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Students from Hoopeston Area High School will host a town
hall meeting to bring youth and adults together to talk
about problems and concerns in the community. The meeting is
at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 25, in the Hoopeston City Hall
council chambers.
WILL AM-FM-TV and its partners, Prairie Center Health
Systems and the City of Hoopeston, have been working with
students and community leaders in Hoopeston to increase the
community’s collective knowledge of the area’s challenges,
services currently offered, and gaps that need to be filled.
Two earlier town hall meetings for and by youth and several
for adults started the process of creating an action plan
for the community.
WILL began discussions with both young people and community
leaders in Hoopeston last October, in conjunction with
WILL-TV’s airing of the PBS documentary series Country
Boys about two teenage boys trying to overcome the
poverty and family dysfunction of their childhood in rural
America.
Hoopeston Issues of Concern
In Hoopeston, both teens and adults raised the issue of
substance abuse as a particular concern. WILL-AM 580 News
examined the challenges faced by teens in Hoopeston with a
series of reports by news director Tom Rogers in January.
His reports can be accessed at the WILL-AM Website, http://www.will.uiuc.edu/am/countryboys.htm.
WILL outreach coordinator Kimberlie Kranich said a steering
committee of Hoopeston youth have been surveying their peers
and will present their findings at the third town hall
meeting. “With a little training and encouragement from
supportive adults, the youth have taken a leadership role.
They are inspired and inspiring. One of the things they want
and I suspect they’ll get, is a one-on-one mentoring program
in their schools,” Kranich said.
Bringing Adults and Youth Together
Shannon Ruh, economic development director and graduate
intern for the City of Hoopeston, said planning the town
hall meeting acted as a tool to bring community leaders and
youth together. “It has also given the youth a voice in the
community and a way to express their enthusiasm for what
Hoopeston has to offer and the direction they would like to
see the community go,” she said.
Betty Seidel, director of development at Prairie Center
Health Systems, said, “Prairie Center is pleased to be
partnering with WILL, the City of Hoopeston and its future
leaders in a community engagement that draws upon this
community's strengths and offers hope for a brighter
future."
Ruh asked adults in the community to make it a priority to
attend the meeting to support the youth. “They are anxious
to share their findings with you, receive your input, and
work together to move the community forward,” she said.
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