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The People's Museum
The People's Museum
Rhode Island Spotlight
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Highlighting Community Heroes
With an exclusive partnership with WPRO 630 AM and 99.7 FM, Rhode Island PBS Television, and the Providence Journal newspaper, Jim can now provide on multiple media outlets the insightful journalism he has developed over 35 years in the Rhode Island market.
Would you like to suggest an organization for a Spotlight video?
Contact Jim directly at Jim@rhodeislandspotlight.org
Seeking Higher Ground
Since 2008, a nonprofit in the heart of South Providence, has been serving marginalized communities - with a focus on immigrants and refugees from Liberia and other West African nations who have relocated to Rhode Island. This month, Jim Hummel introduces us to the founder of the organization, who has walked in many of their shoes.
Rising To The Challenge
For the past 25 years the nonprofit Rhode Islanders Sponsoring Education has provided scholarships, and mentors, for hundreds of children with parents who have gone to prison. RISE has a focused mission of helping these young men and women with the special challenges they face. As Jim Hummel finds out this month: the results have been impressive.
Learning Together
Long before the word inclusion made its way into mainstream vernacular, Meeting Street was showing the educational world how it looked. Walk into many of the brightly-colored classrooms at the non-profit school’s sprawling campus and you can discover the secret sauce for yourself: students with varying abilities - and disabilities - learning together. This month, Jim Hummel takes us inside the building you can't miss driving south through Providence on Route 95
Making Connections
For more than a decade the nonprofit organization Beautiful Day has provided job training skills for 150 refugees from two dozen countries around the world by having them make - and market - signature granola recipes. The program has trainees making connections with the community, each other, and ultimately potential employers.
Changing Lives
For more than half a century, a social service agency in Cranston has stayed true to its mission of fighting the War on Poverty. From Head Start preschool classes and a food bank, to a furniture donation exchange and an array of health services, the nonprofit Comprehensive Community Action Program served 40,000 people in need last year. This month, Jim Hummel takes us inside the agency that everyone knows as CCAP.
A Helping Hand
Hundreds of Rhode Islanders working at restaurants, hotels and in the tourism industry have gotten a helping hand over the past 18 months from a special fund created by the a nonprofit arm of The Rhode Island Hospitality Association. Its mission is to give financial help to those with unexpected expenses. Jim Hummel introduces us to the manager of a Providence restaurant who woke up one day in a hospital bed after undergoing emergency neurosurgery.
Primed For Success
For the past century Junior Achievement of Rhode Island has reached more than 400,000 K-12 students across the state, teaching them about workplace readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship - something that many don’t learn about in their regular school classrooms. The nonprofit organization, which has adapted to changing times, technology and the kids it serves, was positioned to pivot to a digital platform when the pandemic hit in March. Jim Hummel shows us the before - and after.
The People's Museum
The century-old Westerly Armory is a tribute to Rhode Island's military history - one of 18 historic armories spread across the state. But over the past three decades one of the town's native daughters has worked to transform it into a place where locals and visitors can learn about the community's history as well. This month Jim Hummel takes us inside the largest gathering spot in South County and explores the rich collection of memorabilia.
Welcome Home
In the military, you often have to improvise. So a contingent of active and retired Rhode Island National Guardsmen got creative when the Coronavirus threatened to derail a welcome home gathering
Giving Back
What began as a single meal to celebrate the construction of a new parish center at a church in North Providence has evolved into 25 years of feeding the homeless, the hungry and those needing to stretch a paycheck. This month Jim Hummel introduces us to the St. Anthony Kitchen Ministry - and some of those involved, who talk about a quarter-century of providing more than a meal.
Telling The Story
A stroll through downtown Westerly can tell visitors and residents a lot about the rich history of this nearly 350-year-old community. A dozen murals in Westerly - and four in neighboring Pawcatuck, Connecticut - remain a conversation starter two years after they went up during a five-day painting festival in the fall of 2017. Bricks & Murals, the nonprofit that was the driving force behind it, completed another project this past summer called The Harmony Trail. Jim Hummel has the details in this month’s Spotlight.
Changing Behavior
For more than a decade a nonprofit organization based on Aquidneck Island has been advocating for the protection of access to the coastline, and working toward a healthy ocean free of marine debris. It’s a mission that combines education and action, and has resulted in Clean Ocean Access having an impact not only in its backyard but around the region. This month, Jim Hummel takes a look at some of the events that are putting mission into practice.
A Profound Impact
Over the past three years a new approach to fighting drunk driving has played out online and on Rhode Island’s airwaves. The Ripple Effect and Beyond the Crash - a series of commercials that takes a deeper look into those affected by drunk driving crashes - are deliberately uncomfortable to watch, with stories about how the tragedies have left an indelible mark on those involved. This month Jim Hummel speaks with the crew that created and produced the commercials, as well as the director of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, which is financing the campaign, about the effect of the public service announcements.
Filling A Need
When you think about someone who is homeless, what it is that comes to mind? The picture has changed dramatically over the years as an increasing number of families and people who have jobs find themselves with nowhere to live. And if you’re an unaccompanied woman - someone with no children or partner - resources are hard to come by. Crossroads Rhode Island is trying to address the special need for the female homeless population.
Music For Everyone
Every week thousands of people descend on the Rhode Island Philharmonic’s Music School in East Providence, where nearly a third of the nonprofit’s students receive financial aid. But the organization’s reach goes far beyond its own walls, through a variety of partnerships. This month, Jim Hummel sits down with students, teachers and the school’s top administrator to talk about the effect the organization has had on the community.
Comforts of Home
It’s a dilemma many families face when their child is in the hospital: finding a place to take a break, get something to eat or share with other parents. One couple’s experience with their own daughter’s cancer treatment was the inspiration for a special space they helped create on the fifth floor of Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence. This month Jim Hummel introduces us to The Izzy Room.
Giving Hope
On any given night, more than 1,100 people are homeless in Rhode Island. For the past 30 years, the House of Hope has been trying to get those living in shelters or on the street into housing. This month, Jim Hummel finds out the nonprofit does it in a number of ways: from street teams that go to where the homeless are staying - to a new mobile shower unit that has helped draw hundreds and connect them with much-needed medical services and put some into a place they can call their own.
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