The Need for Foster Care Parents

You Can Help Oregon’s Foster Care Crisis

On any given day, there are 7,000 children in Oregon’s foster care system. Many of these children come from situations of abuse and neglect only to find themselves facing uncertainty and instability once they enter foster care.

Boys & Girls Aid, a nonprofit founded in Portland in 1885, wants to change that. We are looking for compassionate people to help improve the lives of children in foster care.

A good foster home is often the first place a child in foster care has felt safe in a long time. Foster parents help children build trust in adults and provide a supportive environment where they can thrive.

Boys & Girls Aid supports foster parents with responsive program staff available 24/7, ongoing free professional training, and generous monthly, tax-free stipends ranging from $1,200 to $3,500 per month. There are options to fit every family, from full-time placement to relief care a few days a month.

Fostering children might bring life changes and challenges, but it’s a great opportunity to make a difference in a child’s life — and in your own life, too. “It’s worth it to get to know these kids,” said experienced foster parents Jen and Chad. “It enriched our lives a lot.”

To learn more, visit our website boysandgirlsaid.org/fostercare, or contact Outreach Coordinator Scott Appel at (503) 542-2316 or [email protected].

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Scott Rupp

Scott Rupp, 59, has lived on the streets of Sunnyside and thereabouts since 2019. He’s easy to spot because he’s always blaring Rock & Roll—especially Tool. His music inhabits every empty space and crevice; there’s no escape. Follow the noise and realize that Scott, like Rock & Roll, is here to stay. 

How long have you lived in the Sunnyside area or back and forth between Sunnyside and Laurelhurst following the city’s constant sweeps?

Scott: About three years now. I’ve lived in Portland for 59 years. 

How long have you been living on the streets? 

Scott: 25 years. 

What kind of music do you like?

Scott: I love Tool. I think Maynard should be president. [Maynard James Keenan is the lead vocalist of Tool, an alternative metal band from Los Angeles.] 

What’s something good or one of the good things that happened while you’ve been out here?

Scott: (Laughter) Oh my God. What’s good? What’s good? These are hard questions.

What do you think about the guys who drive their cars slowly by and glare at us?

Scott: I think they’re misinformed. I think they want to see something for themselves. I think they have a shallow life; I think they have more of a shallow life than I have.

How many times have you been assaulted ?

Scott: I’ve been jumped by young men who were drunk at the time. There were four of them and I got hit in the head with a bottle four times. It messed my back up. Messed my train of thought up. I stutter now…now and then because of it.

You applied for Section 8 housing but that was denied. 

Scott: I applied for Social Security, too, and I was denied. Because they always do that. They always deny you […] They’ll deny you. They deny you about three times and then give it to ya. Because hopefully, you’ll just quit applying. 

Can you tell people how your wife, Debbie Ann Beaver, passed away?

Scott: She was in a car wreck when she was 18 years old and had severe head injuries as a result. She was taking seizure medication ever since she was 18 years old, up until the time she passed away. When we were living at Sunnyside Park three years ago, Rapid Response came through and took all…all…all of our belongings. And in her belongings was her medication. She had a grand mal seizure and went into a coma. Rapid Response was there again that day, because they come back again within 10 days to verify if you’ve moved back or not — back in your spot or not — which we had. And, ah, found her laying on the ground and wouldn’t allow anybody else to do anything…do anything for her. And they let her lay there and die. They wanted to fight with people, instead of help her. 

I’m sure if I’d had the chance to meet her, if she was hanging out with you, she had to be cool.

Scott: She had to be cool because she was a person, man. She was a person. She was no animal. She didn’t deserve to die like that. Nobody deserves to die like that. On the side of the street… (In the background, the roar of some dumb engine, its muffler spitting cancer in the street close to us.) People all around her.

For his wife’s wrongful death, Rupp currently awaits negotiations from the City of Portland’s lawyers. In a July Willamette Week article (https://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2021/07/28/legal-notice-alleges-portland-city-contractors-swept-a-homeless-womans-medication-leading-to-her-death), Rupp’s attorney, Michael Fuller, said Beaver’s medication was to “treat symptoms from seizures due to a head injury, high blood pressure and diabetes.” 

 

Last Month’s News. This Month’s Plans.

Holiday gathering, endorsements, and December’s SNA meeting guest

On November 11th, the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association welcomed some new faces to the general meeting and held an open forum to discuss a neighborhood holiday event. We decided to meet on Saturday December 18th at 6 p.m. to walk the Peacock Lane holiday lights event. Event details are in a separate article. 

Johanna Brenner from the Portland Metro’s Peoples’ Coalition spoke about the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing (PCCEP)’s recommendations to City Council and asked for the SNA’s endorsement, which we gavet. The November issue has an article by Johanna with details (https://sunnysideportland.org/tag/newsletter-nov-2021/). The Board discussed a response letter to support SE Uplift’s (SEUL) bylaws amendment. The letter has been sent to the SEUL Board and all SE Neighborhood Association Chairs for consideration. The vote for the SEUL bylaws amendment will be held on Monday, December 6th. Lastly, the SNACC Committee will be hosting a clothing drive on Saturday, December 4th. Event details on when, where, and what to donate are posted on both the SNA website (https://sunnysideportland.org) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SunnysidePortland). 

We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming December meeting on Thursday the 9th. The SNA will be hosting Oregon State Representative Mr. Nosse who will provide legislative updates and lead a Q&A. Meeting details and the agenda will be posted on the SNA website (https://sunnysideportland.org) on Monday the 6th. The General meeting is from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. with the Board meeting to follow directly after from 8:00- 9:00 pm. We encourage you to participate in local civic duty and join us with making Sunnyside, Southeast, and Portland a thriving community.

Peacock Lane Holiday Lights Event

The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association (SNA) is co-sponsoring this year’s Peacock Lane holiday lights event that runs December 15th through January 1st 2022, from 6 p.m. – 11 p.m. Come join the SNA on Saturday, December 18th at 6 p.m. (where Peacock Lane and Belmont St. intersect) to walk the holiday light show. We’ll begin the tour at 6:10 p.m. We encourage you to dress in warm layers and wear a mask. Looking forward to gathering together.

Emergency Preparedness

Mise en place and e-prep

Almost all my conversations with friends here in PDX are centered on food and emergency preparedness. Having moved here from the Chicagoland area, the food here, all of it, tastes fresher and more vibrant. My weekly outing to the PSU farmers market reinforces the idea of eating, and shopping locally supporting farmers year-round and eating through the rainbow of foods sold there.

So, what do e-prep and mise en place have in common?

For me, it’s the mindset that the more prepared we are, the better our lives and those of our friends and family and neighbors. And, the meals we cook will taste better because we have prepped ahead of time so that we have all the ingredients we need measured and waiting BEFORE we actually cook or bake.

Emergency preparedness in this time of COVID may seem unimportant or unnecessary. I disagree. We have all learned to be more in the present moment. We check for our masks before we go out in public and probably check the hours and guidelines necessary to enter and shop at local stores, restaurants and food pods. It’s worth the bother, always. Hopefully, we all use what we have learned during these pandemic times to make ourselves more resilient in the future.

We are all more prepared for a disaster than we think. The skill sets and learnings we have acquired will serve us well in the future if we use them going forward. Find an e-prep buddy and help each other. Engage your kids in this work. 

Questions? Comments? Need support in getting prepared? I have the time and the resources to support you. Email me: [email protected]