For the People

This segment represents the first of our monthly 'Women Farmers In Focus' series promoting the International Year of the Woman Farmer. Get to know the first of about a dozen Connecticut women farmers that For the People will be featuring throughout 2026 as we engage with Jen Halfinger of Halfinger Farms and Dancing Daffodils in Higganum!

Meet our new Connecticut State Troubadour. Besides learning more about him, we'll tap into all the creative ways he hopes to promote and provide musicians and songwriters with greater visibility, as well as ensuring these musical creatives are able to be so much more than starving artists when it comes to getting fairly compensated for gigs.

Did you know 2026 is the International Year of the Woman Farmer? Connecticut has a lot to celebrate when it comes to our venerable women farmers, so we're connecting with the Commissioner of the state's Department of Agriculture to cover a number of related subjects - and to help us kick off our year-long series focusing on local women farmers.

Did you know 2026 is the International Year of the Woman Farmer? Connecticut has a lot to celebrate when it comes to our venerable women farmers, so we'll be connecting with the Commissioner of the state's Department of Agriculture to cover a number of related subjects - and to help us kick off our year-long series focusing on local women farmers.Then we'll raise collective voices and introduce our new Connecticut State Troubadour. Besides learning more about him, we'll tap into all the creative ways he hopes to promote and provide musicians and songwriters with greater visibility, as well as ensuring these musical creatives are able to be so much more than starving artists when it comes to getting fairly compensated for gigs.And, as promised, we'll bring you the first of our monthly 'Women Farmers In Focus' series promoting the International Year of the Woman Farmer getting to know the first of about a dozen Connecticut women farmers that For the People will be featuring throughout 2026. So put down roots for a few more minutes and enjoy a visit with Jen Halfinger of Halfinger Farms and Dancing Daffodils in Higganum!

We're continuing with our celebration of the YMCA's 175th Anniversary visiting with a couple of representatives from the Northern Middlesex YMCA. This centrally located Y has a lot to offer, along with a chance for hearty supporters to to take the plunge for a purpose by participating in their 12th Annual Chill for Change.

Whether you work or volunteer at a nonprofit, or just like supporting them - we're going to introduce you to the Connecticut philanthropic entrepreneur who brought us 'Shopping Anyway' - an innovative app that assists nonprofits with a place to list all their needed goods while helping kind people looking to make an impact with a place to find non-profits to support.

For the People is sharing a ton of accurately sourced details about insurance as we welcome the Connecticut Insurance Department's Interim Commissioner, who will be covering a range of related subjects and reminding you about his department's brand new online Consumer Information Center.

Today's For the People is going to put heavy focus on - and share a ton of accurately sourced details about insurance with the Connecticut Insurance Department's Interim Commissioner, who will be covering a range of related subjects and reminding you about his department's brand new online Consumer Information Center.Then - whether you work or volunteer at a nonprofit, or just like supporting them - we're going to introduce you to the Connecticut philanthropic entrepreneur who brought us 'Shopping Anyway' - an innovative app that assists nonprofits with a place to list all their needed goods while helping kind people looking to make an impact with a place to find non-profits to support.And we'll close continuing with our celebration of the YMCA's 175th Anniversary visiting with a couple of representatives from the Northern Middlesex YMCA. This centrally located Y has a lot to offer, along with a chance for hearty supporters to to take the plunge for a purpose by participating in their 12th Annual Chill for Change.

For the People is visiting with a couple of old friends representing the CT Food System Alliance. If you work in a restaurant, grocery, educational or institutional food service, we need you to be part of the Local Food Count - a New England initiative tracking local food spending to build a stronger and sustainable local food system while working toward a regional goal of 30% food self-sufficiency by 2030.

Check out our chat with associate professor Lauren Tucker about her work and her graduate elective class at Southern Connecticut State University. They have taken up a mission to add easier-to-use switches on toys that are then presented to teachers to use in their classrooms. Listen and learn why these modifications are so important.

For the People is proud to join the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA in celebrating 175 years of community building in 2026, as we welcome their current executive to discuss the organization's past and where it's headed. Tune in and find out why the Y is far more than a gym - it's a lifeline, a gathering place, and a trusted partner through both life’s challenges and its celebrations.

For the People is proud to join the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA in celebrating 175 years of community building in 2026, as we welcome their current executive to discuss the organization's past and where it's headed. Tune in and find out why the Y is far more than a gym - it's a lifeline, a gathering place, and a trusted partner through both life’s challenges and its celebrations.Then, we'll chat with associate professor Lauren Tucker about her work and her graduate elective class at Southern Connecticut State University. They have taken up a mission to add easier-to-use switches on toys that are then presented to teachers to use in their classrooms. Listen and learn why these modifications are so important.And we'll close visiting with a couple of old friends representing the CT Food System Alliance. We'll have an informative conversation about the New England State Food System Planners Partnership Local Food Count - a New England initiative tracking local food spending to build a stronger food system while working toward a regional goal of 30% food self-sufficiency by 2030.

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.

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.Then, 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.And we'll close with a conversation about breast cancer research, and 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. 

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.