Stories/Programs

  1. The Role of the Community College in the Educational Process

    How are community colleges attuned to their locales, particularly during tough economic times? David Inge and listeners talk with Alice M. Jacobs, Ph.D., President of Danville Area Community College and Gayle Saunders, Ph.D., President of Richland Community College. (Story air date: Thursday August 06, 2009)
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    Tags: Education

  2. How to Emotionally Survive the Loss of a Job

    David Inge and listeners talk to Robert L. Leahy, Ph.D., Author of The Worry Cure: Seven Steps to Stop Worry from Stopping You, about how the loss of job is both a grieving process and an opportunity. (Air date: Wednesday, August 12, 2009)
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    Tags: Unemployment

  3. Parkland College’s Workforce Development Services

    David Inge and listeners talk with Minor W. Jackson, Executive Director of Workforce Development at Parkland College. (Story air date: Friday August 14, 2009)
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    Tags: Education, Unemployment

  4. How the Economy is Affecting Illinois’ Seniors

    David Inge and listeners talk with Mike O'Donnell, Executive Director of the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging. (Story air date: Wednesday August 19, 2009)
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  5. How the Economy is Affecting Adults and Children in Champaign-Urbana

    David Inge and listeners talk with Andre Arrington, Executive Director of Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club in Champaign, Illinois. (Story air date: Thursday August 20, 2009)
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  6. Helping Put Food on the Table: Food Banks, Food Pantries, Shelter, and Soup Kitchens in East Central

    Celeste Quinn and listeners talk with Jim Hires, Executive Director of the Eastern Illinois Food Bank, Scott Olthoff, Financial Counselor at Salt & Light Ministry, and Marie Brown, Salt & Light Ministry Volunteer and Recipient. (Story air date: Friday, August 21, 2009)
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    O Tags: Food Banks

  7. Financial Health in Tough Times

    Celeste Quinn and listeners talk to Mitchell Allen, Valerie McWilliams, and Kathy Sweedler about financial health in tough times. Mitchell Allen, Founder and President of Debt Education and the Debt Education and Certification Foundation; author of A Survival Guide to Debt: How to Overcome Tough Times & Restore Your Financial Health. Valerie McWilliams, J.D., Managing Attorney at the Champaign Office of the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation. Kathy Sweedler, Consumer and Family Economics Educator at University of Illinois Extension. U of I Extension Tough Times website: http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/toughtimes/. (Story air date: Wednesday, August 26, 2009)
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    Tags: Finances

  8. Tracking New Directions for Displaced Workers

    In central Illinois, many employers large and small have downsized or closed altogether, forcing thousands of laid-off workers to consider new options. Jeff Bossert looks at the retraining of workers. Ingenuity and government-funded training are giving many of them a jump on a new career, or a better shot at an old one. (Story air date: Thursday, August 27, 2009)
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    Tags: Unemployment

  9. Meeting Those Who Asked for Help

    Organizations that help the poor in east-central Illinois are giving out more and more assistance. But there may be many people who for some reason or another have not made that call for help. Tom Rogers introduces us to people who decided to make the leap and reach out for aid, and people who encourage others to do so. (Story air date: Wednesday, August 26, 2009)
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  10. Looking at the Burden on Food Banks

    With the economy shaky and unemployment up, more people are turning to food pantries for help in getting enough to eat. In east-central Illinois, food pantries -- and the regional food bank that supplies them -- say more people are coming to them for help, some of them for the first time. Jim Meadows reports. (Story air date: Tuesday, August 25, 2009)
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    Tags: Food Banks

  11. 500 Attend Federal Reserve Roundtable in Decatur

    Officials with the Federal Reserve say they’re committed to returning to Washington with proposals for modifying mortgage loans, and foreclosure mediation. But they also want to hear more from communities hit the hardest by the mortgage crisis. In Decatur over the weekend, about 500 people from the region heard from the enterprise that creates monetary policy. They also had a chance to apply pressure for changes in lending practices. Jeff Bossert reports. (Story air date: Monday, August 17, 2009)
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  12. Tracking New Directions for Displaced Workers

    In central Illinois, many employers large and small have downsized or closed altogether, forcing thousands of laid-off workers to consider new options. In our latest report as part of our outreach project “WILL Connect: The Economy”, AM 580’s Jeff Bossert looks at the retraining of workers. Ingenuity and government-funded training are giving many of them a jump on a new career, or a better shot at an old one.
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    Tags: Education, Unemployment

  13. Looking for and Landing a Job in Tough Economic Times

    Celeste Quinn and listeners talk with Richard Nelson Bolles, author of the classic What Color Is Your Parachute? A Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers, and The Job-Hunter's Survival Guide: How to Find Hope and Rearding Work, Even When "There Are No Jobs." (Story air date: Wednesday, August 28, 2009)
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    Tags: Unemployment

  14. 75,000 people in eastern Illinois live in poverty. What Should We Do About It?

    A rich discussion of the major systemic issues creating poverty and hunger--and what organizations in central Illinois can and should be doing to address them. With audience questions. Hosted by Dave Dickey of Illinois Public Media with Steve Anderson, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Donna Camp, Director, Wesley Evening Food Pantry; Senator Mike Frerichs, IL General Assembly, District 52 (Champaign and Vermilion Counties); Jennifer Hrycyna, Skadden Fellow and Staff Attorney, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law; Lyn Jones, CEO, United Way of Champaign County; Kate Maehr, President of the Board, Feeding Illinois and Executive Director, Greater Chicago Food Depository;Amy Terpstra, Senior Research Analyst, Social IMPACT Research Center (formerly Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty). The 2009 Hunger Symposium was sponsored by the Eastern Illinois Food Bank.
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    Tags: Food Banks

  15. Survey Finds Soaring Demand for Food Pantries in East Central Illinois

    “Explosive growth” is how the Eastern Illinois Food Bank describes a more than doubling of food recipients over the last four years. The food pantries in 14 counties supplied by the food bank report more than 100 thousand people received food from them last year. That’s 133 percent higher than the number of recipients in 2005, the last time the “Hunger in America” study was compiled. Jim Hires directs the Eastern Illinois Food Bank. He says his agency saw an identical increase between 2001 and 2005. Hires believes the economic downturn is partially to blame for the continued increase, but he also thinks his agency and member food pantries are doing a better job of finding those in need. “Our numbers were going up anyway because of our efforts to reach more people,” Hires said. “Even at our best effort we were still only reaching about half of the people who are in need. So we were taking steps. Couple that with the recession and all of a sudden it just ballooned almost out of control and really had us scrambling to meet the need.” Hires says a change in federal commodity policy has led to more surplus food going to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank, letting the agency use its money in creative ways to find more food.
    Audio coming soon.
    Tags: Food Banks