraising, finance, marketing, retail and program implementation, plus the enjoyment of making new friends while make a difference. Find out more online www.portland.assistanceleague.org or email [email protected]. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram, too.
The nonprofit’s annual fundraiser, Promenade Portland Fashion Show was canceled due to COVID, but the organization has been busy. Members are meeting on Zoom to finalize program needs and revamp the Thrift and Consignment Shop for a safe shopping experience. It’s located at 4000 SW 117th Ave, Beaverton, OR 97005.
From the Assistance League: Assistance League of Greater Portland has been serving the greater Portland area since 1961. Our local community service programs benefit children and victims of violence. We offer a scholarship for students pursuing a trade school education. We fund these programs by operating Assistance League Thrift and Consignment Shops, through grants, special events, and donations.
Portland, OR. Lincoln High school senior Anya Anand was elected 2020 Queen of Rosaria on July 30th, Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a special, socially-distanced Queen’s Coronation was held at the Queen’s Walk in the International Rose Test Garden at Washington Park.
Traditionally, the Queen’s Coronation is an event that gathers a large ensemble of community volunteers who determine the year’s Queen; however, under this year’s unique circumstances, in the interest of keeping the event small, the Rose Festival had the Rose Princess’s vote to elect one of their peers to the Queendom—making it the just second time in the Rose Festival’s 112-year history that the Court elected their own Queen.
Asked what it was like to be the first Queen elected by the court since 1930, Anand said, “It’s an incredible experience […] it just means a lot that so many of my fellow Rose Court sisters believe in me so much and gave me the honor of being Queen.”
As Queen, Anand is awarded a college scholarship provided by the Randall Group. Anand plans to attend the University of California at Davis to study psychology; from there, she plans to attend medical school to become a pediatrician. According to a press release, “[Anand] was very active at Lincoln: as a volunteer Co-President of the Associated Student Body and Asian Student Union, as well as Co-Chair of the Multnomah Youth Commission Committee. [Anand] has been passionate about education from an early age and is president of REAL (or Rural Education and Literacy), in India.”
Many who attended the event socially distanced themselves and wore masks, including the Princess’s and the Royal Rosarians, who wore intricate red masks as a part of their traditional Rose Festival garb.
Rose Princesses at the Queen’s Walk in the International Rose Test Garden at Washington Park.
Speaking of some of the differences of this year’s Rose Festival, Anand said, “First of all, I know half of the Princesses didn’t get their in-person announcement. Some of them were announced over Zoom, and we all met for the first time over Zoom.”
Anand said meeting the other Princesses in person for the first time was her favorite moments of the season so far, ”It was such a different experience to meet them in person because you could feel all of the energy—and you can feel it over Zoom, but it’s a totally different feeling when you’re all together: you’re all looking at each other’s outfits, dressing up, getting ready together. I love all of these women with my entire heart.”
Many at the event spoke of the inspirational resilience of this year’s Court, and commended their fortitude in the face of many obstacles that made this year’s Rose Festival one of the most unique in its extensive history.
“The inspiration that is this Court and Queen Mya [2019 Rose Festival Queen] is a lesson to us all,” said Royal Rosarian Prime Minister Kimberly Brown, “their optimism and resilience and attitude has been so mature. It’s been inspiring to watch them overcome those hurdles that came up.”
At the laying of the Queen’s plaque along the Queen’s Walk, Anand had each of the Rose Princesses press their thumbs into the cement surrounding the plaque, a tradition started by 2019’s Queen Mya Brazile.
2020 Rose Festival Queen Anya Anand and Royal Rosarian Prime Minister Kimberly Brown getting ready to lay the Queen’s plaque along the Queen’s Walk.
“Just like Queen Mya did last year, I would like to invite my Rose sisters to place their thumbs in my plaque, because we did this together,” Anand said, “this year has been very tough, but we all made it together, and I love you all and I would love to share this moment with all of you.”
In the end, despite the hurdles of the pandemic, the official Rose Festival crown—worn by every Queen since 1922—was ceremoniously placed upon Anand’s head.
“I’m looking forward to representing my city and the Rose Festival,” Anand said, “I think it’s really important, especially because the Rose Festival has been around for so many years, and it’s another way to instill that tradition and sense of normalcy in such a changing and evolving time.”
