How UNICEF sends lifesaving supplies anywhere within 48 hours

Research says that bilingual kids reap significant benefits from reading in their primary language. One nonprofit working in Rwanda, Congo, Haiti, Cambodia, and Mongolia provides digital books in students' strongest language and recruits local writers to create age-level books with local context: "It's not just a matter of translating materials," a professor at Columbia's Teachers College notes. "It's a matter of valorizing the home culture and language of the learners."

Two federally-funded Seattle tech training programs tasked with increasing diversity in the industry returned dramatically different results over the course of one year. Experts credit Apprenti's employer-driven nature, use of an online screening tool, and close ties with the local tech community with its relative success in placing 220 people in apprenticeships in its first 18 months. 94 percent of applicants to Aprenti's program were women, veterans, or persons of color, with only 55 percent holding a post-secondary degree.

Since 1995, Pragnachaksu has paved a path to empowerment for blind women in India, offering academic and vocational classes in addition to braille instruction. The school provides free housing and tuition for girls looking for primary and secondary education, a service that is usually unavailable to the country's eight million blind citizens, and to visually impaired women in particular.

Paul Sinton-Hewitt, founder of the charity Parkrun, never set out to create a revolution. All he wanted was a low-pressure space to run. Now, his organization supports over 1,600 community running events around the globe, with an expected one million participants by 2023. This is part of a trend of “people’s innovation,” or the idea that innovation can come from users rather than just executives. Parkrun exemplifies the inclusive spirit of people’s innovation and the positive impacts it can spread all around the world.

FEMA’s response to Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Irma has been the “longest sustained domestic airborne food and water mission in the nation’s history. The agency has never distributed more food or installed more generators.” However, due to bureaucracy and delayed decision making, there are still thousands of Puerto Ricans who have not received aid, or were underserved.

Solar power is a great advancement for renewable energy, but traditionally relies on connecting to a grid in order to function correctly. So when hurricanes hit Puerto Rico, even those with solar panels lost access to electricity. A micro-grid offers an alternative solution, however, by relying on battery power.

The Kansas City school district and a group of local nonprofits are implementing a new software management system that will allow partners to access student data from a range of sources. The data-sharing agreement will paint a more holistic picture of students and, in the future, allow teachers and others to make informed interventions when appropriate.

Activists in Berkeley, California, are filling in what they say is a gap in homeless services during the coronavirus outbreak. Volunteers are safely delivering food and other supplies to those without shelter.

In Los Angeles, the city-led effort, Project Roomkey, is working to get 15,000 people experiencing homelessness into hotel rooms in the fight against COVID-19. Working with the LA Homeless Services Authority and state negotiators, partnerships with hotels are being developed and are already housing some of these individuals. While costing nearly $190 million, it is helping save lives and hopefully keeping hotels afloat.

A Cup of Cold Water is a volunteer collaboration between four local Episcopal churches that has been providing assistance to residents who lost their homes in the recent wildfires through the group’s community outreach program. Since a day after the wildfires started on August 8, volunteers have driven a van around the island to distribute supplies like toiletries, food, clothing, bottled water and other necessities.