For the People

Check out our conversation about breast cancer research, how one student at Fairfield University worked closely with her professor to discover how natural plant-derived compounds can help combat breast cancer, and how she will soon be presenting her findings on a national stage. 

As we have been reporting - demand for youth mental health care is rising, and families are facing long wait times.  So we'll chat with a leader at McCall Behavioral Health Network about how they're utilizing a new grant to address treatment delays and shortfalls by expanding access for youths ages 8–17 who are at risk of emotional distress, self-harm, or substance use.

We're opening our 2026 For the People program year with our community partners at AARP Connecticut. We'll clue you in on how you can access funds for a quick turnaround project to improve livability and quality of life in your community, and hear about AARP's agenda for the 2026 state legislative session.

This week we're wrapping up our look back at some of the key segments For the People presented during 2025.

We don't do a lot of singing on the award-winning For the People, and when we do it's usually singing praises for great organizations and today is no different as we replay interviews and songs we captured during our visit with some talented and inspiring singers inviting you to lend your voice to the coed Coastal Mix Barbershop Chorus.

Then, earlier last year, we covered groundbreaking news in the Naugatuck Valley addressing mental health crisis response in a whole new way. We engaged two representatives from Griffin Hospital to talk about the health center's development of their since opened EmPATH behavioral health unit - providing more effective, compassionate care for individuals who come to the ER experiencing a mental health crisis. So we'll bring you replays of those conversations back-to back.

We're continuing our look back at some of the most important For the People segments of 2025 and we'll start with: Preservation Connecticut - which turned 50 this year. Tune in and check out how they're going to continue sustaining and preserving critical buildings, sites, even social and cultural practices that helped shape the state we live in.

Then we'll replay our visit with the Women's Mentoring Network. This nonprofit serving Fairfield County and beyond, is providing foundational skills for individuals to secure better employment options and encouraging individuals to seek educational opportunities as they look to become economically empowered.  

And we'll close replaying our introduction of Art Pharmacy - an organization becoming active in Connecticut enabling personalized social prescribing services with healthcare, university, corporate, and government partners to address the nation’s most intractable health challenges.

Before we start rolling out our look back at some of the key segments For the People presented during 2025, we've got a new and important subject to open the show: DataHaven - the New Haven-based research non-profit recently released its latest community well-being survey, and it presents some really interesting counterpoints, bad news, and good news about how Connecticut is feeling  So, tune in and learn if you're feeling like thousands of your neighbors and other state residents as we head for 2026.

Then we'll start our look back at how For the People has helped inform, educate, entertain, and engage you throughout 2025, with a reply of an interview with SCORE of Western Connecticut. No matter where you live, SCORE chapters and volunteers are waiting to advise you on ways to successfully launch or grow your business - all at virtually no cost to you

Our second encore segment features our introduction of cARTie - a nonprofit mobile art museum bus bridging inequities in education and arts access by partnering with local community organizations to provide families and children with exciting art and museum adventures.

In case you missed it, two of our state's regional Council of Government or COG offices recently hosted a public webinar presenting the final Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP) for Southwest Connecticut - and there are still ways for you to offer public comment about it. So we visited the Western Connecticut Council of Governments to learn more about the basics on the plan, the resources required to make improvements, and to help you understand this climate action plan better, so you can weigh in with informed questions and comments.

We recently visited the Chapel Haven Schleifer Center - a nationally accredited nonprofit in New Haven that empowers adults 18 and over with autism and other developmental disabilities to live independent, self-determined lives. We met the center's director, and got to chat with two inspiring residents on the spectrum who recently completed a journey to Africa where they both participated in climbs on Mt. Kilimanjar- Africa’s tallest peak - and the world’s largest free-standing mountain. So, tune in and get their perspectives on the trip and their views from the mountain!

First, we headed out to the Chapel Haven Schleifer Center - a nationally accredited nonprofit in New Haven that empowers adults 18 and over with autism and other developmental disabilities to live independent, self-determined lives. We'll meet and hear from the center's director, and chat with two inspiring residents on the spectrum who recently completed a journey to Africa where they both participated in climbs on Mt. Kilimanjaro …Africa’s tallest peak and the world’s largest free-standing mountain! Tune in and get their perspectives on the trip and their views from the mountain.

And in case you missed it, two of our state's regional Council of Government or COG offices recently hosted a public webinar presenting the final Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP) for Southwest Connecticut - and there are still ways for you to offer public comment about it. So we are bringing in the Deputy Director, Western Connecticut Council of Governments to learn more about the basics on the plan, the resources required to make improvements, and to help folks throughout the region understand this climate action plan better, so they can weigh in with informed questions and comments.