About the Rose Festival Court:
“The mission of the Rose Festival Court program presented by Unitus Community Credit Union, is to provide scholarships courtesy The Randall Group for higher education, to promote community outreach and volunteerism, and to offer networking and mentoring opportunities to outstanding young women in a program that perpetuates an appreciation for Rose Festival history and tradition.”
About the Rose Festival:
Part of Portland’s popular culture for more than a century, the Rose Festival has its roots in tradition while its programming is both contemporary and nostalgic. Foresighted city leaders started the festival during the first decade of the 20th Century in order to put Portland on the map and brand it the ‘summer capital of the world.’ Little did they know that more than a hundred summers later the Rose Festival would be world famous for its amazing, award-winning events, as well as serving as a community leader for celebrating values like volunteerism, patriotism and environmentalism. In 2010, the Rose Festival was finally acknowledged as Portland’s Official Festival by proclamation of the Council.
With dozens of events spotlighting the diverse interests and culture of the community, the Rose Festival makes a positive impact on hundreds of thousands of lives annually, bringing smiles to the faces of both locals and guests. Peruse this website to learn more about the festival’s three popular parades, its three-weekend urban fair packed with great entertainment, good food and fantastic features, and about the iconic Court made up of local high school women making goodwill visits all around the state. The Rose Festival makes Portland a better place to live and visit.
Portland, OR. The KairosPDX educational nonprofit is individualizing its programming to serve kids at home. The program serves over 170 students in grades K-5. The focus of the nonprofit is working to transform education into a system that sees and nurtures the whole child. Through policy advocacy and direct service, the organization works to change a structure that has historically disempowered black and brown communities.
The nonprofit’s holistic approach has helped it weather the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were able to retain the same attendance levels that we had pre-pandemic and it was largely because we centered care and connection in everything that we did,” Ladd said. “Multiple times a week there were check-ins with families, and it was really just a space for families to come together and vent and ask questions and be in a safe space to experience what we were experiencing as a collective.”
Kairos focuses on the whole child and all their needs: academic, social, emotional, cultural, and more.
Similar check-ins were available to kids individually. Kairos was able to provide nutritional support, computers that had been donated, and Internet access so that each child could stay healthy and focused on learning.
Kairos prioritizes the “whole child,” in the classroom, including social, emotional, cultural, and identity-affirming aspects of wellbeing. The organization has done training with educators as well as people outside the educational system to work on how to better support whole kids.
“We talk a lot about the humanization of children being at the center of education,” Ladd said. “Seeing the humanity in each child means seeing all that they bring and seeing that as an asset. Schools have a tendency to dehumanize children and their value.”
Kids need this type of support more than ever amidst the rapid social changes occurring right now.
“With both the racial justice and COVID pandemics, for many it’s like a trauma in the sense that it’s thrown people’s lives into chaos and everything that they knew is no longer,” Ladd said. “That is a traumatic event that will have an impact on children’s mental health and wellbeing.”
Creative projects support academic engagement
The executive director said that this turbulent time has provided some opportunity for the community to come together around important issues. Kairos partnered with some other black-run organizations and faith-based communities to do a food distribution. The organization also partnered to offer free COVID testing for the surrounding community.
“I found in this time, while there were challenges, our community did what it often does, which is come together to support one another,” Ladd said. “It wasn’t about who runs what organization, it was about how we support the children and families that we serve and this greater community and how we utilize each other’s strength to better support them.”
This is also an opportune time in terms of racial justice. Kairos is working with other black-run organizations across all sectors to lobby members of government for policy changes. Ladd said that with the awareness raised by protests in Portland, policymakers are more open to legislation advocating for racial equity.
Kids need support in academics now more than ever.
“Obviously our work is very much in the heart of racial justice and economic justice … the work is not new work for us, but I think the new global and statewide attention has definitely created more work,” Ladd said. “I think this is a period of time to continue to lift up the voices of leaders in the black community and other communities of color. ”
These leaders are working hard to lobby as a collective, run their individual organizations, and care for their own homes and families. Ladd said her biggest challenge right now is that there is not enough time in the day.
“It’s been a lot of extra work, a lot of late-night zooms,” she said. “There’s so many important things to do. And it’s a marathon, not a sprint, but still, you gotta keep running.”
From KairosPDX: KairosPDX is an education nonprofit focused on transforming education through a model built on love and inclusion that elevates the voices of historically underserved children, their families, and their communities. ‘Kairos’ is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment), or a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens.
