AETN - Conway, Ark. (TV)

Seniors constitute AETN's largest demographic, and are one group particularly affected by the current national economic recession. The station will focus on teaching financial literacy and providing seniors with advice by airing a primetime special in July 2009 where viewers will also be able to call in and access a panel of financial experts. Working with its local partners, AETN will produce and document a "Protecting Arkansas' Seniors" workshop and a "Share Your Story" online component to educate, initiate dialogue and offer access to helpful resources.

KABF-FM - Little Rock, Ark. (Radio)

KABF-FM, serving the minority communities of Little Rock, Ark., will consolidate its programming efforts on the economic crisis. Working with the Arkansas Community Housing Corporation and 10 neighborhood associations, the station will address the key economic issues in the area and connect residents with resources provided by community partners. KABF-FM will use the grant to organize and broadcast a town hall meeting and to create an interactive web page and weekly talk show to engage listeners beyond the meeting and on-air programming.

KNAU-FM - Flagstaff, Ariz. (Radio)

Tourism drove Northern Arizona's economy, attracting millions of visitors annually, but the economic downturn has caused a 27 percent decline in tourism revenue. KNAU-FM, working with the Arizona Daily Sun, Northern Arizona University's research department and business partners, will produce in-depth features to describe and frame the situation. The station will convene public meetings and create interactive Web forums. The listening public will gain an understanding of how tourism drives the regional economy and learn about alternatives to the vulnerable boom-bust cycles of a tourism-based economy.

KAWC-AM/FM - Yuma, Ariz. (Radio)

With a 20 percent population growth and 56 percent of the population of Hispanic origin, Yuma, Arizona sits at the crossroads of several economically diverse cultures. In order to assess and define, "What is Yuma?", KAWC-AM/FM is creating a program based on NPR's local news initiative "Sense of Place." KAWC and its partners will convene a town hall meeting to debate Yuma's sense of identity and assess critical economic issues and resources. The station will produce radio, print and online reports to engage the community, and is exploring a support services fair to connect residents with local resources and businesses.

KRCB - Rohnert Park, Calif. (Joint)

Focusing on already economically depressed neighborhoods in Rohnert Park, California, KRCB staff will train a select group of youth to use video and audio-tape to tell stories about how the current economic crisis is affecting local families. This project will provide at-risk and Hispanic youth with a chance to learn a technical skill while helping their communities; and helps to raise the level of public awareness and discourse so that a sustainable solution can be found. The youth's stories will be posted online and may be incorporated into presentations for local government officials.

KALW-FM - San Francisco, Calif. (Radio)

With its project "The Economic Edge: Documenting the Downturn," KALW News will investigate how the economic crisis is affecting the San Francisco Bay Area, identify employment opportunities and disseminate information resources and develop a community-generated database of solutions. The station will be tapping partner organizations to create an open-forum "solutions wiki, organize citizen reporter street teams to cover neighborhoods throughout its community and build out an online resource amalgamator for job seekers from youth seeking summer jobs to those newly laid-off, to those coming out of retirement.

WLRN - Miami, Fla. (Joint)

Through its Ready To Learn (RTL) program and in collaboration with the Homestead Police Department, WLRN currently provides early childhood outreach to Hispanic-migrant and Haitian populations in the South Dade area. By partnering with the Financial Planning Association of Miami-Dade, WLRN will expand its efforts to the children and parents and educate Haitian and Hispanic migrant families about personal finance. There will be sessions in Spanish and in Haitian-Creole with free childcare and print materials provided in both languages. These "Budgeting 101" seminars will be recorded and the DVDs and print materials will be available for distribution through local community centers.

Jazz 91.9 FM (WCLK-FM) - Atlanta, Ga. (Radio)

Working with business-oriented partners such as the Atlanta Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce and the GA Hispanic Network, WCLK will invite community members to be guests on its "Minding Your Money" show, a weekly call-in financial program that addresses finances and economic issues. The station will feature community partners in on-air announcements and provide them the opportunity to discuss future economic-related programming.

KKCR-FM - Hanalei, Hawaii (Radio)

KKCR serves Kauai, a Hawaiian community very dependent on the travel industry. Starting with face-to-face meetings and progressing to town halls, the station will recruit partners from ten neighborhoods across the island to discuss Kauai's future, draw up an action plan of self-sufficiency, and apply it with specific goals, objectives, and timeframes for each neighborhood. KKCR will also create neighborhood-specific websites to pool information, and will provide regular progress reports on-air. The station hopes to tap local residents and businesses expertise to create a workable action plan for a more economically independent island.

