Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Rep. Dembrow talks about visit to PCC site.

Photos and story by Dana Haynes

Rep. Michael Dembrow, center, gets a tour of PCC’s Metro Center by Abdul Majidi, manager of workforce development, and Amy Youngflesh, director of the Workforce Development program, on Monday. (Photo by Dana Haynes)

I put up a photo on Monday of Rep. Michael Dembrow touring the Portland Metropolitan Workforce Training Center, on Killingsworth and 44th. It was the Legislature’s “in-service” day; the opportunity to visit their districts on a weekday, and to interact with constituents.

Here’s what the representative had to say on his weekly newsletter, regarding the day:

“This visit was an opportunity to meet both with DHS managers and with front-line workers,” he wrote. “I encountered both dedication and a lot of concern. DHS offices around the state have been reconfiguring their operations in order to deal with the soaring need, and the new system has a lot of potential. But the budget cutbacks under consideration will make it very difficult to deal with the crisis. There will likely not be enough staff on hand to deal with the clients as they come in or to give them the time that they need.”

Rep. Dembrow then went on to talk about his visit to Metro.

“I also got to visit the DHS staff who work at PCC’s Portland Metro Workforce Training Center, providing case management for people in various pre-employment support programs. This was a special treat for me, since many of the people working at the Center are former students and colleagues of mine from PCC. We heard about some great new programs, including one called Project Enterprise, which creates in-house internships for those seeking employment.

“Again, I had the chance to meet privately with front-line workers, and their stories were illuminating. They, too, have been hard hit by cutbacks at both the federal and state level, as the need for their services increases.”

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