NASHVILLE, Tennessee – June 8, 2010 – Building on the success and popularity of a similar event last year, Nashville Public Television (NPT), Catholic Charities of Tennessee and the Scarritt-Bennett Center invite the community to a free screening of the NPT “Next Door Neighbors” documentary, “Bhutanese” – and get an even better understanding of the people from those cultures when they offer their thoughts and answer questions in a follow-up panel discussion – on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at Scarritt-Bennett Center (Fondren Building). The event is free, but RSVP’s are suggested 615.340.7557 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Scarritt-Bennett Center is located at 1008 19th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37212.

Expected to attend the panel discussion are Bhutanese refugees Yam Kharel, Naresh Dahal and Mon Timsina. Will Pedigo, “Next Door Neighbors” producer, will moderate.

About “Next Door Neighbors: Bhutanese”:

Each year, new refugees with different backgrounds flee a variety of struggles to arrive in cities such as Nashville. They face an utterly new environment and a demanding sacrifice of their history, culture, friends and family.  Every refugee community resettled to Nashville brings a changing combination of assets and challenges, but they are unified by a common aspiration.  They all seek a better life, a permanent solution and a new home.     

The Bhutanese are Nashville’s newest refugee community, and Nashville Public Television offers viewers a chance to see the city through this new community’s eyes with “Next Door Neighbors: Bhutanese.” The documentary is the fourth installment in NPT’s four-part “Next Door Neighbors” series, a recipient of a 2009 My Source Community Impact for Engagement Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

 “The ideals of refugee resettlement are sometimes at odds with reality,” says series writer, director and
producer Pedigo. “The isolation and new environment can be harsher than imagined and the resettlement process can deliver less than expected. For new arrivals, every day is a race against time. After eight months the federal funding ends and the health insurance disappears.  In Nashville and across the US, newly arrived refugees often go unnoticed, until they emerge as contributing residents and eventually Americans.”

In January 2007, the U.S. Department of State announced it would host the resettlement of 60,000 Bhutanese over the next several years to cities across the U.S. The first reached Nashville in July 2008, but most arrived in the middle of 2009.  After their first year in Nashville, almost all of the Bhutanese lived in one southeast Nashville apartment complex.

When refugees first arrive in the U.S. they come with less than fifty pounds of baggage and an airplane ticket they have to repay within three years. Acceptance into the country is secured by the U.S. Department of State, but the local resettlement process is provided through volunteer agencies. In Nashville, that includes Catholic Charities and World Relief.  Placing new refugees in a tight geographical location like a single apartment complex has shown to speed up the resettlement process.

“Next Door Neighbors: Bhutanese” provides a picture of initial refugee resettlement, and examines the birth of a community.  Viewers will learn about the resettlement process through the stories and challenges the Bhutanese face.   

The “Next Door Neighbors” series includes in-depth web content at http://wnpt.org/productions/nextdoorneighbors , public forums and panel discussions after each of the four programs.

“Next Door Neighbors: Bhutanese” is made possible through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s My Source initiative and is supported by the Nissan Foundation and The HCA Foundation on behalf of HCA and the TriStar Family of Hospitals. A partnership with the Vanderbilt University Center for Nashville Studies provided valuable research and community outreach.

Four in Nashville and one in Murfreesboro Join Growing List of  Library Spaces Dedicated to Multimedia Learning

The NPT PBS Kids Raising Readers Library Corner at Edmondson Pike

NASHVILLE, TN – June 8, 2010 – Building on its success at the Edmondson Pike Branch of the Nashville Public Library, Nashville Public Television (NPT) and PBS KIDS Raising Readers, together with the Nashville Public Library and the Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro, is proud to announce the addition of five new NPT PBS Kids Raising Readers Library Corners in Middle Tennessee. The new locations, at the Nashville Public Library area branches in Bourdeaux, Madison, Pruitt and Looby, and in Rutherford County at the Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro, will help children learn to read by offering fun, free multimedia reading activities all summer long.
 
