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.

 

Peoria Reads! Presents The Bid Read

Peoria Reads is a one book one 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

The 2009 selected book is The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

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.


Ways You Can Help

  • Tutor a child one to four afternoons a week during the school year. Please call Shirley, 674-3315

  • Tutor adults one-on one or in a small group.

  • Help us cut expenses by donating basic items needed:
    paper towels, toilet paper, liquid hand soap, Lysol disinfectant spray, liquid dish soap, paper/foam plates & bowls, plastic forks & spoons, & paper napkins.

  • Donate Items Needed for Winter - hats, gloves, mittens, scarves, earmuffs, & blankets for children & adults.

  • Help Common Place supply a basic toiletries bag to program participants. items needed are: bars of soap, deodorants, toothpaste, toothbrushes, combs, hair brushes, picks, shampoo for both Caucasian and African-American type hair, conditioner, dental floss, hand lotion, & laundry soap.

  • Donate non-perishable food items or a monetary gift to our food pantry. Items needed are canned meats, canned soups, canned vegetables & fruits, pasta, pasta sauces, canned ravioli, baked beans, pork & beans, macaroni & cheese, rice, muffin mixes, pancake mixes, peanut butter & jelly, pudding & gelatin mixes, cereal, oatmeal, cereal bars, & crackers. Donation of brown paper grocery sacks also appreciated.

  • Wallpaper a bathroom in one of our after school program houses, or pain a storage room in our main building.

 

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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