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  • The priests navigating Colombia's conflict zones

    December 12, 2021 |

    BBC |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Colombia, Chocó Department

    Shielded by cultural deference to the Catholic church, Colombian clergy venture into conflict zones to document the clashes, provide aid, and mediate disputes between civilians and armed guerrilla groups. Their efforts have helped response organizations access difficult-to-reach areas and drawn renewed attention to the crises.

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  • How can schools detect potentially violent students? Researchers have an answer.

    December 09, 2021 |

    The Washington Post |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Virginia

    Using tactics developed by the U.S. Secret Service to protect the life of the president, Virginia pioneered an approach to assessing threats of possible mass shootings in schools that has been adopted by an estimated half of all secondary schools in the U.S., and mandated by 11 states. Studies have shown its effectiveness, though it's difficult to know when something didn't occur because of a particular intervention. Multidisciplinary teams of school administrators, police, and mental health professionals follow a protocol for determining which troubling signs are evidence of a real threat.

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  • Can green spaces help curb Philly's gun violence problem?

    December 06, 2021 |

    WPVI-TV |

    Broadcast TV Talk Show |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Philadelphia's LandCare program has cleaned and greened 12,000 vacant lots, removing trash and other signs of blight. A study showed that the program led to a large drop in violent crime in the cleaned-up areas. A U Penn researcher who led that study and a community leader whose Philly Peace Parks in west and north Philadelphia have developed a more welcoming, healthy environment talk about the emotional impact such programs have on residents when they see that their neighbors care about the neighborhood. Says organizer Pili X, "It does something to the heart and soul of people."

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  • Could Greater Investment in Greening Help Reduce Gun Violence?

    December 02, 2021 |

    Kouvenda Media |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    The city lot where Sanctuary Farm now grows vegetables that it distributes free to the community once was strewn with trash and drug paraphernalia, hardly a hospitable place for the neighborhood kids who played in it. Now it's a lush garden and safe hangout for kids who help with the gardening, do art projects, or just play. It's similar to a broader Philadelphia program that "cleaned and greened" thousands of lots and made a measurable decline in violence. Sanctuary's impact on crime isn't known for sure, but some neighbors say the farm is a positive influence.

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  • After Michigan Killings, Students Praised Shooter Drills. But Do They Really Work?

    December 02, 2021 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Oxford, Michigan

    Students at Oxford High School in Michigan, the scene of a mass shooting on Nov. 30, credit their active-shooter training with saving lives. But experts on school safety say some of the lessons taught in the training given to the OHS students, from a program called ALICE (alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate), could endanger more people than they protect. The evidence that this and similar training is effective is quite thin, and critics fear it detracts from higher priorities: preventing, not just surviving, such shootings, and focusing on much more common forms of gun violence.

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  • The Judge Who Keeps People Out of Jail

    November 30, 2021 |

    The Washington Post Magazine |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Rio Arriba, New Mexico

    Since 2018, Judge Jason Lidyard of Rio Arriba County, N.M., has forged a new model for a drug court. Instead of demanding abstinence from drugs as the price to stay out of jail, Lidyard uses respect and personal relationships to seek a redefinition of success: making substance abuse less deadly and less socially crippling. Violating the court's requirements to get treatment results in more help, not jail. The less punitive approach seemed to reduce overdoses until a new fentanyl surge complicated the picture. Almost all of the people who've gone through the court have avoided new felony arrests.

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  • ‘An utter failure': Law meant to clear old convictions, including for marijuana possession, helps few

    November 28, 2021 |

    The Boston Globe |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Massachusetts

    In 2018, Massachusetts legislators passed a law allowing people with certain lower-level criminal records to seal the records or expunge convictions altogether. The law was meant to remove the burden that a criminal record imposes on people seeking jobs or renting apartments, particularly when the conduct is no longer illegal, such as marijuana possession. Thousands have managed to get their records sealed. But relatively few have sought or won expungement, thanks to an overly restrictive and complicated process that hasn't been explained well to those who could benefit.

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  • Without help, Philly kids who lost family to gun violence will 'self destruct.' So this grandmother gave them a getaway trip.

    November 22, 2021 |

    The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

    Multi-Media |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    The group Moms Bonded By Grief went beyond the support-group work it has done for years for survivors of gun violence homicide victims to take 50 children and their mothers and grandmothers to a Poconos Mountains water park and resort. The long-weekend respite from Philadelphia's relentless gun violence included group therapy for children and adults, enabling them to talk about topics that often get buried or ignored. The excursion, funded by donations, is planned to be repeated next summer.

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  • Police Have a Tool to Take Guns From Potential Shooters, but Many Aren't Using It

    November 15, 2021 |

    Wall Street Journal |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Diego, California

    Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have added red-flag laws in recent years. Also called extreme risk protection orders, or temporary risk protection orders, the laws give police and the public a way to seek a court order to confiscate the guns of a person deemed dangerous. San Diego County used available grant money from California to train police and prosecutors, and it now has used its state law more than any other county there. But many places in the U.S. use their laws rarely if ever, thanks to lack of interest or training among police and lack of awareness in the public.

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  • Creating a safer 6th Street: How another U.S. city transformed its entertainment district

    November 11, 2021 |

    KXAN-TV |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Arlington, Virginia

    Arlington police and its entertainment-district bars and restaurants addressed rising violence and other crime by collaborating to prevent crime rather than banking on police alone to solve it through more arrests. Where bar and restaurant owners in the past feared getting in trouble if they told police about incidents at their venues, the Arlington Restaurant Initiative opened communication and training of employees. Crime in the district declined by two-thirds in the first four years. Austin faces similar challenges and could learn from Arlington's example.

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