Portland West Dropping Neighborhood Programs
Summer Camperships, Neighbors, Holiday Outreach, Time Dollar among programs cut.

By ED KING
Portland West has announced a major restructuring of its Community Outreach programs, including a jettisoning of some of its most visible programs.

Among the changes to be made at the local social services agency:
-It will no longer publish Neighbors, its multilingual newspaper. An online version of the publication may be developed.
-Will no longer be part of the Holiday Outreach program that distributes Christmas presents to needy families in the West End. Over 70 families participated in the program last year.
-After this summer, will no longer administer its Summer Campership program for local youth.

Community Outreach Director John Navarra said Portland West will also end its Time Dollar program, saying that it made no sense to have two time dollar programs on the Peninsula. Navarra said that his department needed to go in a new direction, focusing on more skill-based programs. He said that Portland West wanted to become more of a Community Center. He also said that the organization did not have sufficient grant funding to continue the programs.