
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 4, 1995                   TAG: 9502070026
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TAP TAKING FORUM TO THE AIR

Total Action Against Poverty is joining the talk-show circuit - not to entertain with the standard talkfest fare, but to help empower Roanoke's neighborhoods with an exchange of concerns and visions.

``Roanoke Roots,'' a monthly hour-long show, will debut Feb. 28 on WBRA-TV, Roanoke's public television station. The show will be hosted by Martin Jeffrey - TAP's director of community development and outreach.

``I see it as a kind of project that could be the microwave of cooking better communities in the Roanoke Valley,'' said Ted Edlich, TAP's executive director. ``It will speed up the process.''

Edlich said the show is intended to provide a forum for the ``visions, hopes and dreams'' of people in the Roanoke community.

``Housing deterioration isn't the problem of Southeast,'' he said. ``Crime isn't the problem just of Northwest. The problem of young people not having places to go where they can be inspired is not the problem of Old Southwest alone. They are problems shared by everyone.

``Power comes with these neighborhoods standing together and saying, `Look, something needs to be done, not just in this neighborhood but across the board.'''

The first show will be about neighborhood priorities, with discussion on housing and crime. A studio audience and a panel of housing and crime experts will participate, Jeffrey said.

``We'll have a good old-fashioned discussion about those issues,'' he said. ``The bottom line here is neighborhood promotion, providing another major tool for neighborhoods to help empower them, help them deal with problems in their own neighborhoods.''

The show's draw is expected to be its ability to give people a voice, Jeffrey said.

``This is a tool by which they can hold people accountable - people in the neighborhood and those people who control the purse strings and who are making the decisions that affect the neighborhood,'' he said.

``This is a TV show for neighborhoods ... all neighborhoods.''

``Roanoke Roots'' will debut Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. on WBRA (Channel 15) in Roanoke.

by CNB