10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, August 26, 2010

By LESLIE PARRILLA

The Press-Enterprise
Two years ago when a commission of women listened to community concerns in Riverside County, what they heard focused on senior citizens and rent-controlled housing.

This year, the concerns centered on youth at the second legislative forum held Thursday by the Riverside County Commission for Women.

The daylong forum at the County Administrative Center in downtown Riverside offered nonprofit organizations and county residents a chance to voice their concerns about what the county needs, related to women, children and families.

A handful of women described their organizations or tasks forces and asked the eight commissioners for help and legislative support.

"As you can see, so far, the topic seems to be about our youth, our young people," Commissioner Lori Stone said. "Today was about legislation, to educate us about the needs."

The women's commission recommends legislative policy to the Board of Supervisors. The county created the commission in 1976 in response to a federal mandate for increased attention on women's issues.

"By having someone come before the commission, we get our facts straight... to discuss what legislation supports these organizations," Stone said. "If there's legislation that comes about... is this good for us?"

Thursday's forum coincided with Women's Equality Day, the 90th anniversary of women in the United States winning the right to vote.

Information collected Thursday will be sent to California Baptist University in Riverside for research purposes and then the findings will be presented to the county executive office.

A handful of women spoke during the morning session, representing nonprofit organizations and groups supporting everything from breast cancer patients to foster youth and families of prisoners.

Barbara Tooker asked the commission for support with a pilot project for foster youth. The task force heading the project -- Temecula Area City, County, School Partnership Foster Youth Task Force -- aims to link city, county and school resources for foster children.

The target age group is children 13 years old to the time they become employed making more than minimum wage. The project boundaries are youth who live within the Temecula Valley Unified School District boundaries.

"It's helping to plow the road, so these kids take advantage of every opportunity available to them that every other kid has," Tooker said.

Foster children can qualify for free college tuition, life-skills classes and other benefits they and foster parents may not know about. The task force hopes to create a model other counties could use.

"We have huge issues with foster youth," Tooker said. "Seventy percent of foster youth want to go to college, 10 percent go and 1 percent graduate."

Kim Goodnough is director of Michelle's Place in Murrieta, a breast cancer resource center that provides medical services to uninsured people and other resources to all groups. She asked the commission to prevent future cuts to breast cancer services.

"I'm hoping they talk to legislators or whoever they can to not make anymore cuts to the Every Woman Counts program," Goodnough said about the cancer detection program that serves low-income people.

Demand for services at Michelle's Place tripled after the state made cuts to Every Woman Counts this year.

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