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  • What Burkina Faso can teach us about scaling up early childhood programs

    November 30, 2018 |

    Apolitical |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Burkina Faso

    A pilot of a cash transfer program in rural Burkina Faso not only produced valuable research but, by involving government officials from the get-go, developed local expertise that was invaluable for the later launch of a national program. "The major challenge for scaling in early childhood is implementing a scheme nationally with the same attention to detail it enjoyed as a small, closely supervised pilot," a member of the World Bank team noted. This experiment offers a possible solution.

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  • Care package: the French postal workers helping lonely older people

    November 23, 2018 |

    The Guardian |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: France

    France's postal office is combatting declining letter-writing by using their services to tackle another problem: the increasing number of elderly people living alone. With the new service "Watch Over my Parents," postal workers in rural France check in on the elderly and provide some company while delivering the mail - so far, the system serves 6,000 people, with an average age of 82 and a minimum cost of €20 per month.

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  • What went wrong with New Orleans transit?

    November 20, 2018 |

    Politico |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, New Orleans

    After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' public transportation system had to be rebuilt, but poor planning and the nature of transportation investments means that the new transit system still doesn't work for those who need transit to access jobs and opportunity. The story of New Orleans is one that other cities can learn from to ensure they plan for transportation systems work for everyone.

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  • What San Francisco's Reform Of Fees And Fines Can Teach Chicago

    November 08, 2018 |

    WBEZ |

    Radio |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, San Francisco

    Recently, a coalition of community members and city government officials in San Francisco came together to rethink the way that the city issues fines and fees for minor infractions, which disproportionately impact low-income residents who already struggle in the country's most expensive city. Now, fees are reduced and can be paid in installments; the change has also been found to actually save the government money in administrative costs, rather than costing revenue as some critics expected.

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  • Silicon Valley voters just demanded that tech companies be responsible for their communities

    November 07, 2018 |

    FastCompany |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, California

    Taxing big tech is a popular idea among residents of cities profoundly shaped by the industry. San Francisco, Mountain View, and East Palo Alto have all approved new taxes pulling money from big tech to fund housing and homelessness programs, public transportation and bike paths, and local STEM education.

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  • Seattle's radical plan to fight big money in politics

    November 05, 2018 |

    Vox |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Seattle tripled the number of people who contributed to local political campaigns by giving each resident $100 in “democracy vouchers” to contribute to the candidate of their choice. The concept was to counter the effect of big money in politics. Although the program was a widely popular idea, it ended up being expensive to run and only 3.3 percent of residents who received the vouchers actually used them.

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  • The Seattle Experiment

    November 02, 2018 |

    NPR |

    Podcast |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Seattle’s “Democracy Vouchers,” funded by a ballot measure to increase property taxes, provide money for residents to make campaign contributions, which increases civic participation and helps people running for office without political connections fund their campaigns. Every city resident receives four 25$ vouchers that they can sign over to the candidate of their choice and mail back in a pre-stamped envelope. Even though only 3% of vouchers were actually used, the number of people contributing to campaigns tripled and several non-establishment candidates were able to run campaigns and get elected.

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  • Pakistan Tries a New Way to Pay for a Dam: Crowdsourcing

    October 25, 2018 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Pakistan

    Under financial strain, Pakistan is asking its citizens and Pakistanis abroad to donate money to build two dams. Only $48 million of the estimated cost of $14 billion has been raised so far, yet the country’s new prime minister Imran Khan is optimistic. “We can build dams in five years if the donations continue,” he said.

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  • Houston Looks for a Smarter, More Equitable Path to Hurricane Recovery

    October 22, 2018 |

    Bloomberg CityLab |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

    The city of Houston is changing its approach to measuring the full scope of damage from Hurricane Harvey so it can get help where it is most needed and improve future flood mitigation. Using data from numerous sources, Civis Analytics found unmet housing needs were far greater than initially recorded and low-income areas were hit disproportionately harder, even though recovery funding often goes to areas with higher housing values. Now city officials are working to implement solutions based on the data in order to allocate limited funds where they will be most effective.

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  • Lafayette Trades Oil for Cajun Songcraft to Drive Economy

    October 19, 2018 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Lafayette, Louisiana

    Layette is replatforming itself to embrace local culture over a dangerous oil dependency. CREATE, a voter-approved initiative in the city, funds cultural events and festivals to create new economic drivers and to promote the cultural legacy of the region. The fund draws upon money designated from a larger pool of surplus property tax revenue, as well as from philanthropic donations.

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