New leader: Silverton Together manager passionate about helping families

By Jan Jackson

Brenda Sturdevant hasn’t been manager at Silverton Together long, but her knowledge of family support, experience in community work and her enthusiastic way of looking at things brightens the organization’s future. Sturdevant, a proponent of Silverton Together, its staff and the community, is looking forward to her tenure as manager.

“I am excited, I love my job and I believe in what we are doing together,” said Sturdevant, who is the former grant and program manager for Friends of the Family. “I believe in promoting strong and healthy families and I do believe it takes a community to raise a child.”

Silverton Together began in April 1993 as a group trained by a statewide program called Oregon Together. The state program was designed to help communities assess their own risk factors for adolescent problem behavior and to develop prevention strategies to address them. As Silverton Together evolved it has broadened its vision to a total community approach to wellness – one whose goal is to help Silverton become a place where all generations feel they belong and where all can receive the help and support they need.

A mother of eight children ranging in age from 7 to 27 years old, three in college, one returning from a mission and one getting ready to go on a mission and three still at home; Sturdevant understands the importance of organizations like Silverton Together.

“When I moved to Stayton from Idaho Falls six years ago, I was a single mother with seven children, a pit bull and a cat, looking for a house to rent and no job,” Sturdevant said. “The community reached out and took me in and I now have a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in music,” she said.

“I was empowered and supported and that is exactly how we are trying to help families through Silverton Together,” she said. “There are so many resources available through Silverton Together and so many busy, busy people that care and they are doing it all for the right reasons.”

Today, Silverton Together produces a variety of community resources and throughout the year holds events in cooperation with prominent Silverton organizations, businesses and individuals. Silverton Together provides formats for agencies, businesses, churches, clubs and non-profit groups to discuss community needs and finds corresponding resources, holds parent-education programs, operates the Starfish Mentor Program and Indoor Park.

“Resource Connector Doreen Kelly and Parenting Coordinator Jan Holowati function like human dictionaries and its fun to hear them field the questions they get through the program,” Sturdevant said. “Families and marriages are under attack and our programs help people know where to turn.”
She’s looking forward to working with the community.

“The staff and volunteers were going strong when I walked in here. We are getting lots of new ideas and we are taking them one at a time,” she said.

For information, contact Silverton Together, 421 S. Water St., call 503-873-0405 or e-mail [email protected].