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“This thing is going to change everything”: Crested Butte bike builder, after his own injury, delivers adventure to chair-bound athletes

Jason Blevins

October 03, 2018 |

The Colorado Sun |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Crested Butte, Colorado

A Colorado bike builder creates adapted cycles for athletes who otherwise rely on wheelchairs for mobility. The cycles allow adventurous people with disabilities to ride trails and access difficult terrain.

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Can Zoning Actually Save Manufacturing Space in San Francisco?

Emily Nonko

October 03, 2018 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Kate Sofis created SFMade in San Francisco to find creative ways to support local manufacturing. The organization has helped push the local government to create more inclusionary industrial zoning, which incentivizes developers to build manufacturing space along with traditional office space. Funded by grants and a New Markets Tax Credit, SFMade has opened 150 Hooper, a manufacturing hub. Its challenge now is how to maintain a sustainable funding source in the pricey city.

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Mending Our Disposable Culture

Nick Holland

October 02, 2018 |

BBC |

Radio |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Netherlands, Bussum

When something breaks, most people go to the store to replace it. In Amsterdam, the UK, and elsewhere, people take their broken goods to repair cafes. Led by volunteers who want to preserve the art of repairs while also reducing waste, these organizations can make a big difference. There are now at least 1600 repair cafes around the world.

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Low-cost housing project begins next month

Aggrey Omboki

September 27, 2018 |

Nation Africa |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Kenya

Kenya is launching a program to build more affordable housing by providing infrastructure like water and roads, as well as funding from the World Bank and lower levies on the cost of doing business in order to attract private investors. The government will also provide land to investors on the condition they provide 20,000 low-income units for every 100,000 they build. But the plan faces major challenges including clear title and rising construction costs.

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England has more than 200,000 empty homes. How to revive them?

Mattha Busby

September 25, 2018 |

The Guardian |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom, Stockton-on-Tees

There are an estimated over 200,000 vacant homes across England, and Community Campus 87 is one group attempting to bring those homes back to life. By employing apprentices, some who have experienced homelessness, to learn skills such as house painting, the social enterprise is helping homes as well as homeless people bounce back. This is just one example of a handful of social enterprises that are funding the rebuilding of vacant properties with the goal of filling the old homes with more affordable and sustainable housing.

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LA seniors find housing solution with home share program

Jenny Hamel

September 25, 2018 |

KCRW |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

In Los Angeles, seniors finding themselves unable to pay rising rents on fixed incomes and those attempting to age in place in need of some extra help are being paired together in a new home share program. Organizations that help develop pairing are growing in the area as needs increase, but it isn't always the best solution for everyone.

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When a Hospital Plays Housing Developer

Laura Bliss

September 21, 2018 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Columbus, Ohio

Hospitals have a complicated track record of community development projects. Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio is working with nonprofit community developers to improve the public health of the surrounding neighborhood, treating "the neighborhood as a patient." By flipping houses into rental units for low-income tenants and making other investments in the housing ecosystem, the hospital is working to keep the current low-income residents in place. By some measures, this hospital is succeeding in ways others historically have not.

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Professional Hand-Holders

Kyle Norris

September 17, 2018 |

Finding Fixes |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Washington

Washington’s Snohomish County has implemented a program that embeds social workers with the police. The program has been an effective method to bring services to people in need rather than arrest and process them as criminals.

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The business of voluntourism: do western do-gooders actually do harm?

Tina Rosenberg

September 13, 2018 |

The Guardian |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Guatemala, Zacapa

Voluntourism, or the practice of western volunteers paying to do service in developing countries, seems like a moral, do-good activity. However, the practice has been proven to have consequences, including reducing the need for local labor and stunting development of children in orphanages. There has recently been progress in discouraging volunteers from working in orphanages - the volunteer efforts in institutions never benefit the children - but true progress might involve staying at home.

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Much to Do about (Vacant) Lots

James A. Anderson

September 10, 2018 |

Next City |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

In St. Louis, Philadelphia, Detroit, and other postindustrial cities, community organizations and city officials are trying a number of methods to reduce the number of empty lots and vacant houses that plague neighborhoods. As opposed to earlier, one-off programs, cities are now forging coordinated approaches that acknowledge the systemic issues underlying persistent vacant land -- for example, in St. Louis, an inventory of all vacant properties is shaping the work of a series of related city initiatives.

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