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MLK Family Services awards, housing the 413, McGovern on the shutdown

The mural at MLK Family Services in Springfield.

We’re taking a hard look at our communities to see where we might grow and grow better.

In Springfield for the past 50 years, that’s meant MLK Family Services, who’ll bring back their Social Justice Awards on Oct. 18. But celebrating the change-makers in our area is far from all they do at the center. We're joined by President and CEO Shannon M. Rudder, and Ariana Williams, chief of public health strategy and innovation, to talk about the awards, their Be Love Campaign, upcoming HBCU Tours, and more of the ways they remain a foundation to those in Mason Square and beyond.

We’ll also walk around the corner to take a look at the whole western Massachusetts region and the needs the area has in terms of housing. The Donahue Institute at UMass Amherst and Way Finders teamed up and recently released a report of their findings on this issue, which does have some surprises, and we’ll speak with Way Finders President Keith Fairey and Kerry Spitzer, senior researcher at the Donahue Institute, about what they found.

And a government shutdown happened, which is pretty foremost in Rep. Jim McGovern’s mind for this week’s conversation, but we also manage to get his take on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s military rally, and let you all know where you can ask your questions of the congressman yourself in person very soon.

Christopher “Monte'' Belmonte is host and executive producer of NEPM's The Fabulous 413. He was born and raised in Massachusetts and has been a radio host in western Massachusetts for the last 20 years — the last 17 of them as host of Mornings with Monte on The River 93.9/WRSI.
Kaliis Smith is a radio host and producer for NEPM's The Fabulous 413. She was most recently host and producer at The River 93.9/WRSI where she appeared on Mornings with Monte for the Nerdwatch segment and hosted weekday evenings.