Community Engagement
WILL strives to accurately reflect the communities we serve and to create a web of interconnected knowledge, networks and pathways to individuals and organizations in those communities to improve the health of those communities and deepen our collective impact.
Events
Youth Literature Festival
October 4
Various locations across the Champaign-Urbana community.
WILL is pleased to be part of the first Youth Literature Festival on October 4, sponsored by the University of Illinois College of Education. Meet nationally known authors and illustrators, enjoy storytelling, puppetry, poetry, hands-on activities, book signings and more. Free and open to the public, events will be held at various locations across the Champaign-Urbana community.Visit the Youth Literature Festival Web site.
WILL Community Services
Illinois Radio Reader
For people who are blind or visually impaired: Illinois Radio Reader Descriptive Video on WILL-TV
Closed captioning on WILL-TV
For people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing: Closed-Captioning on WILL-TV
The Public Square
Citizen commentaries on AM580
4:45 and 6:45 pm on Fridays
Share your thoughts on The Public Square, a weekly 3-minute opinion piece from any member of our community on any subject of interest to him/her.
October 10, 2008:
Juan Alvarez on how the two major parties hide the rest of the presidential candidates
Community Projects
See all WILL Community Projects
African-American Life in Central Illinois
A series of WILL-TV specials produced in 1968 and 1969 presented a vivid snapshot of the lives of African Americans in central Illinois. WILL recovered and preserved this archival material with generous support from the University of Illinois Library and the Center for Democracy in a Multiracial Society. Now we are engaging the community in an effort to relate this material to African-American life in Central Illinois 40 years later.
Hoopeston Youth Project
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.
Tornado Safety
Each spring, WILL meteorologist Ed Kieser presents a free tornado safety seminar.
Beyond Brown
WILL AM and TV received a $20,000 grant from the Office of the Chancellor at the University of Illinois to participate in the U of I’s “Brown vs. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Campus Commemoration.” WILL worked with a group of Franklin Middle School students to produce a radio documentary about how the Brown decision affected students in Champaign-Urbana.
Caregiving
WILL-TV and AM 580 worked with area service agencies to provide programming and resources to caregivers.
Decatur Dropout Programs
WILL-TV and AM 580 produced a series of programs looking at the high school dropout problem in Decatur schools.