PBS Hawaii - Honolulu, Hawaii (TV)

The current recession has hit Hawaii hard, but there is not much information on what citizens can do to mitigate hardship caused by the economic downturn. In response to viewer requests, PBS Hawaii plans to produce two hour-long programs dedicated to helping its viewers stave off the effects of a declining economy. One show will feature the insights of Hawaiis leading business reporter, and the second will provide economic education for youth and seniors. Both live programs will be viewer-driven, with a panel of local experts answering phone calls, e-mails, and Twitter comments. Viewers ideas will also be integrated into follow-up short-form programs.

Boise State Radio KBSU - Boise Idaho (Radio)

After a five-year boom, 2009 found Idaho fourth in the nation in home foreclosure, with unemployment rates doubling and record numbers applying for food stamps. In response, KBSU is launching "Idaho's Economy in Transition." The Program examines how local communities are addressing economic issues when state services are being cut. The station will host town hall meetings to discuss poverty, hunger and homelessness, airing reports on "Morning Edition" and taking testimonials from listeners. Using this information, Boise State Radio will help to develop a white paper on poverty in the Boise area, offering podcasts and additional materials online.

Illinois Public Media (WILL AM-FM-14TV) - Urbana, Ill. (Joint)

WILL is committed to becoming a community convener for Vermilion, Macon and Champaign Counties. The station will hold community meetings with the general public and direct service providers in each county. Radio and television producers, as well as major gifts and community engagement staff at WILL are interviewing key organizations to determine the counties top three needs and how the economy is affecting those needs. This research will inform the station's weekday call-in programs "Focus 580" and "The Afternoon Magazine," and help to establish WILL as a resource for its community.

WNIN Tri-State Public Media - Evansville, Ind. (Joint)

WNIN's Economic Response Project is a regional effort connecting Evansville's citizens that are experiencing need for the first time due to the economic downturn to available resources. Joining forces with social service and governmental agencies, WNIN-TV-FM is working to de-stigmatize family requests for assistance and to promote community resources. For the next phase of its plan, the station will work on identifying the single largest area of need. WNIN is exploring a call-in show for both radio and TV, a blog, better integrated use of Twitter and Facebook and as more links to vital community services on its website.

Louisiana Public Broadcasting - Baton Rouge, La. (TV)

Louisiana residents have the second lowest credit ratings in the country. To help residents recover, LPB will provide online resources for viewers to get their questions answered about economic issues including credit problems, bankruptcy and mortgage foreclosure. Working with the non-profit Credit Bureau of Baton Rouge, LPB will identify and promote links to additional resources. The station will also be offering a month-long "Ask the Experts" blog, post-Louisiana Public Square chats and a week-long Credit Line Hotline for those without Internet access.

WEAA-FM - Baltimore, Md. (Radio)

WEAA-FM has always dedicated an hour a week to promoting financial literacy and encouraging economic empowerment through its Wealthy Lifestyles series. The station is expanding the series to include a two-hour special featuring an open forum on the housing crisis,specifically foreclosures, that will be broadcast and posted with a bonus segment on the station Web site. The station will create and distribute print materials featuring information from the special for those without access to broadcast or internet.

WKAR - East Lansing, Mich. (Joint)

After losing 277,000 jobs last year, Michigan's 12 percent unemployment rate is the highest in the country. For this reason WKAR Public Media is inviting community and business leaders to attend a day-long Economic Summit to discuss, identify and prioritize mid-Michigan's economic issues and determine the best ways to offer assistance. The station will use online surveys to prioritize the agenda issues and engage a skilled facilitator to lead the discussions. This will help WKAR formulate an action plan to help people identify and address their individual needs.

WTIP - North Shore Public Radio - Grand Marais, Minn. (Radio)

WTIP aims to help its northern Minnesota listeners gain a clear understanding of the growing and urgent problem of local hunger and poor nutrition as part of the larger national economic crisis. WTIP will convene local officials, groups and individuals in an on-air community conversation focusing on what can be done to address the issue afterwards posting the conversation online on a dedicated Web page and continuing the discussion on the community's E-Democracy issues blog. A community vegetable garden will be also created on the station grounds.

KFAI-FM - Minneapolis, Minn. (Radio)

KFAI will use its partnerships with the Strive To Thrive/Northwest Area Foundation and the Minnesota Spokesman Recorder to address housing and mortgage foreclosures in the Twin Cities. The station, which serves more than 20 ethnically, socially and economically diverse constituencies, proposes a one-day conference and follow-up webinar to create a multi-faceted action plan. These events will be recorded and broadly disseminated via live remote broadcast and online media.

