Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Tackling a notorious waste problem in Africa's largest informal community

    Kibra Green, a grassroots organization in Kenya, mobilizes the young people in the community to clean up their neighborhood. At times, the group has as many as 500 participants for a community-wide clean up. Yet, a lack of steady funding and socioeconomic barriers for volunteers to regularly contribute to the group has made it difficult to scale the organization.

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  • How Taiwan beat the coronavirus

    Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Taiwan – a country of nearly 24 million people – has reported less than 500 cases and only seven deaths, largely due to the rapid implementation of a public health emergency response plan. By successfully using a combination of quarantine measures, social pressure, technology, and consistent communication, the country was able to begin reopening in May.

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  • Community peacemakers in Chicago offer a proven alternative to policing

    Nonviolence Chicago uses street-outreach workers to mediate disputes and connect residents of violence-prone neighborhoods to needed services. Its work, amounting to tens of thousands of contacts per year with people involved in violence, has contributed to efforts that reduced homicides and nonfatal shootings in the Austin neighborhood by nearly half from 2016 to 2019. By replacing the police with former gang members and others with street credibility, and working with both victims and shooters, Nonviolence Chicago wins the trust of residents.

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  • The Perks of Roommates With a 50-Year Age Difference

    Intergenerational home sharing is a mutually beneficial option for seniors and young people. There are about 60 programs, run by cities, nonprofits, and platforms in the style of Airbnb, that connect seniors and young people for cohabitation. Seniors benefit by being able to stay in their homes, collect income, and have someone to help with social isolation and household chores. Young people benefit from access to affordable housing options in high-cost areas and engaging in rich relationship building. Home sharing services are facing legal challenges and the Covid-19 pandemic made cohabiting more risky.

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  • Former D.C. inmates use virtual meetings for support, encouragement as they adjust to life outside prison

    Freed from prison after serving at least 15 years, often much longer, for crimes committed when they were teens, a group of men holds twice-monthly Zoom meetings to lend structure and peer support to their lives during a time when COVID-19 restrictions foreclose other face-to-face meetings. Under Washington, D.C.’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, 42 men have been released. At least 22 of them meet regularly to share leads on possible jobs, discuss their frustrations, and encourage each other to stay focused on the positive.

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  • A grassroots policing alternative in Hartford spreads its wings

    Members of a community group in North Hartford, CT, are a positive presence on the streets of the dangerous neighborhood they once grew up in. Men Standing Up Against Violence aim to deter violence, provide support, mediate conflicts, and mentor the youth. The presence of the group was initially unwelcomed by local police officers, but they have proven to be an effective and vital addition to the neighborhood, winning over both the community and the local police department. The group's success is attributed to the trust they've built with locals who often have a deep mistrust and fear of the police.

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  • As protests against police brutality go global, these Latina moms fight in memory of their sons

    Mothers of young Latino men killed by sheriff’s deputies in East Los Angeles have struggled to pry information from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, but along the way they have formed a network of support groups helping fellow survivors cope with their grief and trauma. The loosely organized groups, populated mainly by women who hardly consider themselves activists, respond to the scenes of police shootings and engage with the mothers of victims in the weeks and months afterward. They have formed a sort of accountability watchdog brigade for a department that resists oversight.

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  • As COVID-19 Takes A Toll On Doctors' Mental Health, Nevada Psychiatrists Offer An Ear

    A new anonymous caller hotline launched in Nevada by volunteer psychiatrists to offer health-care workers a means of support as they work on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. Although it's yet to be seen what the impact will be of this effort, a similar hotline for law enforcement that was staffed by fellow police officers resulted in a higher likelihood for officers calling in.

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  • Beach Cleanups Prove Popular And Purposeful During Pandemic

    Since single-use plastic usage has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations in Hawaii are planning beach cleanup events to pick up the plastic waste. Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii’s first beach cleanup event since the start of the pandemic drew 150 registrations in less than a day. 808 Cleanups is growing its adopt-a-site program where households identify a beach, waterway, or trail they’d like to regularly clean up. Coordinating a large number of volunteers while maintaining social distancing guidelines has been difficult to navigate.

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  • The problem with Facebook's plan to sign up 4 million voters

    In the past decade, Facebook's US voter engagement campaigns included registration and election-day reminders for its 61 million 18+ users and sharing friends’ voting behavior. One study attributes hundreds of thousands of more votes to these election campaigns, with friends’ voting behavior the strongest influencer. The California Secretary of State credits the 4th highest voter registration daily total to Facebook’s same day reminder. Criticisms include not releasing data for independent review and negative aspects of its influence like potential liberal biases and the 2016 Russian disinformation campaign.

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