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Director's Message
September 10, 2004
To: DHS Employees
From: Gary Weeks, Director
Making a Difference
Consider the following:
- A North Bend, Oregon mom is going back to college and will be able to afford a better future for her son with disabilities.
- A problem gambler reports he's now "getting his life back," avoiding trouble with banks, creditors, and the law.
- A legally blind Oregonian earns two associate degrees and now runs her own business.
These are real life examples of how the Department of Human Services has made a difference in the lives of Oregonians. These people and dozens more told us their stories at recent public meetings and via email - as we collected input on the department's 2005-2007 Agency Request Budget, which was submitted to the governor September 1.
All told, more than 450 Oregonians offered feedback - the vast majority of those in support of the department's proposed Policy Option Packages for the next biennium. It was heartening to receive this kind of encouragement from all over the state including Newport, Bend, Portland, Medford, Salem, La Grande, Pendleton, Ontario, and Baker City.
You should feel proud of what you are doing to make a difference in people's lives. In the next year, the department plans to showcase more of these efforts -- from Oregonians who've been helped from all walks of life -- to local communities and economies that have been made better because of the everyday hard work and dedication of our DHS staff and community partners.
A community rallies around its needy kids
It wasn't just your typical back-to-school week in Lincoln County.
Amidst the school buses, lunch boxes, and hundreds of eager young faces and anxious parents, was a band of dedicated volunteers from the community on a mission: to try to find and help the estimated 1,200 children in the area with no health insurance.
During the last week of August, approximately 318 of these children signed up for a pilot outreach project - the Governor's Kid Care initiative - to expand access to health care for uninsured kids. "We know that healthy children are more successful in school," said Lincoln County Commissioner Don Lindly. Pilot projects have been established in Lincoln and Hood River counties in part because of their relatively high unemployment rates, resulting in many families unable to afford health insurance.
Community partners including DHS staff, the county health and human services department, locally based community programs, schools, physicians, the local hospital, faith-based community programs, child care centers, and the local commission on children and families, have combined efforts to reach out to the needy kids in the Lincoln County area.
"It's to all our advantage to have as many young people as possible take part in this pilot project," Lindly said. "If we can help them avoid costly emergency rooms stays, it saves all of us money in the long run."
Part of the Solution
Did you know that our Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services has led the way in being able to maintain health care benefits for thousands of Oregonians, helping more and more of them become employed each year?
Here are a few other fast facts relating to these efforts:
- We continue to build on and improve our employment initiatives that help Oregonians with disabilities who are educated, skilled and ready to go to work. The department's 2005-2007 Agency Request Budget that we recently submitted to the governor includes proposals for more resources to further develop these efforts.
- We support community colleges and workforce development in their application for disability navigators to help people with disabilities better access services in one-stop sites in Multnomah County, Oregon City, Newport, Pendleton, Klamath Falls, and Redmond.
- We continue to collaborate with DHS Seniors and Persons with Disabilities to fully implement the Staley Settlement, which brings services to thousands of Oregonians with developmental disabilities who otherwise would have to continue to wait for help.
Attendees to the recent Oregon Rehab Action Network meeting in Portland asked me to speak about how our Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services is part of the solution to living and working with chronic conditions. We continue to do this work each day because we see a better future for the Oregonians we serve and because we want to be part of the solution.
Closing thoughts
If I could, I would go out and visit with each and every one of you regularly. But that just isn't possible. So this message is my way of talking to you every week about what's most important and how your work fits into those priorities.
I'm going to start focusing this message on just a few key thoughts each week - partly because I know you get a lot of email every day. I want what is said here to really resonate with you and be something that you can remember and carry with you every week.
Food for thought
"The moral test of government is how it treats those in the dawn of life - the children; those who are in the twilight of life - the aged; and those who are in the shadows of life - the sick, needy, and disabled." - Hubert Humphrey
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This message is intended for all Department employees. Please read it electronically, if possible. Managers and supervisors are asked to share the message each week with employees who do not have email access.
If you have a disability and need a document on this Web site to be provided to you in another format, please send an email to dhs.forms@state.or.us or call (503) 945-7021, fax (503) 373-7690 or TTY (503) 947-5080. If you know of others who need this accommodation, please let them know it is available.
Oregon Department of Human Services
Director's Office
500 Summer St. NE E15, Salem, OR 97301-1097
Phone: (503) 945-5944
Fax: (503) 378-2897
TTY: (503) 947-6214
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