Inside OYA. MacLaren youth lead celebration of Black History Month. Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office

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Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office Inside OYA Integrity Professionalism Accountability Respect MacLaren youth lead celebration of Black History Month Travon M.

Story by Roderick Edwards Office of Inclusion & Intercultural Relations Attendees enjoyed a meal of chicken, collard greens, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green salad, and cornbread.

Hillcrest, MacLaren, North Coast, and Tillamook. At MacLaren, the celebration on February 27 was youth-driven.

1 Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office Inside OYA Integrity Professionalism Accountability Respect MacLaren youth lead celebration of Black History Month Travon M. presented as part of MacLaren s celebration. Story by Roderick Edwards Office of Inclusion & Intercultural Relations Attendees enjoyed a meal of chicken, collard greens, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green salad, and cornbread. Photos by Adam Reed, OYA youth March 25, 2016 Several Oregon Youth Authority close-custody facilities held celebrations in February in honor of Black History Month, including Eastern Oregon, Hillcrest, MacLaren, North Coast, and Tillamook. At MacLaren, the celebration on February 27 was youth-driven. Topics of discussion included the 1712 Willie Lynch letter on slavery and its relevant today; hip-hop and its effects on youth; education and its importance to our community and the direction of the human race; and the late rapper Tupac Shakur s contributions to black lives through his music and political beliefs. Michael Green, a.k.a. Easy MCcoy, performed at the event. A former MacLaren youth, Green now is a well-known musician in the Northwest. MacLaren youth wrote and performed two songs: All Lives Matter by Travon M. and Warith M., and Trail Blazing by Warith M. The songs contained two main messages: that regardless of life s obstacles, you must persevere and continue to move forward; and it s not what happens to you that matters, it s what you do after that makes the difference. 1

The facility also had a slideshow presentation depicting African American icons from the past and present, and a Family Feud-style trivia game where community guests and youth answered questions

Michael Greene (Easy MCcoy) and Ahmad Richards (6IX), who once were in the same place as the youth in the audience, were able to share their stories and talk about how they navigate through their

2 The facility also had a slideshow presentation depicting African American icons from the past and present, and a Family Feud-style trivia game where community guests and youth answered questions about black history, movies, athletics, and music. We also were blessed by visits from two former MacLaren residents who are now well-known musicians in the Pacific Northwest. Michael Greene (Easy MCcoy) and Ahmad Richards (6IX), who once were in the same place as the youth in the audience, were able to share their stories and talk about how they navigate through their world with vision and purpose. They told the youth that they surround themselves with like-minded individuals who uplift them and support them in all they do. Warith M. performed a song he wrote for the event. Ahmad Richards, another former MacLaren resident, has become a well-known musician under the name 6IX. 2

Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office Inside OYA Integrity Professionalism Accountability Respect Rogue Valley Youth Correctional Facility debuts renovated kitchen Inside one of the new

By Sarah Evans, OYA Communications March 28, 2016 The problem at Rogue Valley Youth Correctional Facility started in October with a kitchen floor drain that clogged over and over again, despite

When facility staff opened up a small section of the kitchen floor to investigate the underground wastewater pipe, they discovered much more than they bargained for: the metal pipe buried under three

3 Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office Inside OYA Integrity Professionalism Accountability Respect Rogue Valley Youth Correctional Facility debuts renovated kitchen Inside one of the new coolers. Superintendent Ken Jerin (left) honors kitchen staff at the celebration. By Sarah Evans, OYA Communications March 28, 2016 The problem at Rogue Valley Youth Correctional Facility started in October with a kitchen floor drain that clogged over and over again, despite multiple attempts to clear it. When facility staff opened up a small section of the kitchen floor to investigate the underground wastewater pipe, they discovered much more than they bargained for: the metal pipe buried under three feet of concrete and gravel had deteriorated beyond repair. To fix it, they would have to saw through the entire kitchen floor to replace the pipes. In the meantime, with sewage water exposed in the kitchen, cooking meals there was out of the question until the pipes and floor could be replaced. And the facility still had to feed 100 youth three meals daily. Quick-thinking OYA staff solved the problem of feeding the youth by reaching out to the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) about the possibility of using their mobile kitchens to prep meals. ODF delivered two of the kitchens large semis equipped with cooking appliances for feeding firefighters during wildfire season to Rogue Valley on Halloween. The outside of the new coolers, and the new kitchen floor. 1

It was a long grind, superintendent Ken Jerin said. We had a week-long freeze where nothing worked out there.

