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.
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.
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.
