AETN – Arkansas Educational Television Network Protecting Arkansas’s Seniors

1. AETN – Arkansas Educational Television NetworkProtecting Arkansas’s Seniors • AETN is Arkansas's only statewide broadcast network with six transmitters serving Arkansans with educational public media services. • AETN has a long history of innovative and aggressive community outreach activities for Arkansans. • Statewide outreach projects have included “In Their Own Words: Preserving the Testimony of Arkansas’s World War II Veterans,” “Arkansas War Letters”, statewide AETN Family Days, and statewide Art exhibitions and competitions. • AETN is currently in the midst of a major outreach project connecting Ken Burns’ National Park series with Arkansas National and State Parks/Historic Sites.

2. AETN has been awarded a grant to implement a multi-media initiative designed to facilitate dialog and educate, engage and ultimately protect Arkansas's senior citizens, a group AETN found to be more profoundly affected by the current national economic recession. • While Arkansas as a whole has been holding its own against the current national economic recession, the state unemployment rate is now 7%, below the national average. But the problems are growing. • Preliminary discussions with community leaders concluded that one of Arkansas's greatest financial needs center on the increasing costs and demands for social services, including rapidly rising health costs. This is especially true for senior citizens in our current economy. • Living on a fixed monthly income, now made harder with the current economic depression and investment losses. • The alarming rise of healthcare expenses and the need for Medicare gap insurance • The rising cost of living (gas, utilities, food, etc)

3. AETN and partners will engage Arkansas's seniors, their families, friends and advocates with a multi-media initiative designed to maximize statewide reach. This is an AETN cross-discipline project: Marketing and Outreach, production, AETN Foundation, operations, education. • A special night of prime time programming on Wednesday, August 12, from 7-9 p.m., addressing and offering solutions to the financial struggles Arkansas's senior citizens face, highlighted by a two hour, viewer call-in with a panel and phone bank of experts on hand for immediate response. • Enlisting diverse partnerships (AARP and others), AETN will produce and document a "Protecting Arkansas's Seniors" workshop on Monday, July 27, from 8 a.m. to noon, where our crew will capture roll-ins for the live show and "My Source" spots. • Online: AETN is using our website (aetn.org) and internet resources to provide Arkansans a place to share their personal stories and struggles. With permission, AETN will share with the general public the information, resources and "lessons learned" by others going through similar situations. • Online promotion, video streaming and extra content will also be used.

4. Statewide partners include: • Arkansas Chapter of the AARP • Arkansas Center for Health Improvement • Arkansas Departments of Health and Human Services, Division of Aging • Arkansas Attorney General • University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, Center on Aging • Experts from Arkansas's financial/retirement planning community Sharing the results include: Final reports compiling all broadcast/outreach content and measurable results to all of the initiative's partners, funders and other organizations with like-minded missions. For More Information: Dan Koops, AETN Outreach Manager dkoops@aetn.org