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Police have shot people experiencing a mental health crisis. Who should you call instead?

Grace Hauck

September 18, 2020 |

USA Today |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Daniel Prude's death in police custody illustrates a common flaw in how police respond to mental health crises, but reform advocates disagree on whether to improve police training or bypass police almost entirely. Mental health crises make up a large share of police calls, jailings, and fatal police shootings. Most police training on mental health responses is limited to 4-12 hours. Some departments put at least some officers through crisis intervention training. But critics of police-focused responses prefer non-police response teams, in use in a few cities.

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How Formerly Incarcerated Firefighters Are Getting the Jobs and Pay They Deserve

Ray Levy Uyeda

September 17, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

The Fire and Forestry Recruitment Program serves as an intermediary between formerly incarcerated people trained as firefighters and the agencies they seek work from once they have been released from prison. California has long used incarcerated firefighters in its wildfire-fighting work, paying them poverty wages and then usually denying them the jobs they're trained for outside prison. FFRP has helped more than 100 such people find jobs, using training, certifications, and job-searching help. Its services are in high demand as a lower prison population coincides with record wildfires.

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In Denver, This Program Helps Reroute 911 Calls To Police Alternatives

Scott Simon

September 12, 2020 |

NPR |

Radio |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

In its first three months of existence, Denver's STAR program sent medics and counselors to respond to more than 600 calls to 911 in place of the police and without ever having to call the police as backup in a violent confrontation. The calls dealt mainly with complaints about unhoused people who callers complained were trespassing. Instead of the police approach, which often is to see such people as a threat, the STAR team sees them as people needing help. Such calls diverted from police end up connecting people with necessary social services and avoid possible violence or unnecessary incarceration.

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Forged By AIDS, Storied NYC Residence Boosts Aging In Place

Rob Waters

September 08, 2020 |

Health Affairs |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Two community living facilities have played integral roles in combatting the spread of diseases throughout New York's history by relying on mutual aid models. In the 1980's the Manhattan Plaza residence started the AIDS Project, which "assigned care partners to every person who got sick and deployed volunteers to deliver meals and get people to doctors." Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat, similar efforts are underway by a younger generation at the Manhattan Plaza as well as at Penn South where the focus has been on keeping senior citizens safe.

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Blazing the trail: How coast slum flattened the curve

Winnie Atieno

September 04, 2020 |

Nation Africa |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: Bangladesh

Although residents in Bangladesh were initially hesitant to take precautionary measures against COVID-19, once one county began reporting cases, the community took swift action. From implementing hand washing stations at the borders of the regions to teaching children and other community members how to make soap and face masks, Bangladesh has not only been able to flatten the curve of coronavirus cases, but has also been able to avoid the typical influx of cholera cases that occur during the rainy season.

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Young People Are Fighting Hunger and Finding Purpose

Richard Schiffman

September 01, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Culver City, California

High school and college-age volunteers in Culver City, California are playing a significant role in the creation of a food-distribution system that aims to help their neighbors who have been financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. While the project is having a positive impact on the community, it is also having a positive effect on the young voluteers by providing a sense of connection during this time of social isolation.

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Suicide hotline offers young people hope and a chance to talk with peers

Molly Bohannon

August 31, 2020 |

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Phoenix, Arizona

In Arizona, a teen-run suicide prevention hotline connects teens who need someone to talk to with a peer operator who works to listen to and calm the caller. The volunteer teenage operators don't offer medical advice but do undergo clinician-supervised training that includes active listening, collaborative problem solving and the ability to connect with callers.

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Ex-gang members draw on their past to stop Fort Worth shootings before they happen

Nichole Manna

August 28, 2020 |

Fort Worth Star-Telegram |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Fort Worth, Texas

Inspired by a news story about a successful violence-intervention program in Richmond, California, and alarmed by a surge in gun violence in 2019, city officials in Fort Worth created VIP FW to deploy formerly incarcerated men and former gang members as mentors and mediators. In the program's startup phase, its mediations interrupted 18 potential shootings. Led by a man who pleaded for solutions at city council meetings, VIP FW intervenes in the lives of young men deemed at risk of committing violence who aren't reached by other community programs or by police enforcement.

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Staff at Hong Kong's makeshift Covid-19 hospital protected by e-health system

Gigi Choy

August 24, 2020 |

South China Morning Post |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: China, Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, a newly devised e-health system is teaching patients how to test and monitor their own symptoms during the coronavirus pandemic, rather than have a doctor administer in-person care. Using an exhibition center as the treatment facility, patients with mild symptoms are admitted and then taught "how to check their own vital signs and input the data into the system," which helps limit the contact they have with anyone else.

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With a truce brokered over Zoom, one D.C. neighborhood goes nearly 100 days without a shooting

Peter Hermann

August 19, 2020 |

The Washington Post |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

Violence interrupters conducted a dozen meetings over Zoom to negotiate a truce between two warring groups in a neighborhood that went from 11 shootings in 5 months to none for at least 99 days following the truce. To mediate the personal disputes that had led to violent clashes, those leading the negotiations, from the D.C. attorney general's Cure the Streets program, used their knowledge of the community and their credibility as streetwise actors standing apart from police to strike an agreement. Truces like this often don't last long, but this one helped amid big increases in violence citywide.

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