Community Partners for Protecting Children

By Victoria Szatkowski

Community Partners for Protecting Children (CPPC) is an initiative that came out of the Children’s Advocacy Council and is now a coalition of numerous stakeholders, chief among whom are the Department of Health and Human Services, the City of Portland, Youth Alternatives, Casey Family Services, PROP, and our very own BNA. The focus of this initiative to keep children safe is to strengthen families in their own communities so that they have better success with their children and do not have to become involved with the child protective system.
As part of this initiative, we at BNA want to help strengthen families here in Bayside, and so we started a group for mothers. BNA has been convening the Bayside Breakfast Club for more than a year now. We meet every Wednesday morning, 9:30 – 11 usually, though we often go over. Some of the things we have done in the past are organize a pot luck and give-away, go visit Women, Work and Community, share our recipes by cooking for each other, provide some child development information, and now we are working on learning how to knit. Linda Trott is making a pair of slippers! We were very fortunate to get our knitting supplies donated by some area shops. Portland Fiber and Knit Wit on Congress St. and Seaport Yarn on Fore St. gave us some beautiful yarn and needles, and now we are all inspired to create gorgeous things to wear!
We talk about everything and share our strategies for keeping sane while raising our children. Some of us are grandmothers and are helping to raise children a second time around. Some of us were born in another country and are still learning what the culture is and what to do about children who want to assimilate more or less than we do. Some of us are single mothers and are struggling to raise a child with little other support. By meeting together, we can share our experiences and help each other to cope. Much of the time it is just important to listen and to provide a space for this sharing, to let us all know that we are not alone and that we can support each other.
At this time, CPPC has these activities going on:
Parent groups are thriving in both Parkside and Bayside. This includes the Bayside Breakfast Club ,which meets every week, and the Parkside Super Club, which meets every other week. For information contact Victoria at BNA (415- 0769) or Sara at Parkside Neighborhood Center (874-1023).
Parents as Partners has been launched. Rosemary Whittaker (DHHS) and Deb Dunlap (Youth Alternatives) are bringing together parents to help develop a Parent-to-Parent child welfare mentoring initiative. Contact Rosemary at 822-2252 for more information.
Prevention efforts to support parents and link with needed community resources continue to be developed. Advocacy and coordination of available services to address identified neighborhood needs include childcare and substance abuse services.
Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Child and Family Services now has two Child Protective staff (Mary Ellen Welch and Suna Shaw) working with families within the Parkside, Bayside, and East End neighborhoods. This move has supported closer working relationships with families and other community members as well as more direct knowledge of the strengths and needs of children and families in the neighborhoods.
Youth Alternatives, Family Intervention and Support Program will be hiring a new worker for Bayside and Parkside. Susan Simpson, the initial CPPC FIS, worker moved on to a new position, though she still maintains connections with CPPC through her current work in Children’s Case Management
CPPC is expanding to the East End. A growing group of community members, including several life-long East End residents, have been meeting over the past few months to define CPPC in their area and are working actively to help establish a neighborhood leadership group that will span the three CPPC neighborhoods. For more information, contact Elise Wilson @ 773-2625 or Rosemary Whittaker @ 822-2252.

The Bayside and Parkside CPPC Neighborhood Team includes Victoria Szatkowski, Bayside Neighborhood Association; Zoe Miller, PROP’s Parkside Neighborhood Center; Cyndi O’Leary, Preble Street; Maryellen Welch, Department of Health and Human Services; Rebecca Smith, Portland Police Dept. Midtown Community Policing; and Michelle Lauture, Portland Police Dept. Parkside Community Policing.