Lifting Up Children and Families: Child Welfare in the Ocean State

On Thursday, June 23, 2016 at 8 p.m., Rhode Island PBS presents Lifting Up Children and Families: Child Welfare in the Ocean State. In three segments, three different panels examine services provided by the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). Rhode Island Public Radio health care reporter Kristin Gourlay hosts the one-hour special.

CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION

The first segment focuses on child abuse prevention and community-based resources, with Jamia McDonald, chief strategy officer for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and acting director of DCYF, Rob Archer from Child & Family, and Anne Murphy, a Child Protective Services investigator for DCYF. 

FOSTER CARE SYSTEM

In segment two, the conversation turns to Rhode Island's foster care system and features Lisa Guillette from Foster Forward, and foster parent Mary DiBiase from Providence. Over the years, Mary has supported more than 20 foster children, and adopted six. One of those children, Mary's adopted daughter April Patrick, joins the panel.

THE FUTURE OF CHILD WELFARE

The third segment takes a look at the future of the state's child welfare system. Jamia McDonald returns to the panel, and is joined by Chris Behan from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Rhode Island Kids Count's Elizabeth Burke Bryant.

Between the in-studio segments, foster children will share comments about their experiences in foster care. 

Four-Part Super Skyscrapers Featured in June on WSBE Learn

As urban space shrinks, we build higher and faster than ever before, creating a new generation of skyscrapers. Super Skyscrapers are pushing the limits of engineering, technology and design to become greener, stronger, smarter and more luxurious than their predecessors.

In this four-part series, Super Skyscrapers follows the creation of four extraordinary buildings, showcasing how they will revolutionize the way we live, work and protect ourselves from potential threats. Super Skyscrapers airs on Tuesdays in June, beginning June 14 at 9 p.m. on WSBE Learn.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on 36.2; Rhode Island cable: Cox 808, Verizon 478, and Full Channel 109; Massachusetts cable: Comcast 294 or 312.

About the Episodes 

One World Trade Center
One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the western hemisphere and a famous modern landmark, is engineered to be the safest and strongest skyscraper ever built. This episode follows the final year of exterior construction, culminating with the milestone of reaching the symbolic height of 1,776 feet. For head of construction Steve Plate, as well as scientists, engineers, ironworkers and curtain wall installers, this is a construction job suffused with the history of the site and a sense of duty to rebuild from the ashes of Ground Zero.

Building the Future 
Commonly known as “the cheese grater,” the Leadenhall Building is the pinnacle of London’s avant-garde architecture. Designed as a tapered tower with a steel exoskeleton, it’s the tallest skyscraper in the City of London and the most innovative. The teams behind the Leadenhall project had to radically rethink every aspect of the traditional building model. This program follows the monumental challenges that come with erecting this super skyscraper: it will be constructed off-site, delivered to location, and stacked and bolted together like a giant Lego set.

The Vertical City
Shanghai Tower isn’t just a skyscraper — it’s a vertical city, a collection of businesses, services and hotels all in one place, fitting a population the size of Monaco into a footprint the size of a football field. Within its walls, residents can literally work, rest, play and relax in public parks, looking up through 12 stories of clear space. Not just one, however, but eight of them, stacked on top of each other, all the way to the 120th floor. When complete, the structure will dominate Shanghai’s skyline, towering over its neighbors as a testament to China’s economic success and the ambitions of the city’s wealthy elite.

The Billionaire Building
Upon completion, One57, on Manhattan’s 57th Street, will rise more than 1,000 feet, making it the tallest residential tower in the western hemisphere and boasting spectacular views of Central Park. “One57” follows the teams tasked with creating New York’s most luxurious residential skyscraper and their ambition to redefine luxury living the big city. Condominiums at One57 showcase state-of-the-art interiors — double-height ceilings, full-floor apartments, bathrooms clad in the finest Italian marble and the finest material finishes.

