A new bill plans to change how Peoria Police respond to behavioral crisis calls by adding mental health care workers to their emergency team. If it succeeds in Peoria, it has the possibility of becoming the standard statewide. Peoria is…
Articles
Environmental News and Notes | May 2022
by Community Word Staff • • 0 Comments
ISU student recovers usable nutrients from wastewater Senior Illinois State University environmental health and sustainability major Rowan Carroll is addressing the widespread issue of nutrient pollution harming public health and aquatic life through a process she’s developed that not only…
Village people
by Brian Ludwig • • 0 Comments
It takes a village, so it’s been said, to help a community succeed, and Bernice Gordon-Young is literally using that philosophy to help meet her city’s needs. Gordon-Young started It Takes a Village of Peoria, Inc. six years ago and…
Students say ‘Yes’ to a free prom dress and so much more at ITAV giveaway
by Community Word Staff • • 0 Comments
It Takes a Village held its fourth FREE Prom Dress Giveaway on March 19. But that doesn’t come close to describing the atmosphere that president Bernice Gordon-Young and her village people provided for the hundreds of high school students who…
Lawmakers working to improve school lunches
by Joe Deacon of WCBU, Peoria Public Radio • • 0 Comments
An effort to improve the quality of school meals for lower-income and minority students is making its way through the Illinois General Assembly. The Better School Lunches Act has moved on to the Senate after passing unanimously through the Statehouse…
Ray Long to appear at Bradley to promote book on Michael Madigan
by Bill Knight • • 1 Comment
Chicago Tribune reporter Ray Long — whose new book, The House That Madigan Built: The Record Run of Illinois’ Velvet Hammer, was excerpted in last month’s Community Word — is set to appear at Bradley University on Monday, April 18…
ACLU active at Illinois Statehouse
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on March 8 announced lobbying efforts during the General Assembly’s current session. The ACLU is focusing on passing two measures and defeating two others. The statewide group supports HB2452, which would reduce barriers…
Chiefs locked in on playing in Peoria
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Despite the 99-day lockout in Major League Baseball, more than 150 minor leaguers worked out at the St. Louis Cardinals’ Spring Training facilities in Jupiter, Fla. And the Peoria Chiefs expect their Class A squad to arrive in town April…
Ag lab providing tons of fresh produce for local food pantries since 2010
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Since the holidays, catalogs for gardening tools and seeds might have piled up like paper compost, but spring is here, and a group of volunteer gardeners at Peoria’s Ag Lab is preparing this season. “We’re planning and will be getting…
Environmental News and Notes | April 2022
by Community Word Staff • • 0 Comments
Illinois trails goal to cut damage to the Gulf Gulf of Mexico “dead zones” resulting from algae blooms sapping up oxygen are so deadly, fish either flee or die, and Illinois — a huge contributor to the chemical runoffs flowing…