Category Archives: Community

Hope Village: The North End Community Speaks Out

Posted on 02/23/2025 by Melinda Carr and Jackie Curry and Darleen Bailey

The north-end community acknowledges that Champaign-Urbana is facing a growing population of homeless individuals. We fully understand the need, and benefits, of the Hope Village development. We realize it is vital that empathy be shown for the homeless and a … Continue reading →

178 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African American, African Americans, Community, homeless, Local Resources, Section, Urbana, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged African American community, development, homelessness, local planning, neighborhood activism, Urbana City Council | Comments Off

October Issue Back Cover

Posted on 10/17/2024 by Public i

FRIDAY FORUM + CONVERSATION CAFÉ Fall 2024 Series Please join the University YMCA and Diversity & Social Justice Education for our Fall 2024 Friday Forum + Conversation Café series. We will hear from community leaders tackling our most pressing public … Continue reading →

Posted in Community | Tagged Friday Forum, University YMCA | Comments Off

Remembering Irfan Ahmad

Posted on 07/29/2024 by Roveiza Irfan

Longtime Urbana resident Irfan Ahmad passed away on May 2 due to complications from a chronic lung condition. He was 66. Ahmad immigrated from Pakistan in 1989 to pursue his graduate education in agricultural engineering at the University of Illinois. … Continue reading →

729 total views

Posted in Community, health care, Immigrants, Islam, Local Resources, Peace movement, social services, Voices | Tagged community health, disaster relief, Immigrants, interfaith outreach, local activism | Comments Off

IMC Holds a Second Public Safety Forum

Posted on 05/03/2024 by Jane McClintock

On March 24, the UCIMC hosted a second public safety forum focused on alternative responses to traditional law enforcement. The forum was organized in accordance with calls from Urbana residents and elected officials for a study of alternatives to traditional … Continue reading →

1,680 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Community, Crime, Justice, Police, police accountability, Policing, Section, Uncategorized, Violence, Youth Services | Tagged community action, police accountability, policing, public safety, public services, youth services | Comments Off

Canada Goose Population Control: Homeowner Associations Become Experts—Print Version

Posted on 05/02/2024 by Karen Medina Viktoria Ford and Penny Hanna

See the full version of this article here. Spring is a good time to consider the giant Canada goose and methods of population control that are legal and humane. Canada geese (Branta canadensis maxima), like all waterfowl, are protected at … Continue reading →

762 total views

Posted in Animal Rights, Community, Environment | Tagged Animal rights, community action, cruelty to animals, environment, geese | Comments Off

Canada Goose Population Control: Homeowner Associations Become Experts—Long Version

Posted on 05/02/2024 by Karen Medina Viktoria Ford and Penny Hanna

Spring is a good time to consider the giant Canada goose and methods of population control that are legal and humane. March is breeding time. Male and female breeding pairs separate from the flock and become very protective of their … Continue reading →

442 total views

Posted in Animal Rights, Community, Environment | Tagged Animal rights, community action, cruelty to animals, environment, geese, local environmentalism | Comments Off

As Police Budget Swells, Safety Forum Articulates a Different Vision

Posted on 02/12/2024 by Jane McClintock

Crime is going down in Urbana, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at Urbana’s police budget. After a $2.25 million increase in the police budget in the last two years—largely for salary increases and bonuses—Urbana leadership is pushing to … Continue reading →

1,546 total views

Posted in Community, Crime, Justice, Police, police accountability, Policing, Section, Violence, Youth Services | Tagged community action, police accountability, policing, pubic safety, public services, youth servicesccountability | Comments Off

Remembering Jim Holiman, Local Activist Mentor: Rest In Power

Posted on 02/11/2024 by Rick Boyd

Before there were cell phones, or the internet or Zoom, campus activism in C-U was alive and well. Posters and word of mouth brought people of conscience together for strategy sessions and social justice cultural events at the Illinois Disciples … Continue reading →

664 total views

Posted in Community, Religious radicalism, Remembering, Sanctuary movement, Vietnam War | Tagged activism, anti-Vietnam war, In Memoriam, religious radicalism, Sanctuary movement | Comments Off

Winter Issue Back Cover

Posted on 02/11/2024 by Public i

Spring Semester Friday Forum Schedule Friday Forum is in its 98th year at the University YMCA! In recent partnership with Conversation Café, the program is a weekly forum to learn about and discuss pressing public concerns while enjoying free lunch from the Y … Continue reading →

452 total views

Posted in Community | Tagged community events | Comments Off

Community of Urbana-Champaign Cooperative Housing to Reduce the Post-Pandemic Youth Housing Divide

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Marilena Prisco

Housing cooperatives have a long history in the US. In university towns like C-U, those laboratories of young people assume new importance in the post-pandemic city. Escaping the logic of a typical landlord-tenant agreement, members self-manage and maintain the houses … Continue reading →

995 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Community, Cooperative, Homelessness, Housing, Students, Voices, Youth Services | Tagged community, cooperatives, homelessness, housing, housing crisis, student housing, youth housing divide | Comments Off

Who’s Your Family?