KMOJ-FM - Minneapolis, Minn. (Radio)

KMOJ plans to provide its listeners with a better understanding of the current economic crisis and how it affects the Twin Cities' business community, the Twin Cities' black business community and the black community as a whole. The station will use its weekly talk program Financial Fitness, as a vehicle for this project. Keeping with the interactive format of the program KMOJ will expand its community engagement to include blogs and community forums. Working with financial consultants, the station will produce special online reports for posting on KMOJs and its partners websites.

Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. (TPT) - St. Paul, Minn. (TV)

In collaboration with Hamline University, Twin Cities Public Television will produce a live roundtable, in which a panel of diverse, well-informed, but non-expert community members discuss the chief economic issues concerning the region. The discussion will be taped and edited for later statewide broadcast as a half-hour special and will be available as streaming video from both organizations' Web sites. The program will also connect viewers to pertinent local resources.

KMOS Warrensburg, Mo. (Joint)

KMOS will convene an Economic Leadership Summit to identify and discuss the two most pressing economic issues in central Missouri's 38 counties. Partners including Farm Bureaus, local Chambers of Commerce, and family service agencies will convene and develop a community economic coalition that designs an action plan to address the two issues identified. On-air, the station will feature a panel of experts recommended by the coalition to answer callers questions on the KMOS Live! series.

WPRL-FM - Alcorn, Miss. (Radio)

Ninety percent (90%) of the audience in WPRL's service area are African-Americans who live in a rural setting. The per capita income of the service area is less than half of the state rate ($10,500), and the unemployment rate is (13%-18%) four to five times higher than the state level. WPRL will identify and share the concerns of these residents through surveys and town hall meetings with local government officials. The station plans to connect residents with assistance from financial advisers, faith-based organizations and local non-profit organizations.

Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET) - Lincoln, Neb. (Joint)

NET will expand its ongoing coverage of the economy in Nebraska through collaboration with the University of Nebraska's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources/University Extension. They will create a half-hour "Recession Survival Guide" broadcast with ten outreach events, an hour-long radio call-in program, and extensive online and print resources. Topics of concern they have identified include tightening lines of credit, falling commodity prices, declining home and property values, as well as the stress and anxiety due to the economy.

New Hampshire Public Radio (WEVO) - Concord, N.H. (Radio)

"Working It Out" is a special initiative of NHPR to help listeners process societal changes brought on by the recession and recovery, as well as promote the best community instincts of cooperation and mutual aid. The station will work with other organizations to build an online forum that will identify local economic issues, and link individuals and organizations together to address particular concerns. The online forum will provide a clickable state map that features three layers of information: personal accounts, communities efforts to cope, and an exchange of services and job board.

WNYC - New York, N.Y. (Radio)

WNYC will convene African Diaspora citizens and influentials from Brooklyn, New York, and Newark, New Jersey, in strategic discussions on the most pressing economic issues for their communities. WYNC will engage all invitees in advance with a query through its Public Insight Network to identify the central questions and issues for the discussions. WNYC presenters will participate in the discussion events which will be recorded and streamed online.

WXXI - Rochester, N.Y. (Joint)

Working with the Greater Rochester Financial Literacy Coalition, WXXI has developed the children's finance education series BizKid$. WXXI will expand its efforts to adults, holding listening meetings to hear community concerns and educate Rochester area residents on local economic issues. The station will work with the Center for Governmental Research to understand and contextualize housing, credit and other economic statistics for the Rochester community. WXXI's radio, TV and education staff will produce stories and news specials, and use new media and social networking sites to connect residents with local resources and educational workshops.

WCNY - Syracuse, N.Y. (Joint)

WCNY's 19-county viewing area has the highest unemployment rate in New York State, and many central New Yorkers do not know where to get help through this economic crisis. WCNY is planning a "Community Intervention" to connect the jobless population with every possible resource for re-employment and financial recovery. The activities include: a televised town hall meeting, a Web page featuring streamed video segments, an interactive forum and a county-specific "Survival Guide for the Unemployed."

WBGU - Bowling Green, Ohio (TV)

With rising unemployment, closures of auto-related manufacturing facilities, and the failure of new ethanol plants, WBGU-TV initiated discussions to ascertain the economic development issues in its 18-county coverage area. The station will expand this effort through a full-day workshop with approximately 50 community leaders, town hall meetings in four distinct economic regions, and a live call-in program to engage viewer's comments and ideas for future action. Ultimately a working group will create a regional action plan for FY 2010, addressing the top four or five challenges for northwest and west-central Ohio.

