Comm 2320
Basic Reporting for the School of Communication at ECU

Jessica Gagne Cloutier is the Service-Learning coordinator at East Carolina University. Her main responsibility is to support and serve as the campus liaison for service-learning. Her other responsibilities are providing support for students enrolled in classes that utilize service-learning pedagogy, and assisting faculty with the entire service-learning process (from educating them on what service-learning is [...]

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Katie Benson is Assistant Facility Manager and Volunteer Coordinator/Fundraising for the Humane Society of Eastern Carolina. Her start in the Humane Society was a bit unconventional. She started volunteering and it than led to a full time position. “A friend of mine is on the Humane Society board and asked me to volunteer for a [...]

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The Communications 2320 course at East Carolina University focuses on basic reporting. This includes the fundamentals of journalism, whether through print or the multimedia. The course is taught by Bernard Timberg and his evolution of the course has seen community benefit through service-learning and the development of students’ self-awareness and community awareness through personal and professional reporting.

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The following contains a powerpoint presentation exploring the reality of homelessness in the U.S., and examines the ways the Greenville Community Shelter is combating the issue.
The Greenville Community Shelter

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Greenville, located in the eastern part of North Carolina, is the home of the East Carolina University Pirates. In 2007, the population of Pitt County was estimated to be 76,058. With the increase of East Carolina University’s student acceptance rate, Greenville grows every year by the thousands. Greenville is the fastest growing [...]

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With a rising unemployment rate and a declining economy, finding work has become a job in itself. The most vulnerable are those who have trouble finding work even in stable economic conditions. STRIVE is an organization that seeks to prepare the hardest-to-employ individuals for finding long-term work.
STRIVE stands for “Support Training Results In Valuable [...]

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As of April 2008, the mining company PCS Phosphate has applied for the purchase of new land in Beaufort County, NC. The Pamlico-Tar River Foundation (PTRF) as well as numerous other environmental advocacy groups have condemned the acceptance of this permit due to its planned destruction of large amounts of state wetlands and stream [...]

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Every city and town has non-profit community organizations. The non-profit organizations in Greenville is unique in it targets a wide range of people through a wide range of programs. The persons in charge of these organizations are busy and do not restrict their jobs to a 9-5. There is always a need and always a community organization ready to serve that need. President Barack Obama started as a community organizer. He too understood that one must have a united community, a community that trusted and supported the efforts and initiative of change. Greenville has that community support which makes many of these organizations successful even with economic obstacles. It takes very special people to work for as well as with the community. These people have been profiled to get a better understanding of why they do it and how others can get involved.

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In 2004 the FDA and EPA issued a joint advisory that suggested people should watch which fish they eat, and how much they eat due to some high levels of mercury in fish. Mercury is very toxic to unborn or young children.
Women of childbearing age, pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under 15 years old [...]

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There is no doubt about it, the climate in our world today is changing. The threat of global warming is weighing down on our society more than ever. Many people choose to ignore this issue. However, it is a problem that needs to be addressed now, before it is too late.
I have spent time researching [...]

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Some non-profit organizations have been around for years. Many of them have national organizations that serve as the blueprint for how they should be run. Citizens against an OLF is very different. It is a Grassroots Organization in Gates County, NC. Their goal is to prevent the Navy from building an outlying landing field in [...]

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The Pamlico-Tar River in the recent years has been under a tremendous amount of distress with the issue of storm water runoff. Storm water runoff affects not only drinking water but also swimming areas and even the wildlife that roam the waters.
Storm water runoff occurs when precipitation from rain or snowmelt flows over [...]

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The STRIVE youth program, or Project Center Stage, was a very interesting organization. It has a lot to do with STRIVE but they are also so different in many ways. They call it Project Center Stage because they want all eyes to be on the kids as their main focus of attention. [...]

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As Dominique clocked in for work, she hurried to the deli department located in Food Lion. Crisp, nicely creased khakis’, nice blue polo, and a name tag that read: Dominique. Her friendly personality escaped as she greeted customers with “Hello what can, I get for you today.”
Dominique is one of the 2,000 individuals that [...]

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Imagine having to fight the navy to save your community. A fight that if lost would effect your home, jobs, children and health. This is the current situation for the citizens of Gates County, North Carolina.
Gates County is a rural community located [...]

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The Pitt County Council on Aging (CoA) has started to develop a framework to promote an initiative they hope to begin implementing within the next five years. Maureen McNamara, an ECU graduate and the CoA’s Programs Coordinator, just recently became very passionate about helping Greenville and the surrounding areas of Pitt County improve their infrastructure [...]

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Greenville does not necessarily have a problem with students dropping out in general, because the majority of students are enrolled at the University seeking higher education degrees. However, among the North Carolina grade school population, the ratio is significantly different.
In 2005 in North Carolina alone, over 38,000 students dropped out before their graduation date. [...]

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The Council on Aging in Pitt County provides many services to the seniors in the area. They stay active in helping the community and educating the public about the issues that seniors face and teaching them to be more tolerant and understanding. This presentation shows the aspects of the Council on Aging.
Council On Again Presentation [...]

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The Council on Aging deals with many different kinds of issues that seniors face. This presentation gives a closer look on the meals and wheels program, title v, the issue of social security and how volunteers play a vital role in this organization.
Council on Aging Presentation II

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Girl Power is a national program that is currently serving girls in four of the schools in Pitt County. Their main goals are to teach girls to take an interest in their talents and interests, teach them that it is perfectly alright to express themselves and let them know they are just as worthy as [...]

