WCOM homelessness marathon tonight

[sally greene]

Dear friends,

Please tune in to WCOM-FM, Carrboro's community radio station, tonight starting at 7 p.m. for a local segment of a national radio marathon on the issues of homelessness and poverty. The national broadcast of th 11th annual Homelessness Marathon is being broadcast from Nashville:

http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org/

It's a fourteen-hour broadcast highlighting the lives of homeless people and the work of those who are striving to help them. Thanks to WCOM volunteer Audrey Leaden for answering the call to participate. The details are best told by Audrey, as she wrote in her Chapel Hill News column this past Sunday:

"Once WCOM decided to be part of this (and by the way, WCOM will be the only radio station in North Carolina broadcasting the national show), it only took a few phone calls and e-mails to bring together our own local version of a Homelessness Marathon. People like Sally Greene, chair of Orange County's Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness; Chris Moran and Laurie Tucker along with Abdul and Elaine of the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service, Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton, and WCOM's own Ernie Hood, producer of Radio in Vivo, were ready and willing to come on the air to help put the power of community radio behind the effort to raise awareness of the roadblocks that poverty throws in the way of so many of our citizens.

"From 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday night, all of us involved invite you to join in a community conversation by calling 929-9601 to talk about the trauma of being homeless, the extent of the problem, the many causes of homelessness, the slide into poverty, shelters, Section 8, group homes, homeless children and schooling, the situation of those with mental health problems, ways to help and more.

"At 10 p.m. we'll link up with the nationwide Homelessness Marathon, where discussions will focus on homeless veterans, the working poor, generational homelessness and registering homeless voters as well as offering poetry by homeless teenagers. WCOM will broadcast the marathon until Democracy Now starts at 8 a.m. Thursday morning."

I'll be on during the 8 p.m. hour with Mark Chilton. In the hour prior to that will be Laurie Tucker of the IFC with a couple of her clients. Chris Moran, executive director of the IFC, will be on from 9 to 10.

Please call in with your questions and comments. Thanks to Audrey and Ernie at WCOM for making this opportunity for discussion possible. WCOM is at 103.5 on your FM dial--or if you're too far from the low-power signal, you can stream it on your computer. Go to http://communityradio.coop and you're one click away.