Portland, OR. The NW Dance Project, a Portland-based contemporary dance company, had to make significant COVID-19 adjustments since it went fully virtual on March 13th. The nonprofit’s phased reopening began on August 3rd, with the renewal of some in-person classes and continued reliance on video communication platforms. Jeff George (pictured above) is one of the instructors for the limited in-person classes that take place with strict safety protocols.
The initial shutdown of NW Dance Project meant all events, classes, and training programs were canceled, as well as the furloughing of all company dancers and some staff. Like many arts organizations, NW Dance Project is currently unable to generate income with performances, so outreach to supporters has become vital.
NW Dance Project members pose for a fundraising promo shot
Social distancing guidelines have posed a challenge for everyone, but perhaps no one is more affected than dancers. Executive Director Scott Lewis points out how, unlike other performing arts such as theater or music, maintaining social distance removes a core element of what constitutes this art form. For example, the pas de deux, which Lewis describes as an intense duet, is now entirely off the table.
“There’s so much in dance that relies on the electricity in the air when humans are experiencing something simultaneously,” says Lewis. “At some point, it just hit me that everything we do is not bringing people together.”
The dancers’ response to these challenges highlights their pragmatism and flexibility. “They quickly saw the dance world embracing technology and accepted that this is the reality,” Scott Lewis explains. Company members have shifted their focus toward individual projects and sharing their skills over social media. In addition to individual enterprises, dancers now attend classes via video call — streamed either from NWDP’s studio or from the instructors’ homes — and students served by North Portland’s Aspire Project (closed as of June 7th, 2020) were invited to join NWDP’s virtual summer session.
These virtual classes will continue even as NWDP’s studios have reopened for limited in-person classes. Safety protocols are strictly enforced: for example, tape outlines on the studio floor mark out 100 square feet of space per person. In September, youth classes are scheduled to begin in-person with similar restrictions. Next month also brings an outdoor performance and a film-based project that unites NW Dance Project company dancers and special guest choreographers.
Lewis encourages readers to keep an eye on these upcoming projects or even attend a few classes if they are so inclined. Those with skills they are willing to share can seek out volunteer opportunities with the company or even serve as board members if they are willing to accept the time commitment.
“Any support possible will be helpful,” says Lewis. “It doesn’t need to be said how destabilizing the confluence of events has been for artists. We’re still in the first act, stay with us, stay in touch, stay supportive. This is going to be a long crawl.”
NW Dance Project was founded in Portland in 2004 by acclaimed dancer, mentor, and choreographer Sarah Slipper. NW Dance Project is dedicated to the creation and performance of innovative, new contemporary dance works from established and emerging dance makers created in an open and artistically stimulating environment.
NW Dance Project has fostered the creation and Portland premiere of nearly 300 original contemporary dance works to date. Our dedication to providing dancers and dance-makers the resources and creative room needed to realize new inspired dance works led Dance International Magazine to proclaim that we are “changing the way dance is created” and that NW Dance Project has become “a laboratory, factory, and repository for risk-taking new works from the next generation of choreographers from Europe and North America.”
Portland, OR. The “Cinema Unbound” Drive-In series at Zidell Yards kicked off this weekend with a screening of John Lewis: Good Trouble. The Drive-In experience is created by The Northwest Film Center and Portland Art Museum. It runs from August 6th – September 27th on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The opening weekend was sold out, but tickets are still available for upcoming screenings. Learn more and see the full slate of films by clicking here.
Dawn Porter’s new documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble was a hit with attendees.
Organizers say each night features a different film; Some push boundaries in a future-forward way and some take us back to our youth. Some films were made right here in the Northwest and the rest hail from New York and Hollywood.
The gates at Zidell Yards open at 8:30 pm. All movies start at dusk and are appropriate for children and adults. There’s also a regional short film before each feature film. Music is provided by X-Ray FM.
Attendees listen to the film’s audio through a car radio; sound is an in-car experience, over a limited FM transmission. All tickets and concessions are sold online, in advance only, through Northwest Film Center and Portland Art Museum’s websites. Tickets are $35 per car, $45 for Trucks, Vans and SUVs, and $55 for Premium Seating.
From Portland Art Museum:
All films are subject to change without notice. The Zidell Yards is located at 3030 S. Moody Ave, Portland, OR 97201
For up-to-date event information regarding weather and the Drive-In at Zidell Yards, please visit the event’s website. Please assume the show is on unless otherwise noted.
For questions about tickets please contact the Ticket Tomato customer service team at 1-800-820-9884 or [email protected].
Portland, OR. The Portland Book Festival will look different than the picture above this year. Book Lovers won’t be crowding in to hear from noted authors as in the past. The literary staple of the Pacific Northwest since 2005 is changing its long-standing event from in-person to entirely online. This news comes in the wake of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that has essentially curbed all social events and gatherings for the foreseeable future. Rather than canceling the annual festival scheduled for November, event organizers at Literary Arts say they want to continue community outreach during a time when people need it the most.
In years past, Portland Book Festival focuses on bringing families and the community together by offering their events for free and across many platforms.
Perhaps the most important change that Literary Arts has offered is to make the festival almost entirely free this year. This change comes during a time when many individuals may be uncertain about their financial stability and may not have been able to afford the previous cover charge for the event. Andrew Proctor, Executive Director of Literary Arts, says that this decision was made in order to better support the community during a national pandemic
Author readings will be viewable both live and backlogged for the attendee’s convenience.
Alongside the change in format, the festival will also be held across a fifteen-day span (Nov. 5-21) rather than staying as a single-day event. For this year’s attendees, that means that every seminar, class, and author reading can be accessed over the two week period, and often at their own leisure. It also means that the event becomes more accessible to everyone living here in Portland or anywhere else in the world. With formats ranging from podcasts, online blogs, and live streaming events, participants will have a range of options to suit their needs and limitations during these unprecedented times.
While things like book signings may not be available this year, online formats will still allow for attendees to interact with the festival’s many artists.
From Literary Arts:
To find out more about the upcoming 2020 Portland Book Festival, check out the Literary Arts website page on the event here. If you’d like to support a great organization, you can donate here.
Seattle, WA. If you’re taking a road trip up north, you might want to know that The Seattle Aquarium reopened a month ago with timed ticketing and limited attendance; this means those who make the journey will get up close to the animals and not other visitors. Seattle Aquarium staffers have worked closely with local health experts to provide a safe and fun experience.
There’s plenty of space to maintain distance as you stroll the wide sidewalk along Alaskan Way, taking in views of Elliott Bay and enjoying the sights and sounds of Seattle’s historic waterfront.
There are some changes you need to know about before visiting:
ONLINE TICKETS MUST BE RESERVED IN ADVANCE for all guests, whether you’re a first-time visitor or a long-time member.
YOUR TIMED TICKET indicates your arrival window. There is no limit to how long you can spend at the Aquarium.
FACE COVERINGS/MASKS ARE REQUIRED during your visit. Exemptions to this order include babies/toddlers under age 2; anyone with a disability that makes it hard for them to wear or remove a face covering; anyone who is deaf and moves their face and mouth to communicate; and anyone who has been advised by a medical professional to not wear a face-covering because of personal health issues.
A ONE-WAY PATHWAY with clear physical distance markers will guide you through the Aquarium and help protect everyone’s health.
Here’s a video with more information:
Opened in 1977, the Seattle Aquarium was owned and operated by the City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation until 2010, when the nonprofit Seattle Aquarium Society assumed its management—a model used by most leading zoos and aquariums across the country.
From the Seattle Aquarium: The Seattle Aquarium is one of Washington state’s leading environmental education and stewardship institutions, and the region’s gathering place for discussion and sharing information about marine conservation. It maintains a number of research initiatives in cooperation with federal, state, zoological and university partners. The Aquarium is located on Pier 59, at 1483 Alaskan Way.
Portland, OR. The Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children has faced challenges moving its services online but continues to advocate for foster children in the courtroom. One silver lining is that online orientations due to the pandemic have unexpectedly helped the organization recruit younger volunteers. CASA Executive Director Betsy Stark Miller explains that there was some initial concern that recruiting CASA volunteers online, instead of in-person, would be an issue, but it has had unforeseen benefits. “I have watched the age demographic drop,” she said. “This is great because having a young CASA advocate is very beneficial if you are working with teenage or preteen youth.”
Before this change, most volunteers were 50 to 60-year-old women. Now, they are seeing volunteers in their 20’s.
Anyone can be a CASA volunteer. They train for 35 hours before taking on their first case. Then, work under a supervisor.
