South Dakota Focus in October

Join SDPB’s Jackie Hendry for in-depth coverage of topics important to South Dakotans.

South Dakota Focus: Immigration in SD

October’s South Dakota Focus features stories of immigration and building community. Que Pasa Sioux Falls founder Nancy Reynoza shares her family’s journey to South Dakota and the need for Spanish-language news in the state’s largest city. Host Jackie Hendry also visits Huron and talks with members of the Karen community of refugees that have revived a shrinking town. SDPB1: Thursday, October 28, 8pm (7 MT)

Watch It Again - South Dakota Focus: Suicide Prevention

Data from the first three months of 2021 put South Dakota on track for a record-breaking year of deaths by suicide. South Dakota Focus launched the new season with a personal story of suicide survival. Bridget Swier is the communications and outreach director with The Front Porch Coalition, a non-profit suicide prevention and postvention organization that serves Pennington, Meade, and parts of Lawrence County. Eight years after surviving her own suicide attempt, Swier responds to scenes of recent suicide deaths to comfort loved ones. Throughout South Dakota, health systems, law enforcement, and others are finding innovative ways to increase access for mental health care—from a hotline dedicated to the state’s agriculture producers, to tablets that connect a counselor to a person in crisis from across the state.

You can watch it again at sdpb.org/watch and share your own stories by emailing sdfocus@sdpb.org.