Mona Dougani

To help those experiencing difficulties in our community, we have compiled a list of volunteer opportunities at various organizations in the area that provide resources such as language classes, legal services, rental, financial, housing and clothing assistance.

The holiday season can add emotional and financial stress for many families, and this year is no exception. To help those experiencing difficult times in our community, we have compiled a list of organizations and resources providing rental, financial, housing, clothing assistance and more.

Diwali is India's most important festival of the year, celebrated by celebrated by people across the diaspora and multiple faiths, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. This year, the main celebration will be on Sunday, Nov. 12. Here are a few upcoming Diwali celebrations around Charlotte.

Municipal elections are underway in Mecklenburg County, with polls closing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Voters are electing members of the Charlotte City Council, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board, and the mayors of some of the northern Mecklenburg towns.WFAE reporter Elvis Menayese and producer Mona Dougani spent the day at the polls talking to voters, and joined us on All Things Considered to talk about it.

Iranians in Charlotte continue to speak out against Iran's Islamic Republic regime and cope — by creating art. Behzad Riazi, a Charlotte-based Iranian artist and cartoonist, immigrated in 2017. After earning his MFA at Penn State, he returned to Charlotte in 2022 to pursue art full-time.

A group of Latino community members gathered Thursday outside the Hal Marshall Annex early voting site at noon as part of an effort to increase Latino voter turnout, displaying voter information and repeating “Latino, tu voto cuenta.”

A group called the Romare Bearden Project wants Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to name a school after the legendary Charlotte-born artist.

WFAE and FRONTLINE sought court and jail records for “incapable to proceed” (ITP) defendants from all 100 counties in North Carolina to calculate how long defendants wait for a hospital bed. Based on availability, we were able to review records from 63 counties. We found that misdemeanor data was incomplete, so limited our analysis to felonies.

For nearly four months, Charlotte’s Romare Bearden Park has been the site of recurring demonstrations by people concerned about the regime in Iran. The protests started after Mahsa Amini died in Iranian police custody. The country’s morality police said she was detained for wearing her headscarf improperly. The protests in Charlotte have continued as more human rights abuses have emerged from Iran.

Nurses in North Carolina already are stretched thin thanks to the pandemic workload. It's about to get worse thanks to a nursing shortage, one organization predicts. But it's not because there's a lack of nursing candidates. The problem is in finding educators to teach and train aspiring nurses.