Southern Oregon Public Television(KSYS/KFTS) - Medford, Ore. (TV)

Spearheaded by Southern Oregon Public Television, Southern Oregon Town Hall is an existing regional community engagement project that brings opinion leaders and community members together to discuss community issues and uses consensus facilitation to develop strategies to address their concerns. Partnering with local community colleges, the station will conduct a new session focusing on the role of education and the economy. The event will be broadcast live, and will feature a panel of experts and live phone-in capability. The discussion will continue online and in follow-up planning meetings.

WHYY - Philadelphia, Penn. (Joint)

Current data shows strong evidence of a significant threat to the Greater Philadelphia economy in the education and medical fields, which provide 30% of the areas jobs. Partnering with the University of Pennsylvania Project for Civic Engagement, WHYY will convene community-wide forums and workshops addressing the effects that the economic crisis as it directly relates to these two integral sectors. Community members will join panelists from colleges, medical schools, hospitals, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies in discussions and reports, starting a dialogue to be recorded and broadcast across all platforms.

WYEP-FM - Pittsburgh, Penn. (Radio)

Thousands of Pittsburgh students are concerned with paying for college and how the current economy will affect that process. WYEP will launch a multimedia educational series exploring what parallels exist between the home mortgage and student loan industries, and what lessons can be learned to prevent a student loan meltdown. Through a series of videos and podcasts, the station will create a resource for students to avoid financial pitfalls, and will work with a local financial institution to develop or use pre-existing budgeting software aimed at keeping students out of overwhelming student loan debt.

Penn State Public Broadcasting (WPSU) - University Park, Penn. (Joint)

WPSU's "Surviving the Housing Crisis" will broadcast on TV, FM and online a panel discussion and Q & A about the affects of the unraveling housing market in the viewing and listening area and across Pennsylvania. The panel will offer background information and then answer caller and online questions. The program will be archived and segmented online. WPSU will also offer a phone bank with Penn State Cooperative Extension educators to answer "off-air" anonymous questions during the broadcast. The station, Extension and The Affordable Housing Coalition are creating web-based aggregation of resources and tools.

Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting (WIPR) - San Juan, P.R. (Joint)

In Puerto Rico, the median household income ($18,191) is less than half of U.S. median income ($50,000), and it has been greatly affected by the U.S. economy's downturn, as have many Spanish speaking communities throughout America. WIPR will use its program Nueva Economa to focus on the loss of employment and the increase in credit and mortgage debt on the island commonwealth. Partnering with local banks, credit card debt specialists and the credit union association Liga de Cooperativas, WIPR will coordinate a workshop for viewers and provide information and answers to financial questions on the stations website and blog.

KEDT-FM - Corpus Christi, Texas (Joint)

South Texas has seen a strong downturn in its local economy, especially for lower-income Hispanic families involved in the construction industry. KEDT will address the way in which local unemployment is deeply and often tragically affecting the healthcare of young children. Partnering with local health organizations, KEDT will coordinate and broadcast live community forums to provide much needed information on the availability of local health services for children, and to de-stigmatize requests for help. In particular the programs will focus on diabetes, as south Texas has the state's incidence of the disease.

WVPT - Harrisonburg, Va. (TV)

WVPT will create a Community Engaging Partner Committee and empower them to create a survey to identify issues relating to the economy in the area. The survey will be distributed within the community and the results will be compiled to inform the content of television specials under the umbrella of WVPT's local series "Consider This."

KSPS - Spokane, Wash. (TV)

With Spokane facing one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, a reduction of state health care resources by over $1 billion, and 16% of its population below the poverty level, access to community health resources is more vital than ever. In response, KSPS Public Television is partnering with Community Minded Enterprises to provide access to the numerous health care resources for the underinsured and uninsured in the viewing area. KSPS is planning live call-in television broadcasts titled Health Matters, online engagement, as well as on-air interstitials using three digital channels and a community access cable channel.

WVMR (and WLVS-FM) Dunmore, W.Va. (Radio)

For generations, most young people have left the isolated mountain region of West Virginia to seek work, but even the remaining local lumber and ski industries are suffering in the current economy. WVMR hopes to address this crisis by partnering with area weekly newspapers, a citizen-based visioning group, and local government officials in a multi-faced dialogue called Create West Virginia. The station will be sponsoring community meetings, call-in shows and online dialogues to stimulate community involvement and creativity in seeking new ways for West Virginia to re-think and expand its economic horizons. The partners will share findings through an on-air radio program and a report published in the newspapers.