Nina Sparling

Feb 18, 2025 | thepublicsradio.org | Nina Sparling

Work for Rivka Reynolds started to look different a few months ago. As a peer recovery specialist for Thrive Behavioral Health in West Warwick, she used to spend her days visiting the homeless people she supports in their encampments. Now, she spends a lot more time driving around, looking for people. “Before we had an idea — a better idea — where people are,” Reynolds said. “Now, it’s harder.

Feb 11, 2025 | thepublicsradio.org | Nina Sparling

A bed with a colorful quilt, an AC unit, a heater, a shelf to dry dishes — these are among the amenities homeless people can look forward to at ECHO Village, the pallet-shelter community opening in Providence this week. After years of conversation and months of delays, organizers expect people experiencing homelessness will finally start moving into the 45 units this week.

Jan 30, 2025 | thepublicsradio.org | Nina Sparling

Concern washed over the scientific research community in Rhode Island after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services paused all external communications on Jan. 22. When researchers from across the country began sharing news about sudden cancellations of so-called “study sections”, grant review panels coordinated through the National Institutes of Health, the worry only grew.

Jan 28, 2025 | thepublicsradio.org | Nina Sparling

Attorneys General Peter Neronha of Rhode Island and Andrea Campbell of Massachusetts have joined a coalition of other AGs in suing the Trump Administration over its sudden freeze in federal spending via grants, loans, and other avenues. “What a ham-handed way to run the government,” Neronha said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. The Democratic attorneys general from New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and California plan to join the forthcoming lawsuit, too, they said.

Jan 21, 2025 | thepublicsradio.org | Nina Sparling

The long-awaited 45 shelter beds at ECHO Village, Rhode Island’s first pallet shelter community, will soon be available to the state’s rapidly growing homeless population, according to testimony from Rhode Island Housing Secretary Deborah Goddard at a senate hearing on Tuesday afternoon. “I’ve not given a date in the past because we’ve disappointed so many people,” Goddard said.