Portland Children’s Levy disburses $68 million in grants

Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 16, 2020

David Douglas hopes to open a bilingual preschool classroom this fall at Lincoln Park Elementary School to serve low-income Spanish-speaking children, and to boost their chances of success in school.

Another of these classrooms is scheduled to be added in the 2021-22 school year, both funded mostly by a $973,630 grant from the Portland Children’s Levy.

The David Douglas preschool program is just one of the $68 million in Portland Children’s Levy grants recently approved by the Portland City Council.

The three-year grants to 85 programs fund efforts in education, youth development and family support for Portland kids.

“Early learning has long been a priority in David Douglas. This will be our fourth preschool embedded within one of our elementary schools. But it’s our first bilingual preschool, prioritizing access to our Spanish-speaking families,” said Dan McCue, communications director at the 9,807-student district.

“More than a quarter of our students self-identify as Hispanic and many of those families speak Spanish at home. A program like this allows students to maintain proficiency in Spanish, while learning English, and preserve their cultural heritage and ability to communicate at home,” McCue said.

The David Douglas preschool program, tentatively called Nuestro Futuro, will prioritize 4-year-olds, but might include 3-year-olds as well.

The Portland Children’s Levy grants will go toward reaching city youth affected by generations of racial, ethnic and economic inequity, the levy group said.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, it is uncertain if all the programs receiving grants will operate as planned this year.

But some of the levy organizations receiving grants also will use funds to respond to emergency needs during the COVID pandemic, especially in Black and Indigenous groups and communities of color, the Children’s Levy group said.

The funding runs from July 2020 to June 2023 and includes 22 grants for new programs, 10 expansions for currently funded programs and 53 continuing grants to maintain current services.

There are 16 grants for early childhood programs amounting to $21 million, which includes grants to Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

There are 22 grants totaling $12.6 million for after-school programs, with The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization getting the largest grant of $1.6 million.

Lifeworks NW received $1.6 million, which was the largest of the 16 grants in the areas of child abuse prevention and intervention. The category received $12.2 million.

Foster care programs received $8.5 million, divided among 12 groups.

Meals on Wheels People got $1.9 million for its Meals 4 Kids program, the largest of the 11 grants totaling $7 million in the hunger relief category.

There were eight grants totaling $6.7 million for groups providing mentoring services for children.

The Portland Children’s Levy was created in 2002 and renewed three times by Portland voters.

Levy funds reach more than 10,000 children, 70% of them identify as children of color. The majority come from homes with family incomes at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. One-third of the children served are from homes where English isn’t the main language.

The levy-funded programs aim to get kids ready for school, support them both inside and outside the classroom and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in both health and success in school.

The levy administrators have started a program to make grants to smaller community organizations, which will start next year.