Prescription Drug Abuse: Legal Epidemic That's Devastating Your Town, Your Neighborhood, Your Home

For those who suffer illness or injury, medications that relieve debilitating pain are miracles of
modern science. But the dark side of the miracles looms larger and more dangerous than anyone could have predicted just a decade ago.

Nationally and locally, we face rampant epidemics of both opioid addiction and overdose - not of street drugs acquired in back alleys, but of medications prescribed for legitimate reasons by trusted doctors.

So, how did we get here? More importantly, what can we do about this health crisis that is devastating families and communities, taxing an over-stressed health care system, and threatening public safety?

These questions and more will be examined from the medical, social, and legislative perspectives on Friday, June 17 at 8 p.m. in a special Rhode Island PBS production, Prescription Drug Abuse on Community Conversations. Panelists will also take questions from the studio audience during this live broadcast.

United States Senator for Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse will discuss the recently passed Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act he coauthored with Senator Ron Portman of Ohio.

“In Rhode Island, I’ve seen addiction touch people in all walks of life, reach communities big and small, and claim far too many lives,” Senator Whitehouse said upon the bill’s passage. “This bill treats addiction like the illness it is. The bill will help states give law enforcement officers, health care providers, family members, and all those on the front lines of this battle a better shot at success,” said Whitehouse.

Also on the panel will be Elinore McCance-Katz, M.D., chief medical officer at the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals (BHDDH); Papatya Tankut, R.Ph. vice president of pharmacy affairs at CVS Health; and Fred Trapassi, Jr., vice president of Rhode Island programming at Phoenix House. The moderator will be Nicole Muri from Rhode Island PBS.

The public is invited to be in the studio audience to watch the live broadcast at Rhode Island PBS, 50 Park Lane in Providence, RI. Space is limited and advance reservations are required. Interested public may register through visit ripbs.org. Light refreshments will be served at 7 p.m. before the broadcast from 8 - 9 p.m.

Prescription Drug Abuse is made possible by CVS Health, and is a presentation of Community Conversations, a Rhode Island PBS public affairs series about issues that impact our individual and collective well-being and quality of life in Rhode Island.

Carol Burnett's Favorite Sketches - Yours, Too?

Join beloved funny lady Carol Burnett as she presents her personally-selected favorite moments from her long-running variety series The Carol Burnett Show on Saturday, June 4 at 8:30 p.m.

Laugh along with Carol and her hilarious troupe of regulars Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner, and special guests Steve Martin and Betty White.

In addition to classic skits and characters, several of the sketches Carol selected are from the first five years of the series and have not been seen in decades.  To be featured: 

• “As the Stomach Turns: Close Encounters”
  The soap opera parody pokes fun at the alien visitation classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind with guests Steve Martin and Betty White.

• “The Dentist”
  The famous sketch with Harvey Korman as the very first patient of nervous dentist Tim Conway, who just got out of dental school and accidentally injects himself with Novocain.

• “Went With the Wind”
  Ranking as of the greatest sight gags in TV history: Starlet O’Hara (Carol) appears in a dress made from curtains in this famous Gone With The Windparody.

• “Nora Desmond: The Commercial”
  Carol satirizes Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard as an actress looking for a career via a Knock ’Em Dead bug spray commercial.

• “The Oldest Man: Galley Slaves”
  Slave ship taskmaster (Lyle Waggoner) assigns a rowing partner in the form of “The Oldest Man” (Tim Conway) for one of his men (Harvey Korman).

• “The Family - Sorry!”
  Eunice, Ed and Mama sit down for a nice little game of Sorry! and things get ugly fast, causing Mama to lay into Eunice with the put-down “You got splinters in the windmills of your mind.”

• “Tudball and Wiggins”
  Mr. Tudball and his secretary Mrs. Wiggins are up to their old shenanigans trying to implement a fire safety program.

• “As the Stomach Turns: Mother Marcus”
  A hilarious visit from the most notorious snoop in Canoga Falls.

After the June 4 premiere, Carol Burnett's Favorite Sketches airs on June 12 at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, June 16 at 10 p.m. Please check your local listings for additional dates and times.