NPT is one of twenty local PBS stations building partnerships and helping to test and develop models to provide caregivers, teachers and parents with access to engaging research-based, multi-platform content, activities and tools. This “Literacy 360” approach surrounds children with opportunities to read, and there’s no place better to start than the public library. Middle TN Libraries with NPT PBS Kids Raising Readers Library Corners, along with the partner libraries of all twenty local PBS Kids Raising Readers stations in the nation, have customized spaces in their libraries for kids to play reading games with their favorite PBS KIDS characters while highlighting and promoting library resources. Most contain books, board games, computer games and DVD clips. Many children will receive credit toward their summer reading program goal. For a complete list of materials in the NPT PBS Kids Raising Readers corner at various area libraries, please contact the libraries listed below.

Existing:

Edmondson Pike Library
5501 Edmondson Pike
Nashville, TN 37211-5808
(615) 880-3957

New:

Bordeaux Area Library                        
4000 Clarksville Pike,                 
Nashville, TN  37218                             
(615) 862-5856

Madison Area Library
610 Gallatin Pike South
Madison, TN 37115
(615) 862-5868

Pruitt Branch Library
117 Charles E Davis Blvd
Nashville, TN 37210
(615) 862-5985

Looby Branch library                        
2301 Rosa Parks Blvd                  
Nashville, TN 37228                            
(615) 862-5867                    
 
And in Rutherford County:

Linebaugh Library
105 East Vine Street
Murfreesboro, TN 37130-3573

About PBS Kids Raising Readers
PBS KIDS Raising Readers is a national literacy campaign focused on building reading skills at home, at school, in child care and in the community. PBS KIDS Raising Readers, funded by a Ready To Learn grant from the United States Department of Education, develops engaging PBS KIDS programs as well as exciting games, playful Web sites, and easy-to-use learning resources for kids, parents, caregivers, and teachers—all with the goal of helping children ages 2 - 8 build the skills they need to learn to read, with a focus on the needs of children from low-income families. All content is built incorporating the latest research about the most effective ways to use media to help kids learn to read.

- “NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis: Infant Mortality” airs June 24 -

 
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – June 8, 2010 –  Infant mortality rates say more about us than simply how many babies will live to see their first birthday. They are an early indicator of what the future holds for the health of our communities.

Tennessee ranks 47th nationally in infant mortality rates, with more than 700 babies dying each year.  Only 61% of babies born in Tennessee have received adequate prenatal care and nearly one in ten babies born in Davidson County are of low-birth weight.  Single mothers, black mothers and urban residents suffer an even higher infant mortality rates.

In “NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis: Infant Mortality,” the second in a seven-part series, Nashville Public Television (NPT) focuses on issues surrounding Tennessee’s infant mortality rates and birth outcomes, talking with policymakers, health professionals and parents.  Hosted by actress, mother of two and Tennessee resident Kimberly Williams-Paisley (“Father of the Bride,” “ According to Jim,” “Amish Grace”) and produced by Will Pedigo (“Next Door Neighbors,” “Living On: Tennesseans Remembering the Holocaust”), the documentary explores what Tennessee’s infant mortality rates mean for its communities, and what we can do to improve birth outcomes for all Tennesseans. It premieres Thursday, June 24 at 8:00 p.m. on NPT-Channel 8 and will be made available at wnpt.net/childrenshealth the following day.

The documentary will be previewed the morning of its premiere, Thursday, June 24, at “Family Reunion 2010: Families and Healthy Beginnings,” a day-long symposium about infant mortality and prematurity to be held at Langford Auditorium at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Together with physicians, local, state and national experts, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, Jr., Williams-Paisley and more expected to attend. For more information, please visit http://www.vanderbiltchildrens.org/familyreunion.

The first installment in the “NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis” series, an overview, can be seen now wnpt.net/childrenshealth.