New England Center for Civic Life on NHPR

photo from: http://www.franklinpierce.edu/institutes/neccl/index.htm

by Amanda Paul
edited by Abbie Tumbleson

The New England Center for Civic Life’s forum about financial security was featured on New Hampshire Public Radio’s (NHPR) “Working It Out” on Friday at noon.

The program on NHPR talked about peoples’ economic security at this time. The New England Center for Civic Life had hosted a forum in February on economic security with 16 people who were retired, students, unemployed, working class, self-employed, liberals, conservatives and upper middle class.

“There was a full range of point of views,” said Joni Doherty, Director of the New England Center for Civic Life (NECCL). “The forum is a great social value, giving everyday people the change for their voices to be heard.”

The theme for the forum was economic security, chosen by the National Issues Forums Institutes and the Presidential Library, both of which the New England Center for Civic Life is a part of. In the forum, attendees, invited by Doherty, voiced their opinions to what they thought was economic security and how to reach it during this recession.

“Some people believed that neighbors should help neighbors and family should help family, some thought the government should help and others thought the government should step out,” said Heather Oinonen, a junior and an NECCL Civic Scholar.

Doherty invited Jon Greenburg, host of the series “Working It Out” on NHPR, to the forum.

“I sent a forum invitation to Jon Greenburg. I thought it was a nice connection to his show on the economy,” Doherty said.

Greenburg hosted the show on NHPR. Greenburg asked Doherty questions via telephone about the forum on the show. The question for listeners to respond to was, “How are you doing now [financially] and how will you and your children do in the future?” NHPR held a website for people to post, receiving 11 responses online.

“In the forum, there was a lack of expectation from the government,” Doherty said on “Working It Out.” “There was resentment towards big banks and Wall Street. People said they don’t care about us.”

The topic generated many call-in responses, including a florist who felt like she cannot afford to retire and a thirty something man who believed that the government should not spend more money to reach stability.

“No matter what your financial future is, one thing you can always keep with you is an education,” a caller, Richard from Rindge, said.

Responses from the forum can be found on http://www.nhpr.org/node/31679. Contact Joni Doherty at dohertyj@franklinpierce.edu for more information about future forums.