4 For nearly five months, while repairs were underway, Rogue Valley had no kitchen. During that time, the trailers sat out front while kitchen staff braved winter weather, trudging up and down metal steps to carry food from the kitchens into the facility. It was a long grind, superintendent Ken Jerin said. We had a week-long freeze where nothing worked out there. Our staff dealt with freezing rain, carrying food up and down those steps, a mishap with a canopy it was kind of like Murphy s Law. After all that, it was with much fanfare that Rogue Valley staff and youth celebrated the March 3 reopening of their remodeled kitchen. At the celebration, Jerin honored the Rogue Valley staff who went above and beyond to continue food services during the repairs: Jeff Bassett, Jaime Garibay, Bob Page, Leann Barry, Justin Gibson and Gordon Brosmore. As they worked to keep youth fed, other teams worked to fix the kitchen as quickly as possible. Beaman Architecture of Portland drew up emergency plans for the project. A slew of local contractors signed on to do repairs: Shamrock Plumbing, Pro Electric, Dwayne Curtis Sheet Metal, Layton Refrigeration, Umpqua Sheet Metal, Cut and Break Concrete, Lowe s Construction, and Rubenstein s Tile. While the rotted pipe was an unwanted surprise, the repair did give Rogue Valley a chance to make some additional and long-desired kitchen upgrades. For years we ve wanted to fix up this kitchen, facilities manager Rex Emery said. It was finally an excuse to redo the floor tiles and the walls. Now it s beautiful. The ODF mobile kitchen trailers sat outside the front of Rogue Valley for several months. Staff brought in pizza and cake for all the Rogue Valley youth and staff to enjoy on the day of the celebration. Jerin presented thankyou gifts to several staff, and then he cut the ribbon for the kitchen with a blessing of sorts: May it live long and prosper. What happened to the pipes? Facilities staff don t know yet why Rogue Valley s underground pipes deteriorated. OYA has hired an engineering firm to investigate whether it had to do with the pipe material or the soil around it. OYA staff also will examine the three other facilities built at the same time as Rogue Valley North Coast, Oak Creek, and Eastern Oregon to see if their pipes have issues. OYA s goal is to learn from this event and prevent it from happening again. Rogue Valley already was scheduled to receive two new walk-in coolers as part of OYA s 10-Year Plan for Facilities. Contractor Ausland Group installed the new coolers during the repairs. On February 26, staff moved into a much better kitchen than the one they had left. The week of March 7, OYA returned the mobile kitchens to ODF also in much better shape than before (staff members had them professionally cleaned and detailed). 2

Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office Inside OYA Integrity Professionalism Accountability Respect Intel and World Possible Come to Tillamook Representatives from the tech company and nonprofit

discuss use of Intel s technology at OYA.

brainstorming ideas for how Intel can make the next version better. Carla Caesar of Intel (right) and youth James T. participate in a roundtable discussion.

5 Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office Inside OYA Integrity Professionalism Accountability Respect Intel and World Possible Come to Tillamook Representatives from the tech company and nonprofit talked education innovation with staff and youth. Left to right: World Possible executive director Jeremy Schwartz, Ryan Palmer of Intel, and youth Jace B. and Stephen K. discuss use of Intel s technology at OYA. By Sarah Evans, OYA Communications March 7, 2016 A dozen people sat around the room, candidly discussing how they ve used Intel s Content Access Point (CAP), sharing challenges they ve faced, and brainstorming ideas for how Intel can make the next version better. Carla Caesar of Intel (right) and youth James T. participate in a roundtable discussion. World Possible s RACHEL servers, which run on Intel s CAP devices, bring online educational resources to OYA students. It may have sounded like a typical tech brainstorming session, but the February 18 meeting was far from typical. The location was inside Camp Tillamook, and sitting alongside two representatives from Intel were education leaders from OYA and the Willamette Education Service District, an international nonprofit executive director, and five youth from Tillamook Youth Correctional Facility. And the playing field was equal. Everyone contributed their ideas for how Intel s CAP devices, which already have revolutionized the way OYA students learn, could do even more in their next iteration. The Intel representatives listened carefully and took notes. It was the end of a productive day where the two guests from Intel toured Tillamook their first time in a youth correctional facility. OYA staff and youth had the chance to show how students use the CAP devices for everything from completing daily classroom assignments to searching the Oregon Law Library. 1

Carla Caesar, a marketing manager at Intel, summed up the day this way: It s easy to sit in my cubicle and work on these projects and think, This is a cool thing we re making.

