News Release

CHAPEL HILL -- To explore the causes, consequences and changing nature of poverty and its impact on the state, North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC is producing "North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty." This radio project will feature a series of reports, documentaries and call-in programs that will air on WUNC April 11 through 22.

"North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty" seeks to address two central issues: what is poverty and how has poverty changed in North Carolina in the past 40 years?

The series looks back as far as the early 1960s, when N.C. Gov. Terry Sanford launched the North Carolina Fund, a five-year initiative to fight poverty in the state. The fund became a model for the national "War on Poverty" and broke ground by facing head-on the links between poverty and race, challenging the economic and political power structure of the Old South and creating ways for poor people to help themselves.

The goals and strategies of the North Carolina Fund were very much a product of the era. "North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty" will examine how times have changed and what these changes mean.

The series will use a variety of narrative forms – including long-form documentaries, audio portraits, news features reports, interviews and call-in programs – to give listeners access to competing perspectives about what poverty is and how poverty is changing. This documentary and expanded news project will air within the station’s broadcasts of National Public Radio’s "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" and during the North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC-produced midday talk program, "The State of Things."

"As we began to examine the issue of poverty, it became clear that people have many different perspectives on how poverty should be defined and measured," said Emily Hanford, senior editor and producer at North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC and project director for the "Understanding Poverty" series. "We hope the series will raise questions and stimulate conversation about this complex, often difficult-to-discuss issue."

The series extends an approach piloted by the station in 2001 to transcend daily news coverage by taking an in-depth, multifaceted look at complex issues that deeply touch the lives of North Carolinians, Hanford added.

Previous "North Carolina Voices" series – "The State of Aging," "Looking for Work" and "Touched by War" – also examined relevant topics from many different angles. Each won awards for excellence in broadcasting.

"North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty" is being produced by a diverse team of veteran and emerging journalists, editors and producers. The reporting staff includes members of the award-winning news team of North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC, in addition to independent reporters and producers from around the Southeast.

Throughout the course of two weeks in April, North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC will broadcast:

· Half-hour documentaries on the North Carolina Fund and on dental care for people who are poor;

· Audio portraits that put a human face on the problems facing people living at or near the poverty line today;

· News feature reports on issues as diverse as the financial costs associated with being poor and the problem of hunger statewide;

· A "North Carolina Voices"/Elon University poll on perceptions of poverty, conducted by the Elon University Center for Public Opinion Polling (www.elon.edu/e-web/elonpoll/). The poll results will be used to help ground conversation in reports and interviews; full results will be posted at www.wunc.org; and

· Interviews and call-ins on "The State of Things," on topics as diverse as the legacy of the North Carolina Fund, the relationship between poverty and health and the changes in public opinion concerning poverty.

The "Understanding Poverty" project will include a special Web site and photography exhibition: "North Carolina Voices: Picturing Poverty Past and Present," on display beginning April 14 in Bay 7 at Durham’s American Tobacco Campus. Featured in the exhibition will be the work of Billy Barnes, photographer for the North Carolina Fund and for the series. More information is available at www.americantobaccohistoricdistrict.com.

All audio from the series, a slideshow of the photography exhibit, additional photo galleries, archive material and links will be online at www.wunc.org.

Support for the series comes from the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Doug and Peggy Abrams, the Julian Price Family Foundation, Maupin Taylor P.A., the Michael and Laura Brader-Araje Foundation and the North Carolina Humanities Council.

North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC is the National Public Radio affiliate licensed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It operates a five-station radio network serving more than 280,000 listeners each week in communities from Greensboro to the Outer Banks. North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC has the largest public radio news staff in North Carolina and produces programs including "The State of Things" and "The People’s Pharmacy." North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC news and information format can be heard at 91.5 FM in the Triangle and Triad, at 90.9 FM in the Rocky Mount/Wilson/Greenville area, and at 88.9 FM along the Outer Banks.

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Note: Contact Hanford at (919) 962-9151 or ehanford@wunc.org.

UNC News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu