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Program's goal keeping children in the community |
Rainbow Family Services
has been in Yamhill County for more than 40 years, yet few people
know about them. They have therefore decided to try to raise their
profile by hosting a series of lunch meetings.
The organization operates under the umbrella of Catholic Community
Services. They provide programs designed to help and support
families. One of these is treatment foster care. While the youth
will spend time in a foster family the charity’s goal is to
eventually reunite them with their biological parents.
Jim Seymour, executive director of Catholic Community Services,
says there are five points that must be achieved in order for the
treatment to work: The staff has to believe their clients can
change. The clients have to come to trust the staff, which Seymour
says is often an issue because “one of the big problems is that
their trust has been violated”. The staff has to be “tough as
nails.”
“We don’t do anything for anyone that they can do themselves,”
Seymour says.
The clients have to know that the staff will be there overtime. “It
can’t be a one shot deal,” he said.
And the clients have to realize that the staff is competent. “There
is a true skill set,” he said, adding that it is required to perform
the kind of work his staff does.
One of the association’s goal is to keep children in their family.
On that front the advent of the information age has been a big
help. Seymour recounts that a child for which they had only four
known relatives turned out to have 43 available after searching a
database to find healthy family members.
“Our goal is to surround the child with at least three healthy
family members,” Seymour said.
From his own experience he remembers that it often takes little to
help a child. He remembers that his grandfather always saved half
his dessert for him and that he would eat it before steering the car
down the driveway. “Lot’s of time all it takes, is that smile,
(that) half a cookie (and to) do something fun to make things
better,” Seymour said.
Methamphetamine is one of the reasons for the service in Yamhill
County. “Meth is the symptom of hopelessness in the family,” he
says, adding that it is only “the tip of the iceberg.” A mother who
was feeling overwhelmed confided to him that when she started using
meth, it made her feel as if she were a better mother, more capable.
Drugs add to the problem of child rearing because while in the past
it might only have been the dad that is absent “today, more and more
the mother isn’t there either,” Seymour said.
While the organization is under the Catholic Church they will
service anyone, regardless of their creed. “We do this because we
are Catholics,” not to proselytize, he said.
The next open house will be from noon to 1 p.m. Sept. 6 at St.
Peter’s Catholic Church in Newberg. Call 1-503-883-0413 or e-mail
jsnyder@goccs.org for more information.
“We don’t do anything for anyone that they can do themselves.”
Jim Seymour, Catholic Community Services executive director |
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From
July 28, 2007,
Newberg Graphic
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