The mission for The Sunshine Project is to report on issues of civic discourse and social determinants of community health – and not just health in a medical sense. The project will examine medical issues as well as broad indicators of health, looking at data that may shed light on which communities and subgroups are doing well, and which are facing unique challenges, why, and what can be done.
Generous support for this project is provided by the Endowment for Health and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
Learn more about our partners in this project, Solutions Journalism Network and The Nackey Loeb School.
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The federal moratorium on housing evictions will extend through March, but it’s unknown when the $200 million in emergency relief funds earmar…
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TILTON — When Heidi Ober moved into a rooming house downtown, she had no idea that the live-in property manager was not depositing the cash…
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LACONIA — The time-worn Victorian home on Union Avenue housed a law office, then Lakes Region Community Developers, before it was reborn in Fe…
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LACONIA — A community forum on building bridges across political divides drew about 30 viewers Wednesday who listened to panelists trade thoug…
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LACONIA — For the nation, and the 33 Lakes Region participants and panelists who tuned into to a celebration of Martin Luther King Day by Zoom…
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LACONIA — It’s intended to be an ice-breaker, a bridge-builder and forum for listening and communicating with respect – especially about uncom…
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LACONIA – Since November, the New Hampshire Food Bank has operated a mobile food pantry in Laconia – a drive-through pick-up for 33-pound boxe…
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LACONIA — As a local mother of school-age children – two Black, one bi-racial – LaToya Beck, a 39-year-old medical office coordinator, worries…
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PLYMOUTH – Trish Murphy’s job as a homelessness prevention outreach worker includes everything from filling out housing applications and drivi…
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PLYMOUTH – Trish Murphy tackles life’s biggest variables in her role as a finder of missing pieces.
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LACONIA — The Christmas tree at Isaiah 61 Cafe contains nearly 275 handmade ornaments printed with names – one for each homeless person who ha…
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LACONIA — An online forum on tolerance drew nearly 80 viewers on Wednesday, including community members and local school, city, religious and …
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LACONIA — Despite frigid temperatures on Saturday morning, a downtown demonstration drew nearly 50 people calling for Dawn Johnson’s resignati…
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LACONIA — Critics and allies of Dawn Johnson, a school board member and newly elected state representative, are calling for a halt to the hara…
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LACONIA — At an online School Board meeting with roughly 300 viewers and repeated calls for board member Dawn Johnson to step down, residents …
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LACONIA — When COVID-19 ushered in a strange social and economic landscape, Lakes Region businesses scurried to adapt – and Rita Toth and othe…
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TILTON — The character of Bryant and Lawrence Hardware hasn't changed much in 100 years – and that's a key to its success. At a time when big…
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LACONIA — Letter writing may no longer be in fashion, but don't tell that to the boys and girls in Laconia Scout Troop 68 and a cadre of Belkn…
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LACONIA — When asked what he is grateful for, John-Paul Kehoe lights up – perhaps with more intensity than other downtown shoppers on a sunny …
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The story plays out across America: In small towns and housing co-operatives, democracy and government usually ends up in the hands of a few …
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GILFORD – The complaints at Lakes Region Mobile Home Village Cooperative in Gilford have all the intrigue of a mystery or soap opera, with all…
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Fourteen years ago, when Wendy Cheney moved to Soda Brook Cooperative, a resident-owned mobile home park in Northfield, she expected a peacefu…
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MEREDITH – For 30 years, veterans from the Lakes Region and beyond have gathered at the flagpole in Hesky Park to raise awareness of service m…
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What lessons learned through military service are important to pass down to grandchildren? Lakes Region veterans’ responses ranged from making…
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When Tevis Bryant, a PhD candidate in education, arrived at Plymouth State University 18 months ago, he hoped for academic rigor in a bucolic …
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In his 50 years, Isiah Anderson, a businessman and basketball coach, has never been called the N-word – a mercy he attributes to luck, and to …
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LACONIA — At local nonprofit organizations that serve human needs, donations are down and calls for help are louder and more frequent, compare…
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LACONIA — With his warm smile and easy demeanor, and uncanny ability to recall the names of people he’s met, Major Mike Davis is a natural bri…
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GILFORD — It was far from the recruitment-poster experience Bruce Richardson envisioned when he joined the Marine Corps in 1979. He was 17, an…
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GILFORD — Post-tramatic stress disorder affects more than veterans and first responders, and occurs as the body’s and brain’s response to more…
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LACONIA — Vape shops abound in the Lakes Region. They are visual extravaganzas much like candy stores: rows and shelves of sleek tools and tas…
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Free or low-cost flu vaccines are available at drug stores, walk-in care clinics, primary care providers, and even some pharmacy counters in s…
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LACONIA — John Prickett, a registered nurse and emergency preparedness coordinator, has seen plenty of flu seasons in his 39 years at Lakes Re…
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CLAREMONT — When Mayor Charlene Lovett surveys her hometown, she sees a history-rich city on the brink of change: Mill buildings on the Sugar …
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According to New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, which has abated lead paint in 1,399 housing units statewide since 1998, many property o…
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FRANKLIN — Owen Bendixsen had no idea he was opening the hatch to lead poisoning when he decided to salvage a basement door. It was a routine …
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LACONIA — Christine McNeil knew something was wrong when her infant son suddenly went from consuming a bottle of formula plus two jars of baby…
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LACONIA — On the eve of his reassignment to lead the Manchester Salvation Army, Captain Scott McNeil reflected on his six years in Laconia, th…
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LACONIA — They are modest, compassionate to strangers and dedicated to serving people who struggle on society’s fringe – including many who ar…
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GILFORD — Over the past 11 years, Pub Mania at Patrick’s Pub & Eatery was billed as “the world’s greatest barstool challenge." And with go…
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LACONIA — Every Wednesday at 9 a.m., Tricia Tousignant, parent education manager at the Family Resource Center of Central New Hampshire, teach…
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LACONIA — Homemade chocolate, strawberry and vanilla cakes are Victoria Abate’s hobby, as well as her favorite school project. But it was her …
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LACONIA — The uppermost room at the Laconia Police Department is devoted to simulating crimes in progress. Interactive videos flash on a six-f…
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GILFORD — When he was four months old, Chris Remick came to the United States from South Korea. Adopted by white parents and raised in Gilford…
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ALTON — Rose Blanchard, 82, had all she could manage buying weekly groceries. It was a significantly steep hurdle bringing them up the five st…
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Abby Allen’s summer job requires waking up at an hour most teenagers would consider unthinkable.