Along with diversifying the age range, CASA for Children has been working to be more culturally responsive. Many kids in foster care are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), while the vast majority of CASAs are white and may have a socioeconomic situation that enables them to do highly time-intensive volunteer work. Miller and her associate Laura Collins (Major Gifts, Development & Communications Director) said that CASA’s “Knowing Who We Are” training helps volunteers recognize their own social positioning in order to help them better assist kids who come from different backgrounds. “I think the community needs to know that we are doing everything we can by training our CASAs and our staff to be culturally sensitive and responsive to the kids that disproportionately come into foster care who are children of color,” Collins said.
CASA for Children’s social awareness training helps mitigate the racial divide that often occurs between advocates and clients.
CASA for Children already had a remote plan prepared when the pandemic hit, and fortunately has been able to keep all staff supervisors employed. However, Major Gifts, Development & Communications Director Laura Collins said that virtual interaction is not ideal for CASA volunteers and their clients. One CASA said that it’s challenging to not be more physically present with the kids. “It really speaks to the commitment these CASAs have to this program,” Collins said. “We are still able to successfully provide really high-quality advocacy to the kids who have CASAs right now.”
Many volunteers are even taking on a second case. “The thing that’s been really powerful is our team is experiencing that emotional commitment,” Miller said. “What’s been really impressive to me, and overwhelmingly uplifting, is that our CASAs have stuck through this really difficult time. Our CASAs would not stay if our team was not doing a wonderful job, because it’s not easy.”
COVID-19 has made some things more difficult. In many cases, hearings have been postponed due to technical difficulties. This takes a major toll on the kids and their families. Courts are backlogged in Washington and Multnomah counties. “With COVID in place I am really concerned that we’re gonna see cases last longer than they should,” Miller said. Miller and Collins also said that going into the future, they expect to see an increase in the number of kids who need their services. During pandemic restrictions, domestic abuse is still happening, but kids aren’t leaving home as much, which allows it to stay hidden.
“Children aren’t going out and getting their voices heard,” Miller said. “They’re showing up in emergency rooms with more severe abuse markers than doctors have seen in recent history.” As abused kids return to school and life outside the home, mandatory reporting will expose these cases and the kids will turn to services like CASA as they go through the foster care system.
Children in the foster care system without permanent living arrangements need community support during the pandemic more than ever.
CASA for Children was able to move its annual auction online to maintain some revenue, but the nonprofit still needs support from the community during this time.
“We really need the support of our community to still step up and help us,” Collins said. “Sure we are in the foster care sector, but really were about healing and resiliency. We’ve always been about that, it’s at the core of our mission, helping kids who have gone through profound trauma heal and hopefully have a better chance of a life that has potential.”
Here’s a video about the organization:
From CASA for Children:
A CASA is the tireless and passionate protector of a child who has been abused or neglected and is experiencing the trauma of involvement in the system. They are granted tremendous authority by the court and are able to do what it takes to see that a child is not ignored, their best interests and critical needs are addressed, and that the presiding judge is able to understand the true facts of a child’s condition in an over-burdened child welfare system.CASAs are in a unique position to work in the system without being of the system. Throughout the process, CASAs have permission to visit the children regularly, talk to a child’s parents, teachers, caseworkers, doctors and therapists in order to hear all perspectives and give an unbiased portrayal of the case to the judge. CASA advocates help kids through the system safely, quickly, and more effectively.
Portland, OR. With quarantine keeping people at home, Literary Arts was forced to rethink how to best support the literary community of Oregon.A month ago, the organization released the winners of its annual Oregon Book Awards. Unlike previous years,where writers like Samiya Bashir (pictured above) accepted their awards in person, for the 2020 event, writers stayed home and tuned into a radio broadcast.After being rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic from April to June, Literary Arts partnered with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) to make the event happen. The winners of this year’s Oregon Book Awards were Beth Alvarado, Cathy Camper, Kesha Ajọsẹ Fisher, Deborah Hopkinson, Greg Means, MK Reed, Julian Smith, Ashley Toliver, and David Wolman.Winners would typically tour Oregon later in the year, reading from their works at various schools, bookstores, workshops, and libraries, but plans for this are yet to be determined due to the pandemic. Such tours help promote public knowledge of the authors and their diverse works, creating a significant influence on the success of their career.
The works of the Oregon Book Awards winners
With the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn, Literary Arts decided to grant funds to writers and artists in need. The Board of Directors unanimously agreed on turning a portion of the Brian Booth Writers’ Fund into the Literary Arts Booth Emergency Fund for Writers. Literary Arts received applications for the firsts round of grants beginning at the end of April. One-hundred lucky applicants received a grant of $1,000. The second round of grant applications is currently underway.
