Heart of Illinois United Way

Community Programs

Our Home Improvement Program provides an affordable (usually no cost) source of home repairs for homeowners in the center South Side of Peoria. As our crew members repair the homes, they learn new skills and enhance their own employability.

Other programs benefiting the center South Side of Peoria include:

  • S.H.A.R.E. host site. "Anyone who eats, qualifies." Participants purchase a food order for less than half the retail cost of the food and also volunteer two hours of their time.
  • Emergency food pantry. Run by adult literacy students as volunteers. Residents can receive food up to three times a year.

 

The Big Read: Peoria Reads!

Peoria Reads in a one book cone city project instituted and led by Common Place and the Peoria Public Library. In 2007, the Peoria Reads joined forces with The Big Read. Books selected from previous years are:

2002 – A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest J. Gains
2003 – The Reappearance of Sam Webber by Jonathan Scott Fuqua
2004 – The Speed of Light by Elizabeth Rosner & Four Perfect Pebbles by Lila Perl & Marion Blumenthal Lazan
2005 – Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde
2006 – Nickled and Dimed: On Not Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
2007 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2008 – Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2009 - The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
2010 - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Please visit The Big Read: Peoria Reads website, www.BigReadPeoriaReads.org, to find out more.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.
This program is sponsored in part by Friends of Peoria Public Library.
This program is made possible in part by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Illinois General Assembly.
This program/project has been made possible, in part, by a grant from The Yeomans Fund of the Community Foundation of Central Illinois.

 

Common Place Family Learning Center
514 S. Shelley Street, Peoria, IL. 61605
(309) 674-3315 - Phone    (309) 674-0627 - Fax
commonplace@sbcglobal.net

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