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  • Inmates are learning to be their own bosses after they leave jail behind

    Inmates to Entrepreneurs has graduated 1 million people from its eight-week program that teaches incarcerated people how to start their own low-capital businesses. An extension of a free online entrepreneurship course, Starter U, the program offered in-person workshops until COVID forced it to go virtual. One study shows the unemployment rate in December 2020 for formerly incarcerated people was more than 27%, more than four times higher than the general public. Inmates to Entrepreneurs was started 28 years ago in North Carolina's prison system.

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  • Mutual aid networks find roots in communities of color

    Although many mutual aid networks have formed to serve a need during the coronavirus pandemic, the concept has been in practice for centuries and has "deep roots in communities of color." While these grassroots community efforts aren't always referred to as mutual aid, they have nonetheless come into existence to provide economic stability for communities and individuals when governmental structures have failed to do so.

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  • It takes a village: Community Yahoos help Slavic Village during Covid-19 pandemic

    In Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood, a community effort is underway that aims to do "nothing but positive things." During the coronavirus pandemic, the group of volunteers has held fundraisers for community members who are facing financial struggles and handed out masks and face shields. The efforts resulted in the group receiving a Covid-19 emergency support grant that helped them create the Garden of Life – "a grassroots gathering place where people can celebrate life and remember those who have passed away."

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  • Seafood Delicacies Find Their Way Into Home Kitchens

    After restaurants closed due to COVID-19 and tariffs were implemented on exports to China, fishermen and women in the United States had to shift their business model to sell directly to consumers. For example, Get Hooked, a subscription-based community-supported fishery in California that delivers daily catches to customers, saw their business double after the pandemic hit. This new model allows home cooks to support local suppliers and explore new foods.

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  • Cooperation and Chocolate: The Story of One Colombian Community's Quest for Peace

    Plagued by an internal war, a group of villages in Colombia created a “Peace Community,” declaring themselves neutral in the conflict and focusing their efforts on cultivating the 150 hectares of cacao trees in collectively owned plots to sell to global markets. While villagers still experience violence, the earnings from their crops go into a collective pot and the community decides together how to distribute the funds. “To them, this is actually a very profound act of transcending traditional capitalist society models and building something together,” says an anthropologist who has studied the community.

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  • Is a pandemic a good time to start a business? For some, the answer's yes.

    A handful of entrepreneurial individuals in Kansas have found success in starting businesses during the pandemic by leveraging customer needs and pandemic relief funding. Although this business plan isn't "foolproof," in Kansas and nationwide, the number of entrepreneurs who filed applications increased significantly compared to previous periods.

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  • The bold plan to save Africa's largest forest

    Under an innovative scheme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, indigenous communities are obtaining the legal right to own and manage the forests where they reside. This ownership has shown success in slowing deforestation of the Congo rainforest and creating new economic opportunities for residents in these villages. “Rather than just being an add-on, community forestry is now being considered as a mainstream model for forest management,” says a coordinator for the Rainforest Foundation UK.

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  • When money is running short, print your own

    A community currency was introduced to boost the local economy in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts. $133,000 worth of BerkShares, as the currency is known, are in circulation and accepted by small businesses in town. The concept arose from the desire to support “a strong commitment to speak with buying choices.”

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  • A Unique Alliance Could Help Warn Us of Toxic Algae

    A unique partnership between scientists, state agencies, and coastal communities in Washington state allows these different entities to monitor and manage toxic algal blooms. Known as the Olympic Region Harmful Algal Blooms Partnership, the initiative allows them to take water samples and analyze them for domoic acid, which is a deadly neurotoxin produced by algae. This collaboration allows fishers from tribal communities to know if it’s safe to harvest seafood and state officials to warn people when it becomes unsafe.

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  • Halls of game: Bingo centers are unheralded pillars of the Corpus Christi community

    In Texas, bingo is considered a charitable operation and can act as a revenue source, offering a significant contribution to the funding of many 501c(3) nonprofits, but it also "nourishes the community in other, less obvious ways." Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the bingo operations around the state often provided scholarships and food distribution and offered a reprieve from social isolation. Although the pandemic has altered how many players can be a in a room together, the bingo halls are still attracting regulars.

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