In giving to the community, Literary Arts put special focus on providing for people of color. Surveys found that 45% of first-round grant winners identified as people of color.Literary Art’s website states: “COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting communities of color. Literary Arts is prioritizing funding for writers identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who meet the eligibility criteria.”
Associate Director of Communications Jyoti Roy expressed the organization’s intentions to work with the community to create space for people of color, whether through specialized workshops, funds, or other means.
Literary Arts also works to inspire youth and help them develop their own voices. Back in April, Literary Arts adapted their slam poetry competition for teens known as Verselandia! Youth Poetry Slam. Although the competition itself did not occur, Literary Arts created an alternative event geared toward the same audience.
Authors Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Rion Amilcar Scott, and Lesley Nneka Arimah discussed the art of short-form on a virtual panel moderated by Dantiel Moniz.
Roy described their thought process as: “How do we serve the students who benefit from this event in a different way?”
Local poets led a virtual slam poetry workshop at the time the event was to occur. Participants were then invited to share their creations with Literary Arts, which are still being collected, to create a video featuring the youth’s talent.
From Literary Arts: Literary Arts is a community-based nonprofit with a mission to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature.For the past 35 years, Literary Arts has built community around literature, books, and storytelling, and the essential ideas and issues they raise. Literary Arts is committed to remaining a dynamic and responsive organization that will continue to evolve with our community’s needs and deepen our equity work across all our programs.
Portland, OR. Boys & Girls Aid (B&G Aid) has been helping struggling youth find foster families and support for over 135 years. According to CEO Suzan Huntington, foster parents have stepped during the pandemic more than ever. B&G Aid’s day programs are temporarily closed for public health concerns. Without the day program and without school, parents have their foster kids 24/7. But they are taking extra responsibility in stride.
“I can’t say enough about how grateful I am to their generosity of continuing to open their homes and hearts,” Huntington said. “These kids have had abuse and neglect since they were born, and that does something to our brains, and it’s hard. And not one foster parent said I won’t do that. Not one.”
Caring for the kids full time is extra work for foster families, but they say their kids are actually helping them to weather this tough time. “Foster children were born to live through a pandemic … I never thought about it like that until one of the foster parents said that these kids are actually helping us because they are used to total uncertainty and chaos,” Huntington said. “It isn’t a place where anyone thrives, but they have the skill set.”
Although the current COVID-19 situation challenging, this isn’t the first time the organization has had to face a flu pandemic.
Boys & Girls Aid has faced many challenges of its 135 years.
The Boys & Girls Aid day program is reopening because many foster parents are returning to work. Residential programs continue to be open as well. B&G Aid is proud to say it hasn’t had to lay off or furlough any of its staff during the lockdown, even though it has lost significant revenue from seven major fundraisers that were canceled.
“It is because our staff are diligent and committed to the work and the kids that we serve,” Huntington said. “Our foster parents are angels walking this earth, as are foster parents across the nation. We’re not gonna come through totally unscathed, but we’ve been able to keep everyone employed during the height of absolute chaos.”
The staff has been working hard to keep programs operating amidst limited funding.
Kids leave B & G Aid with the support they need to exit the foster care system.
In the last 7 years, B&G Aid has been relying on a trauma-informed care model, which sets it apart from other similar organizations. Huntington said this switch made the organization’s work and her job much more meaningful.
“Before [switching to this care model], we were a stop along the way. Now, we’re really meeting the kids where they’re at,” Huntington said. “We’re really diving deep into mental health, we’re making sure they have those lifelong connections, and really starting to see the trajectory of those relationships change with kids and how their growth is.”
Alongside coordination with foster families and guardians, B&G Aid works in family counseling to rebuild broken relationships to the best outcome for each client. Furthermore, they connect kids with stable figures, like an uncle or a teacher, to act as a point of guidance and support.
B&G Aid works to get kids into stable guardianships and loving homes.
“Kids do better when they have someone in their corner,” Huntington said. “We all do better when someone’s got our back.”
Huntington said she would like to see B&G Aid as a more visible part of the community. Historically, the stigma around adoption has limited the publicity for this long-standing organization.
“I would like to see in the future that Boys & Girls Aid is a more prominent figure in the community,” she said. “We could be a tremendous resource to a lot of community organizations.”
From Boys & Girls Aid:
Boys & Girls Aid is committed to ensuring children exit the foster care system to loving, stable families.
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