Posted on 02/10/2023 by C. Owen

Having just survived the winter holidays, the stressors and supports brought about by family could not be more present in our minds. However, for some of us in the American workforce, even the discussion of our loved ones at home … Continue reading →

1,356 total views

Posted in Community, Human Rights, LGBTQ, Politics, Section | Tagged community, family, human rights, LBGTQ+ | Comments Off

Remembering David Monk

Posted on 02/10/2023 by Glen Martin

David Monk, 91, died on December 2, 2022. For a detailed account of his life and accomplishments, refer to the News-Gazette article published on July 13, 2022, soon after he went into hospice care. It is not easy to summarize … Continue reading →

2,956 total views

Posted in Community, Environment, Environment, Section | Tagged activism, environment, local community, prairie preservation | Comments Off

Sola Gratia Farm Grows Good in CU

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Fiona Munro

Here in Central Illinois, we’re surrounded by prime farmland—miles and miles of crops, primarily corn and soy, growing on some of the most fertile soil in the world. And yet, approximately one in seven adults and one in five children … Continue reading →

684 total views

Posted in Community, Environment, Food Insecurity | Tagged community gardens, Food, food security, sustainable agriculture | Comments Off

Kathryn J. Oberdeck (January 18, 1958–June 8, 2022)

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Jim Barrett

Kathy was a passionate fighter against all forms of inequality. She combined an unwavering commitment to the highest intellectual standards with a selfless dedication to community and family. She was a prolific historian of poor and working-class people, particularly their … Continue reading →

742 total views

Posted in Community, Education, Remembering, Women | Tagged education, In Memoriam, local activism | Comments Off

Juneteenth 2022 at Randolph Street Garden

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Public i

Seitu Ken Jones, a multidisciplinary artist who believes in the power of public art to link the past and present, spent 2020–21 as a visiting artist at the UIUC Center for Advanced Study. He returned this past June to work … Continue reading →

Posted in African American, African American history, African Americans, Community, Local Arts, Voices of Color, Youth | Tagged African American history, Juneteenth, local community, youth | Comments Off

The Public i: Countering Hegemonic Mass Media Narratives

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Fatou Jobe

I have always wondered how the Public i, which operates under one of the few Independent Media Centers (IMCs) that still exist in the United States—the UCIMC—has been sustainable for two decades despite the growing dissolutions of Indymedia centers worldwide. … Continue reading →

896 total views

Posted in Community, Corporate media, IMC, Media, UCIMC | Tagged alternative media, corporate media, Indymedia, Public i, UCIMC | Comments Off

The Congolese Community of Champaign County

Posted on 02/09/2022 by John Matanda Tshipama

We are the Congolese Community of Champaign County. The estimated number of Congolese living in Champaign County is more than 6,000 persons. Our mission is to support each other and help our children learn about the country, as well as … Continue reading →

2,486 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Champaign County, Community, Immigrants, Immigrants, Voices | Comments Off

A Conversation with Urbana Poet Laureate Ashanti Files

Posted on 11/12/2021 by Public i

The Public i recently talked to Urbana Poet Laureate Ashanti Files Please tell our readers a little about yourself. “I am a wife, mother, and registered nurse. I currently work in mental health and addiction services. I enjoy reading, writing … Continue reading →

1,130 total views

Posted in African Americans, Arts, Community, Local Arts, Poetry, Voices of Color, Women | Comments Off

The Nest Postpartum Support

Posted on 09/22/2021 by Paige Raab

Five years ago, my world turned upside down after the birth of our first son. What should have been the happiest day of our lives turned into one crisis after another, a transfer to a hospital two hours away, and … Continue reading →

995 total views

Posted in Community, health care, Voices, Women, Women | Comments Off

The Ubuntu Project and the Need for a Progressive Shift in Policing

Posted on 09/22/2021 by Alex Horton

Ubuntu is a term that originated with the Zulu people and roughly translates to “humanity” in English. The term emerged as a political concept following apartheid’s disintegration in South Africa. Now a collective of local community members, scholars, clergy, and … Continue reading →

1,846 total views

Posted in African Americans, Community, Justice, police accountability, Police Brutality, Policing, Voices of Color | Comments Off