OYA education coordinator Frank Martin and his team first began working with Intel several years ago through a nonprofit called World Possible, whose RACHEL servers bring internet content to

6 Carla Caesar, a marketing manager at Intel, summed up the day this way: It s easy to sit in my cubicle and work on these projects and think, This is a cool thing we re making. It s a whole other thing to go out and see its impact to hear how these youth are using it not only for education but also for researching the law and their rights and learn how it s improving lives. OYA education coordinator Frank Martin and his team first began working with Intel several years ago through a nonprofit called World Possible, whose RACHEL servers bring internet content to developing countries that have little or no internet connectivity. OYA brought RACHEL a stand-alone wireless content server that runs on Intel Education CAP devices into facility schools to allow youth to access valuable online educational content without actually going on the internet. Nathan S., a youth living at Tillamook YCF, introduces the facility s computer lab to (left to right) Carla Caesar and Ryan Palmer of Intel, and Jeremy Schwartz of World Possible. World Possible executive director Jeremy Schwartz and other volunteers from his organization also helped OYA design digital content specifically for a correctional education environment. The CAP devices can store up to 500 gigabytes of content, including copies of websites like Wikipedia for Schools, Oregon Law Library, Khan Academy Light, TED talks, and Study.com, to name a few. Last year, OYA also started working with Google to bring their devices, including Chromebooks, into facility schools. Students can use these devices to tap into the CAP servers. The Intel and Google partnerships are giving OYA youth a technology-based education experience similar to what they might have in public schools. Putting websites and cutting-edge technology into the hands of people in custody is a radical idea in the world of corrections, where security concerns typically ban these types of activities. But helping youth hone their technical skills while also giving them chances to learn for themselves and show they are trustworthy is critical to their success when they transition out of custody, says Gary Westoby, PbS state coordinator. We re trying to empower the students and the teachers by giving them more resources, he said. Jeremy Schwartz of World Possible discusses the RACHEL servers as Ryan Palmer of Intel takes notes. Empowering the students allows them to go back out into the community and make healthy choices. Westoby was among those at the Tillamook meeting. Caesar and Ryan Palmer, a senior human factors engineer, represented Intel. Also in the room were OYA s education coordinators Frank Martin and Tracie Hightower; Dagny Brown, who runs college programs at MacLaren and Hillcrest; Michael Conn, principal of the MacLaren and Hillcrest high schools; Denessa Martin, superintendent of the Tillamook facilities; Jeremy Schwartz of World Possible; and five youth from Tillamook YCF. The youth often stole the show. They were members of Tillamook s Geek Squad, youth who have learned computer networking and related skills. They did most of the legwork to set up the computer labs at Tillamook, and they ve configured computers for other facilities as well. 2

Nathan S. demonstrated how the system looks when students log on to the CAP servers, and showed the Intel reps a website he d built for Trask River Productions, Tillamook s vocational ed program.

7 Nathan S. demonstrated how the system looks when students log on to the CAP servers, and showed the Intel reps a website he d built for Trask River Productions, Tillamook s vocational ed program. Others talked about how the servers helped with research for their classes, or for looking up OYA policies. Some shared their personal stories, like Stephen K., who had zero high school credits when he came to OYA at age 17. Today, at 22, he has a high school diploma and is halfway through his bachelor s in management and leadership at Portland State University. He plans to pursue a master s after that. I came as somebody who was never supposed to graduate high school, and now I m working on a college degree, he said. Having access to education through this technology has really changed my life. Stephen K. (center), who lives at Tillamook YCF, shares his story with Carla Caesar of Intel (left), youth Nathan S. and Tillamook superintendent Denessa Martin. In jail, a lot of stuff is done for you. It s nice to have the ability to find things out for ourselves. If I have a question and need to find an answer, I know how to research it. This is training I ll be able to use the rest of my life. Near the end of the day, Palmer thanked the youth and staff for their feedback, which he said will help Intel as it develops the next version of the CAP devices. These are great conversations to have as we continue to develop and troubleshoot our products, he said. This is a perfect opportunity to stretch the limits of something that could work for customers worldwide. Then Caesar asked those in the room whether they d be willing to act as guinea pigs as Intel tests new products. The youth quickly swapped glances and big smiles before offering an enthusiastic, Yes! 3

Inside OYA. JPPOs mark 20 years of service. Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office

Inside OYA. JPPOs mark 20 years of service. Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office Oregon Youth Authority Communications Office Inside OYA Integrity Professionalism Accountability Respect JPPOs mark 20 years of service and I may not get to see the outcome, but I know I can make a difference.