All Things Local

This month’s episode is an interview with Jessi Haish LaRue, the new executive director of the Glidden Homestead in DeKalb. If her maiden name sounds familiar, it is.  Her 4th great-uncle was Jacob Haish. If you’re from the DeKalb area, you’ve probably seen his name around town and he is often referred to as one of DeKalb’s founding fathers along with Joseph Glidden, I

Welcome listeners of All Things Local to our third season of the podcast and the first episode of 2023. I have some wonderful episodes planned for this year including this one. Brandon Pugh is a former student of mine and since he graduated, he has built his career in volunteer administration at the Egyptian Theatre in DeKalb. As is so common with our guests, this isn’t a career

Welcome listeners of All Things Local. I needed to take a little break from the podcast this fall due to a heavy teaching load and some staffing challenges, which I’m not alone in. Now that the fall semester is winding down it’s time to get back to the podcast and hopefully regular episodes every month in 2023. Thanks for hanging in there with me and I can’t wait to get back

For over 125 years, the St. Charles Public Library has served the community. In 1906, Andrew Carnegie, a library philanthropist, granted the library $12,500 to build a new free public library in St. Charles which had to be matched by $15,000 in local donations. That library still stands as part of a much larger library complex which we will hear about from Edith Craig, the previous

Did you know there are nearly 9,000 units of local government in Illinois? This includes about 3,000 general-purpose governments and 6,000 special-purpose governments. General-purpose governments include counties, townships, and municipalities, and in Illinois, townships make up about 50% of these government units. Townships were one of the first forms of government created in the

This month, I am speaking with Sister Kathleen Ryan, the Executive Director of the Dominican Literacy Center in Aurora. Their programs help women find a voice in this country. The organization began in 1993, in her words, on a shoestring budget and a broken card table. Today, they serve hundreds of individuals each year. We also talk about Sister Kathleen’s personal journey and c

This month, I speak to Frankie DiCiacco, the founder and executive director of The Queer-Oriented Rural Resource Network that is dedicated to helping LGBTQ+ individuals in rural communities access the resources and services they need. In this episode, we talk about Frankie’s own experiences in rural Illinois and how he hopes to change not only access to needed services for LGBTQ+

Welcome to episode 19, an interview with Gretchen Sprinkle, executive director of the Kishwaukee United Way.  In 1887, the model was created in Denver, Colorado to fundraise for local needs and then distribute those funds to local organizations.  First called a charity organization society, then in 1913, the first Community Chest was created in Cleveland, Ohio which was w

The Housing Authority of DeKalb County has been providing affordable housing options since 1946. As a unit of local government with county-wide jurisdiction, but funded by rents and federal grants, not local taxes. They are governed by a five-member, all-volunteer board. They offer four federal programs including tenant-based assistance through the housing voucher program, unit-bas

On this episode, number 17 of the All Things Local podcast, I speak with Tara Russo, Executive Director of Elder Care Services in DeKalb. She shares her personal background and commitment to seniors in our community. Her college education began in nursing but she quickly found that her heart was in social work, and specifically working with seniors. She talks about the wrap-around