This content was published: May 22, 2013. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Oregon’s First Lady visits Cascade Campus to discuss poverty issues
Photos and story by Abe Proctor
Cylvia Hayes, Gov. Kitzhaber’s partner, visited PCC’s Cascade Campus on May 9 to discuss the issue of poverty in North and Northeast Portland.
As part of her Oregon Prosperity Initiative, Gov. John Kitzhaber’s longtime partner Cylvia Hayes visited PCC’s Cascade Campus on May 9 to discuss the issue of poverty in North and Northeast Portland. Community members from Cascade and the neighborhood turned out to talk about ways that the state and community can work together to remove the barriers that keep people from escaping from poverty. The gathering was facilitated by former state Sen. Margaret Carter.
“This recession has hit Oregonians hard,” said Hayes, “in every part of our state. Gov. Kitzhaber and I are committed to find ways to help Oregonians break the cycle of poverty and make a better life for themselves and their families.”
The group convened in the lobby of the Sen. Margaret Carter Technology Education Building, where Hayes described her desire to “embed in our DNA” an anti-poverty ethic, in the same way that Oregonians have embraced an environmental ethic.
Several graduates of the Margaret Carter Skill Center – which is also housed in the building – were on hand to speak in its support as a program that has helped hundreds of people from the community to escape from poverty.