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Helpline Fills Gaps in Local Housing Assistance

Kathleen Shannon

June 29, 2021 |

KDNK Community Radio |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado

Bridging Resources is a helpline launched by a group of nonprofits that connects residents to existing services. Bilingual operators field calls and connect callers to agencies that can provide food, rental assistance, childcare, and legal advice among other services. The operators actually call the agencies with residents on the line to ensure the connection is made. Seventy-eight callers received assistance in the helpline’s first ten weeks, split almost evenly between English and Spanish speakers, which reinforced the importance of providing bilingual assistance.

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Heritage and Survival: two sides of the same coin for conflict-torn Iraq

Chen Wei Hannah

June 26, 2021 |

Pi Media |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Iraq

The Nahrein Network funds projects that strengthen Iraq’s cultural and heritage infrastructure. Many grantees have deep historical knowledge of cultural preservation but haven’t been able to access funding due to sanctions, international isolation, and civil war. The funded projects’ approach to cultural preservation must be rooted in local socio-economic interests and the Network provides mentoring and helps in other ways, like supporting visiting scholarships abroad. The Network’s solutions focus on a long-term relationship building as a way to push for an inclusive post-conflict cultural environments.

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Local Platforms for Online Food Delivery Are Eating the Big Guys' Lunch

Oscar Perry Abello

June 15, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Lexington, Kentucky

Locally owned restaurant delivery platforms charge lower commissions than national giants like GrubHub, allow customers to order food on smart-phone apps, and have found ways to be profitable while also keeping money in local economies. While platforms differ by locale, cooperative models are increasingly popular. For example, Delivery Co-op in Lexington, KY provides customers with unlimited deliveries for a monthly fee, charges participating restaurants a flat monthly fee, and pays drivers a base salary plus tips, with benefits kicking after three months of full-time work and profit-sharing after one year.

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How peer tutoring can transform high school academics

Meg McIntyre

June 14, 2021 |

GreatSchools.org |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Newark, New Jersey

A peer tutoring program at a New Jersey high school has helped students improve academic success while feeling connected and supported by their peers. The program started by providing time during study hall periods for small groups of peers to meet. Then, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the program went virtual with pairs of students meeting twice a week in zoom breakout rooms. About 54% of students who were tutored passed a class they had previously failed. The program also fosters social connections and a supportive school culture.

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Sustaining the Work of Artists With a Living Wage and Benefits In Western Massachusetts

Emily Nonko

June 09, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Massachusetts

Artists at Work is a pilot project of THE OFFICE performing arts + film that paired artists with cultural and community partners to work on local initiatives. For their work, the artists were paid a living wage, including healthcare, which resulted in responses to issues like youth mental health, food justice, and COVID-19 awareness campaigns in communities that are marginalized. From empowering youth to build community through food and farming to engaging young queer people of color, the successful six-month pilot led to a new fundraising campaign to continue and expand to seven regions across the U.S.

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Recovered Covid Patients Send Their Leftover Meds to Those in Need

Priti Salian

June 08, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: India, Mumbai

Volunteers with India’s Meds For More initiative (MFM) collect leftover unused medications from recovered Covid-19 patients by canvassing their apartment buildings, offices, student clubs, schools, and other locations. Once collected, MFM distributes them to NGOs licensed to work in the health sector, who transport the medicines to marginalized communities in urban and rural areas. Medical professionals sort and pack the medicines and give them to local hospitals and health care centers, who distribute them to patients. The success of the program has inspired similar initiatives in several other cities.

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Bogota crowdsources a green transport future to cut emissions

Anastasia Moloney

May 26, 2021 |

Thomson Reuters Foundation |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Colombia, Bogotá

Citizen participation in meetings, door-to-door surveys, and via an open-source online platform where residents could edit and add to draft plans resulted in 7,000 citizen proposals to redesign one of Bogota’s major, car-choked, 23-km thoroughfares. Residents as young as 10 years old contributed to design plans that will cut climate-changing emissions and pollution by adding more bike lanes, pedestrian paths, and electric buses and cable cars. City officials spent substantial time listening to residents’ ideas and concerns, including talking with populations that are often ignored by those in power.

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How Social Media Fact-Checking Limits, But Can't Eliminate, Online Disinformation

William Newlin Fabian Munive Lora Yordanova Mack Brown

May 20, 2021 |

Grady Newsource |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Social media companies are using artificial intelligence to help identify misinformation. Once identified, human fact checkers will verify the posts. Facebook uses 60 partnered fact-checking organizations as well as SimSearchNet++ image-recognition system that can identify image manipulation and slight changes to misinformation. Hundreds of millions of posts are flagged every year and those that are identified as “false” or “altered” are labeled with warnings and distribution is reduced.

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Jirogasy's solar computers power offgrid schools in Madagascar

Chuma Asuzu

May 03, 2021 |

Hardware Things |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Madagascar, Antananarivo

Jirogasy developed solar-powered computers and, maximizing a partnership with an education NGO, has helped expand computer access among rural schools without access to a grid. Using internationally-funded grants, they created the Jirodesk II, a Windows 10 powered PC that can be powered by the grid or charged via a solar panel. The computers are monitored remotely, which allows users to quickly get tech support, and the company monitors usage in Watt-hours for its “pay-per-use-until-you own model,” where users pay per number of Watt-hours used, and after a certain number of Watt-hours the machine is paid off.

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‘What difference would that make?'

Kiran Misra

April 30, 2021 |

The Chicago Reader |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

A participatory budgeting pilot in ten Chicago Public Schools empowers students to influence change by deciding how small grants, typically $1,000 to $2,000, should be spent for school improvement. Students brainstorm ideas, construct persuasive proposals, and vote on which to implement, providing valuable lessons in civic participation. The proposals revealed student needs that staff hadn’t previously considered. Ultimately, grants supported gender-neutral bathrooms, locker room shower curtains, a peer mentoring program, and spaces for students to reflect and decompress when feeling overwhelmed.

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