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Shawn Moore is the Community Partner Coordinator at East Carolina University. She is responsible for making sure community partners and the people they serve are served well and in a meaningful way by our students. Ensuring the students are safe and gaining insight and significant experiences, growing student leaders, developing long lasting relationships within the [...]

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“It should not hurt to be a kid.”
Child abuse is the maltreatment of a child. It can be physical, emotional, and sexual or neglect.
Shaking, hitting, beating, burning or biting are all involved in the physical aspect of child abuse. Can you imagine dreading to come home from school because you know what is waiting [...]

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STRIVE is a program that helps adults in the Greenville community learn necessary skills to enter the job force. My focus on the report was a current STRIVE student, Erica. Although Erica has only been in the program for a week, she had a lot to say about what she was learning and [...]

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1. What is an Outlying Landing Field?
Have you ever been in a county that has only one stoplight? Welcome to Gates County, a rural community at the Chowan River. In 2008, the Navy decided to put an Outlying Landing field (OLF) in Gates County. An OLF is a concrete landing strip where the naval pilots [...]

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BackPack Pals is a partner of the Communities in Schools of the Pitt County organization. Even though the organization has been around for about 15 years, BackPack Pals just started in Pitt County the first week of March of this year. Heather Rhodes is in charge of this process and only has a staff of [...]

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The National Humane Society deals with issues not only in the US but across the world. The society tries to help the animals everywhere. There is always controversy with the Humane Society. Everyone does not agree with some of the things that goes on inside the society or some of the issues [...]

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Non-profit organizations depend on people in the community to volunteer or donate supplies and money. It’s not surprising that in the tough times that are creeping in from the economy that non-profits like the Humane Society of Eastern Carolina are struggling with making ends meet.
The adoption numbers since 2006 have slowly been descending and [...]

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Animal Cruelty is a growing problem throughout the world. Fortunately, it’s an easily solved problem,but sadly people are failing to treat animals correctly on a daily basis. Animal cruelty is defined, as an act of violence or neglect perpetrated against animals. Abuse and dog/cock fighting like the Michael Vick Case, are excellent examples of this. [...]

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The Pitt County Council on Aging provides advocacy and assistance to older citizens in the area. The nonprofit organization strives to meet the needs of individuals who do not have the capability or the resources to sustain themselves. One way the Council on Aging does this is through a program called Meals on Wheels.
The program [...]

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Meals on Wheels is a great program serving the seniors of Pitt County. Meals on wheels delivers about 300 meals every day to homebound at risk elderly. The philosophy and purpose of meals on wheels is to help maintain and improve the health of impaired homebound elderly. They do this by having [...]

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As the average age of Americans continues to rise, the economy continues to take a turn for the worse. The famous “Baby Boomer” generation continues to increase in age and as they do, the average age of Americans continues to rise.
A couple of baby boomers have different approaches to how they are going to [...]

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TEDI BEAR Child Advocacy Center

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A typical day for a 55-year-old citizen in Greenville, N.C. or Washington, N.C. may include going to the store and picking up groceries or possibly picking up the grandchildren from school – try telling that to those involved with the Title V program.
This program exists through the Council on Aging, which has been around [...]

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Therapy for TEDI Bear
What is therapy? Therapy is defined as the treatment of disease or disorders, as by some remedial, rehabilitating, or curative process.
Therapy for TEDI Bear patients is extremely important for the child’s road to recovery from sexual abuse. The main purpose of Therapy is to teach the children that they are [...]

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Children in the judicial system
Testifying in court is very stressful for children. Studies show that children have little to no understanding of the legal process. This intimidating and fast paced environment of a courtroom can have traumatic effects on a child. In order to protect children from the confusing and sometimes abusive process of testifying, [...]

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The TEDI BEAR Children’s Advocacy Center facility is supported by both ECU and the Pitt County Memorial Hospital. It was established in 1991 and has provided direct services for more than 7,000 alleged child victims in eastern North Carolina. Currently, the 17 member staff provides care to victims to minimize systematic induce trauma, build [...]

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Joyce Jones is the Executive Director of STRIVE as well as the Executive Director of LIFE of North Carolina. According to the Web site based out of New York “STRIVE, which stands for Support and Training Result in Valuable Employees, is a recognized innovative leader in job-readiness programs combining attitudinal training with fundamental job skills, [...]

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As a child advocacy center, “TEDIbear” works not only to help children after they have been sexually abused; they also work to prevent sexual child abuse from happening.
“TEDIbear” works to prevent sexual child abuse by educating parents, caregivers, and professionals about [...]

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The TEDI Bear Children’s Advocacy Center is dedicated to providing child abuse education, prevention and treatment to children and families in need. According to the organization’s website, the center is an accredited member of National Children’s Alliance. TEDI Bear has been located in Greenville, N.C. since 1992 thanks to a pediatrician, along with [...]

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Children in America are lucky enough to have access to free education from kindergarten through twelfth grade. However, these years are not so easy for many students. Whether the odds are against them from the very beginning, or they fall off at some point in their career, students tend to hit an array [...]

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The Communities In Schools organization of Pitt County offers many programs to students to help get the most of their education. These programs are put in place not only to ensure that they stay in school, but also to provide assistance in learning the necessary skills to enter the work field or post-secondary schools.
A [...]

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Have you ever visited your local Humane Society? If you have, you might have noticed different people partaking in different activities with the animals in the shelter. These people are most likely volunteers who take time out of their busy lives to help with these homeless animals.
The Humane Society of Eastern Carolina has [...]

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