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Family center�s help pays off Mail Tribune / Steve Johnson A mural decorates the lobby of the new Rogue Family Center, shown here getting final carpeting touches from Neil Jackson of Interior Sales in Eagle Point. Ceremony today will inaugurate new quarters By Jonel Aleccia WHITE CITY � Five years ago, Rhiannon Black never dreamed she�d be sharing a stage with Gov. John Kitzhaber, acting as the designated poster child for one-stop integrated social services. But that�s just where the 24-year-old White City woman will be this afternoon, when Kitzhaber inaugurates the $2.5 million, 24,000-square-foot building that will house the expanded Rogue Family Center at 3130 Ave. C. "I�ve got my speech," said Black, a mother of two. "It�s kind of scary." But stepping to a podium is not nearly as scary as being 19, broke, unemployed and pregnant. Black was all of these when she turned to the Rogue Family Center for help in 1995. In the ensuing years, she has used nearly every service offered at the cramped old offices on Antelope Road, from emergency food and cash assistance to welfare, WIC and employment training. "There have been times, being a single mom, when nothing�s positive," she says. "But they really helped me." The help paid off. A week ago today, Black called her social worker one last time. "I told her I�m canceling all my services," says Black, a classified advertising representative for the Mail Tribune. "It feels excellent to know that I can do this by myself." Black is just one of some 4,000 Upper Rogue residents aided each month by the 17 agencies that share expertise and office space. From 1992 to now, there hasn�t been much of the latter. But starting Monday, 65 workers will have more elbow room, says Mark Orndoff, 32, who has been the center director. "We�ve been crammed and stepping all over ourselves for a long time," he says. "This is good." The $2.5-million building is financed in part through about $1 million from Jackson County Urban Renewal, which owned the 37-acre parcel on which it sits. The remaining $1.5 million will come from long-term leases from the agencies that occupy the new center. Those include the White City offices of the Jackson County Sheriff�s Department, Head Start and OnTrack Inc., among others. Today�s dedication will include groundbreaking ceremonies for a new White City library. The sleek Rogue Family Center features an airy lobby, ample conference space and a gray sea of cubicles. Inside, county, state, federal and nonprofit agencies will continue the integration that has become a model in Oregon and elsewhere. Cooperation was always evident in services, recalls Black. "I didn�t always have to explain things," she says. "Everybody I worked with was always interactive with each other." That was the goal nearly a decade ago, when Jackson County Commissioner Sue Kupillas began championing the notion of integrated social services in White City. The Rogue Family Center began with a small storefront office providing employment and social services from one site to about 30 families. Now it serves a region encompassing some 700 square miles of northern Jackson County, Orndoff says. Since its inception, the center has tracked declines, some dramatic, in teen pregnancy, violent and family crimes, welfare enrollment and food stamp use. With more space and more staff, Orndoff believes services � and their outcomes � will expand to more areas. "Now we want to roll out some of the things we do in the rest of the county," he says. But Orndoff won�t be overseeing it. Recently named deputy director of county Health and Human Services, he�ll help select a new director for the expanded center. "I�m hoping to put a bow on this thing before I go," he says. "We�ve done a great deal." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.