December, 19, 2007

Letter to the Editor.  Reacting to news reports of Clackamas County’s gang actifity, MFS Board Member, Dr. Yves Lefranc, recommends community participation.

December, 17, 2007

Metropolitan Family Service Holiday Cheer and Holiday Toy Store bring Joy to Families and Older Adults in Need.  Volunteers and staff give generously of their time and talents at Metropolitan Family Service during the holiday season.

November, 7, 2007

Each day in Clackamas County, thousands of families struggle to make ends meet.  They worry about feeding their families or finding childcare while they go to work. They don’t have time to worry about non-essential expenses like family portraits.

October 2007
SUN Schools Sponsor Pumpkin Lights On AfterSchool Event This year, the Metropolitan Family Service SUN Schools after school programs hosted the area’s Lights On AfterSchool celebrations, featuring several hundred former and current program participants at Dexter Middle School and Shaver Elementary.

September 2007
SUN Programs Lead to Educational Success SUN in East County is a program of Metropolitan Family Service. It offers kids a safe place to spend after-school hours and participate in anarray of academic and recreational activities.
 

August 14, 2007

Students Travel Back in Time During Community Program  Time travel was the theme for a collaborative effort of Metropolitan Family Service, Multnomah County and the Centennial School District during the summer SUN School program. Students, in grades first through sixth, moved from room to room, learning about such eras as the Roaring ’20s, the Middle Ages and America’s colonial era.

August 7, 2007

Neighborhood Night Out Picnic at Harold Oliver School  A picnic and live performances will highlight this year’s National Night Out. The event is planned for 5:30 to 8 p.m. Aug. 7 at Harold Oliver Primary School, and is sponsored by Metropolitan Family Service, City of Portland Neighborhood Grants Program and Centennial Community Association. It is designed to build neighborhood connections and build safer communities through awareness.

June 4, 2007
Project Linkage to Schedule Rides to Farmers Market. 
Are you a senior or disabled? This summer, a fledgling service is expanding to provide rides to local farmers markets.  Ride Connection and other transit providers will be offering rides from several locations.

Gates Foundation Awards Grant to Metropolitan Family Service. 
Students at 11 high-poverty schools in the Portland tri-county area will benefit from a three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

April 27, 2007

Foster Grandmother Named Top Volunteer.  An 84-year-0ld Rose City Park grandmother has been named Volunteer of the Year by Metropolitan Family Service.  "Grandma" Sybil Barker, a full-time volunteer, has pitched in as a foster grandparent for seven years at the Center for Medically Fragile Children at Providence Child Center, where she works with children with severe neurological disabilities.  She has also served as a volunteer for 13 years at Waverly Children's Home, where she worked the evening shift, helping young victims of child abuse get ready for bed.

March 1, 2007

Grandma Carol and Grandma Marge know how to draw a crowd at
the Barlow Head Start preschool on the outskirts of Canby.
From the comfort of her classroom rocking chair, Carol Luce — whom the children call Grandma Carol — plays games and works puzzles with her 3-to-5-yearold charges. Across the hall, the other “grandma,” Marjorie Crawford, is the go-to expert when the youngsters need help making yarn crafts. Even outside the Head Start building, the children instantly recognize Luce and Crawford. “Sometimes in the stores they see you and they run to you,” Crawford says. Luce, 74, and Crawford, 77, who both live in Canby, are volunteers with the Foster Grandparent program run by Metropolitan Family Service, an agency serving Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties.

February 2007
At 92, MFS Volunteer Grandma Cherry just can't stop helping kids
Cherry Hendrix says there are days when it's hard to muster the energy for another full day of helping children. "At my age, sometimes I have to force myself to go," she says with a laugh. But when she sees adults she worked with when they were children --and now they have children in grade school -- and they say "Hi Grandma Cherry, you still at Woodlawn?" And then look at their children and say, "That's my Grandma Cherry." "Right there, that puts two, three more years on my life," says Hendrix. More

January 2007
MFS Launches Health Education Programs
Metropolitan Family Service was recently awarded a $636,600 grant from the US Department of Education, to establish an expanded physical education program at four schools in Reynolds School District. More

December 8, 2006
Reynolds gets help with PE classes
Twenty-two minutes a day. Two and a half hours a week. That’s all it takes to meet the U.S. Secretary of Education’s physical activity recommendation, but many children aren’t getting it.

November 29, 2006
During Thanksgiving week, Metropolitan Family Service joined thousands of people and organizations across the United States to celebrate National Family Week.

September 21, 2006
Rowe students will get new after-school outlets
Students at Rowe Middle School in will have new ways to stay busy after school starting Oct. 2, thanks to a $135,000 grant to expand after-school programs.