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GILFORD – Will Perry just turned 18, but he’s amassed wisdom beyond his years – mostly because he did an about-face in high school, when he wa…
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According to Save the Children’s report on global children's health released earlier this month, the US ranks 43 out of 180 nations – tied wit…
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LACONIA — Officer Eric Adams, the Laconia Police Department’s prevention, enforcement and treatment coordinator, walks into situations that ar…
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LACONIA — Police Chief Matt Canfield says hard-working officers across the country should not be confused with the one in Minneapolis who was …
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Last year, no one would have considered Brooklynn Benwell a star student – least of all herself.
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LACONIA — It’s a place in the woods that features touches of home. Plastic flowers in exuberant colors form a garden on either side of a strea…
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TILTON — Like everyone else, Joe Bennett has good and bad days. But April 26 was especially sunny for the centenarian at the New Hampshire Vet…
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LACONIA — At a time when nursing home residents nationwide are quarantined in their rooms to keep them safe from the coronavirus, the Mother’s…
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LACONIA — Sixteen years years after the abuse began, the local mother profiled in this story has a full-time job that allows her and three chi…
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LACONIA — She was 19 and starting college. He was 24 and seemed to be in control of his life. After she dropped out to marry him and have chi…
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On Monday night in Laconia, a significant other returning from work got into an argument over his girlfriend not doing the laundry. He hit he…
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LACONIA — In telehealth sessions via phone or computer, Jayme Sullivan, a therapist at Lakes Region Mental Health Center, gives her patients t…
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LACONIA — Social worker Jayme Sullivan treats people with borderline personality disorder – a mental illness that leaves them teetering betwee…
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The research is indisputable and shouldn’t be ignored: social isolation is bad for your physical and mental health. Loneliness makes you more …
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LACONIA — For many of the 150 children who belong to the Boys and Girls Club of the Lakes Region, Monday now means baking with Mike, a familia…
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LACONIA – Carolyn Brown’s professional landscape has changed for the foreseeable future.
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Two weeks ago, Trisha Eisner’s 56-year-old husband started experiencing alarming symptoms: fluid retention and shortness of breath that could …
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LACONIA — It’s an unorthodox setting for physical training, but Alison Whitham, an instructor at the Downtown Gym, is making it work. Flanked …
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The U.S. Department of Justice and other national, state and local authorities recommend taking these precautions to guard against coronavirus fraud:
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The call came Monday to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office from an employee of a business in the North Country, which had been target…
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LACONIA — The virtual supermarket outside the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s food pantry and thrift store on Union Avenue features a smorga…
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TILTON — Tilton-Northfield Fire & EMS advertised for six weeks for someone to replace a firefighter who left in January for an opening at …
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LACONIA — At the Laconia Fire Department and others around the state, COVID-19 has changed protocols, training and dress codes for first respo…
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LACONIA — It’s a mainstay for the city’s most financially vulnerable. For the first time in its nearly-40 year history, the Laconia Salvation …
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Local volunteers shop and bag, then police departments in Bristol and Plymouth deliver groceries and non-perishables from Hannaford supermarke…
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LACONIA — Two weeks ago, Erika Willette of Gilford got a call from her elderly grandmother in Epsom. The 88-year-old was completely out of bo…
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TILTON — Market Basket Manager Joe Whalen said close to 100 people were waiting outside the Tilton store at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday.
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LACONIA — Two Laconia police officers who are patrol partners are in quarantine after one tested positive for coronavirus over the weekend, Ch…
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LACONIA — At the Belknap County Jail and House of Correction, educational programs and on-site visits with inmates have been suspended for fam…
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LACONIA — In concert with government safety directives, gatherings at the Laconia Senior Center are now limited to 10 people, weekday meals at…
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LACONIA — For local restaurants, business is slower or limping, safety precautions are ramped up to new levels of caution, and eateries are sw…
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LACONIA — Breanna Neal, owner of Polished and Proper Barbershop and Shave Parlor on Main Street, said her shop has seen more cases of head lic…
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When an eating disorder arises, parents shouldn’t blame themselves or their children, said Beth Shehadi, a counselor at Plymouth State Univers…
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LACONIA — Faith McEvoy cringes when she recalls the drama of her teenage years: losing and gaining friends, feeling uncomfortable in her own s…