COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT 2009 OREGON CHILD DEVELOPMENT COALITION September 2009 Prepared by: Jennifer Olson Resource Development Director Philip D. Olson Community Assessment Consultant TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction 2 Methodology 3 Oregon Community Assessment and OCDC Overview 6 Hood River and Wasco Counties Community Assessment 30 Jackson County Community Assessment 45 Jefferson County Community Assessment 59 Klamath County Community Assessment 68 Malheur County Community Assessment 79 Marion County Community Assessment 94 Multnomah and Clackamas Counties Community Assessment 107 Polk County Community Assessment 121 Umatilla County Community Assessment 132 Washington County Community Assessment 145 Expansion Opportunities, Conclusions and Proposed Changes 157 Oregon Child Development Coalition 1 Community Assessment - Migrant Seasonal Head Start Program 2009 State of Oregon and Counties INTRODUCTION The purpose of this report is to present the results of a Community Assessment (CA) for Oregon Child Development Coalition’s Migrant Seasonal Head Start program. A CA is the collection and analysis of information on the needs and characteristics of Head Start (HS) and/or Early Head Start (EDS) eligible children and families in a grantee’s service area. Further, it identifies: issues and trends that impart families with young children; and programs and community resources available to meet the family needs. A completed CA is used to guide program planning and evaluation decisions. The report is organized into several parts. Following the Introduction is information on Methodology. Then, an Oregon Community Assessment and Oregon Child Development Coalition (ODCD) Overview section is presented. Here, geographic, economic and demographic information is provided about the state and the 12 Counties in which OCDC provides services. When it is deemed applicable, information about the entire USA is also included. Results from a parent survey are also included in this section. Following the Oregon Community Assessment and OCDC Overview section, assessments are presented for the 12 Counties OCDC currently serves: Clackamas, Hood River, Jackson, Jefferson, Klamath, Malheur, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Umatilla, Wasco, and Washington. Observe that Hood River and Wasco’s assessments are combined as are Multnomah and Clackamas’s assessments. The county assessment sections are organized in the following way. First, a county overview is presented and then critical issues are discussed. A brief local geographic, economic and demographic review follows expanding on the information presented in the previous Oregon community assessment and OCDC overview section. Finally, strengths and needs are discussed (including local resources and other service providers) for the following areas: education; mental health and disabilities; health and nutrition; family services; childcare; and housing and transportation. Following the 12 county assessments is a section on Expansion Opportunities, Conclusions and Proposed Changes. Under Expansion Opportunities, the topic of serving additional eligible, unserved children in the state is covered. This assumes OCDC is able to obtain additional resources and it is included to help inform the Board of Directors and Policy Council as they consider future agency directions. The rationale for this report’s structure, where assessments are presented for the counties, is that it promotes the inherent diversity of the local areas. The counties will benefit by this layout because it: facilitates greater communication among local community partners and stakeholders; streamlines data collection processes, grant writing and other reporting; and serves as a document for orienting new staff to the program. Another benefit also exists for preceding the 12 County Assessments with the Oregon assessment and OCDC overview section. By doing so, data can be consolidated and presented just once in the report, thereby minimizing the document’s length. Unfortunately, it also means Oregon Child Development Coalition 2 Community Assessment - Migrant Seasonal Head Start Program 2009 State of Oregon and Counties that readers of the individual assessments will need to refer back to tables and figures in that section. One further comment about the document’s length is that there is an overabundance of data that could be included for the content areas required to be contained in a CA. It would be an overwhelming task for both the people preparing this document as well as those who read it, if all data OCDC has available were included. Hence, only the most salient data is presented for the CA content areas required by Head Start Regulations, in particular Title 45 CFR 1305. METHODOLOGY COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT TEAM Community Assessment is an ongoing process throughout the year at OCDC. At the county level, local interactions with growers, families and community resources form the cornerstone of the assessment process. There are committees of parents who provide feedback and direction to the county on a continuous basis, and identify the needs and resources in their communities. Local participation in countywide activities such as the Commission and Children and Families Early Childhood Meetings and local growers’ association meetings occurs in which anecdotal information is gathered and community needs and resources identified. At the Central Office level, the ongoing process of gathering and summarizing data occurs throughout the year. As an example, for the 2009 CA, Program Directors and their management teams met frequently over the summer of 2009 to review the data that had been submitted and summarized for them, and to identify resources and needs in their various local settings. These county reports have been compiled and are now available for planning at the local level. Data contained therein has also been summarized to identify trends and issues for the agency as a whole and to inform this report. During July of 2009, the Policy Council, consisting of representatives from the twelve counties where a majority of the Seasonal and Migrant families live and work, were asked to complete a survey of strengths and needs in their county and across the agency. These data were gathered and summarized during a regular PC meeting in August and are included in this report. Along with the internal systems that are used over the year to support a community assessment, other data are also needed (e.g., migrant and seasonal farmworker estimates, US Census data, etc.) in order to determine migrant and seasonal patterns. The Executive Director and the OCDC governing board contracted with Jack DeWaard, MA, a former OCDC employee and recognized demographer to project the number of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their children. His analysis yielded data projections up until 2012 for Oregon and each of its 36 counties. Another consultant, Philip D. Olson, PhD, helped analyze the data plus organize and write the CA. A team of key personnel were convened to: review and analyze information contained in the CA; prepare the CA document for the agency; and prepare the CA report to be included in the Oregon Child Development Coalition 3 Community Assessment - Migrant Seasonal Head Start Program 2009 State of Oregon and Counties MSHS grant application for 2009-12. Team members included: The Data Evaluation and Monitoring Manager, the ERSEA Specialist, the external consultant who helped prepare the CA, and the Director of Resources Development. The team met frequently over a two month period and will continue to meet in the beginning of the 2009-10 year to guide the community assessment for the upcoming year. They will work to implement the recommendations suggested in this document if approved by the Executive Management Team, the Policy Council and the Board of Directors. DATA SOURCES Information contained in this report was obtained from different written documents including: U.S. Census Bureau; Bureau of Labor Statistics; Bureau of Economic Analysis; Oregon Agricultural Information Network; Oregon Employment Department; Oregon Department of Education; Willamette ESD; Oregon Center for Health Statistics; Department of Business and Consumer Services; OCDC internal documents (e.g., 2008 PIR report); and brochures obtained from various state and county service providers (e.g., DHS, WIC). Data were also obtained through person-to-person interviews and/or phone conversations with people both inside and outside OCDC during July 2008 through August 2009. For example, at each of OCDC’s service areas the local director coordinated the activities for obtaining information about the strengths and needs in his/her county. This required obtaining external information from other agencies that provide services to eligible children and families in the areas of: education; mental health and disabilities; health and nutrition; family services; childcare; and housing and transportation. Another activity that each local director assumed was to interview his/her staff and often current parents, as well, about community needs. In addition, OCDC policy council representatives were surveyed regarding what they perceived to be key needs in their counties before the August 2009 Policy Council meeting. Also, at the Policy Council meeting their comments were discussed. There were several limitations in the preparation of the CA. Data was not always available for each of the 12 counties OCDC serves due to the fact that OCDC information systems had combined data for two or more counties. In