PSU Magazine Fall 1987

Browning, director of the Helen Gordon Child Development Center, and Cathleen Smith, PSU psychology professor. The letter described a recent trip by Smith to a national con– ference on work and family issues. "Almost invariably," the letter stated, "when conferees learned Smith was from Portland State University, the response was, 'Oh, isn't that where Art Emlen is?' or 'We're using Art Emlen's work ..."' The institute has taken on a voluminous number of social research projects over the years, covering mental health, vocational training and employee problems, but it is probably the work in foster care and family issues that has kept the RRI alive when so many other institutes of its kind have fallen by the wayside. R RI was established in 1972 by the School of Social Work at Portland State with a grant from the Social and Rehabilitation Services section of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. It was part of a nationwide federal program to establish research centers in each region of the country to study social welfare and vocational rehabilitation issues. In 1971, PSU had submitted a proposal to the federal government for an institute for child welfare. No word came to the University until a day in 1972 when Elliot Richardson, then the head of HEW, spoke at the Portland City Club and announced that PSU got the $100,000 grant. RRI's first project involved the prevention ofjuvenile delinquency in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Idaho. But within a year, the Social and Rehabilitation Services depart– ment was disbanded and the regional institute concept was suddenly on shaky ground. Emlen took over the directorship from its founder, Ed Mech, made the institute more broad-based and sub– mitted proposals to the federal government that enabled the institute to keep going. Soon, the government assigned RRI to represent all the western states in vocational rehabilita– tion and job placement for the handi– capped. The vocational rehabilitation program ran 10 years, enabling RRI to RRl director Art Emlen outlive all the other regional institutes in the country. The institute is housed in what was once a cafeteria in The Ondine build– ing at the corner of S.W. College St. and Sixth Ave., and includes the offices of some 30 staff, faculty and student researchers. Where there once was a serving line is now box upon box of research data in the form of surveys and computer printouts. Computers are used so extensively at RRI that the Graduate School of Social Work offers a course there on the use of computers in research methods. "It's a good internship," said Emlen. "It's a kind of practical research you don't get very easily." The survival of the institute depends on its ability to get grant monies for its various projects. Luckily, RRI has been able over the years to lay the ground– work for projects that the federal government continues to find valuable. When those projects come up for bid, RRI has a ready reputation to rely on and in most cases is the pre– ferred candidate. Of RRI's total budget, 60 percent comes from federal contracts, 20 percent from Portland State, 15 percent from private founda- PSU MAGAZINE PAGE8 tions, and 5 percent from state and local contracts. "One of the criticisms of a project that relies so heavily on outside sources is that you're led by what monies are available. But in reality, a lot of what the federal government wants to fund is determined by asking us what needs to be done. Often it's closely related to what we're already doing," Emlen said. The process of writing grants is continuous and is shared by all the people involved in the various projects. No one person is assigned the arduous job. "A good grant proposal wins because it has fresh ideas and reflects the background and abilities of the people involved. If it has a grantsman– ship quality to it, it's dull," said Emlen. By getting a whole group working on a grant, the creative juices flow freely, "but it's a real gutbuster every time," he said. RR! has been able to lay the groundwork for projects that the federal government con– tinues to find valuable. S om~ of the institute's current projects are: • Corporate-sponsored surveys of employee child care. • Development of methods of helping three-generational families, spon– sored by the Fred Meyer Charitable Trust, and conducted in coopera– tion with the Westside Youth Service Center and Neighborhood House. • A series of studies of child protec– tive services and of prosecution of child sexual abuse offenders in Oregon, conducted for the Child– ren's Services Division. • Evaluation of teen mothers programs. • A national study of success and failure of family services as an alternative to placement of children in foster care, with the University of Iowa.