Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • 'They probably saved my life' | Former inmate says nonprofit keeps him, others out of jail

    St. Louis' Concordance Academy of Leadership turns the traditional approach to prison re-entry programs on its head. Rather than pushing people just released from prison to find housing and a job, the academy pays its participants a living wage while it provides them with the counseling and other support they need not to slip back into trouble. Once their lives are stable, they focus in the 18-month program on employment. The 6-year-old program improves the chances of staying out of prison by more than 40%, according to one study. Concordance is raising the money it needs to expand to other cities.

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  • In Eugene, Oregon, civilian response workers—not police—are dispatched to nonviolent crises

    Eugene's well-established CAHOOTS program for replacing police as first responders to certain types of 911 calls has become a model for multiple cities as they seek to replicate its success in an era of questioning the role of police. While it saves its city money and replaces arrests and possible violence with social and health services for people needing housing or mental health care, or suffering from addiction, CAHOOTS is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of programs responding to these challenges. Communities' differences will dictate what works best for them.

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  • Plotting the future: the ‘seed guardians' bringing variety to UK gardens

    Hundreds of seed-saving initiatives across the UK support the cultivation of “open pollinated seeds” in small plots and gardens to preserve future seed diversity. In contrast to static seeds in a bank, these seed-saving efforts focus on actually growing and sustaining seeds to provide security and more resilient crops. Open pollinated seeds reliably produce viable, true-to-type plants year after year so new seeds do not have to be purchased every season. Many “seed-savers” participate in seed circles where they exchange surplus seeds among small groups, enhancing the security and diversity of seeds.

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  • Black people no longer disproportionately affected by COVID-19 in Flint, health officials say

    At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, public health officials in Flint, Michigan began tracking the demographics of those who were testing positive for the virus in order to better align the county's public health action and outreach. In doing so, officials realized that a lack of access to testing in predominately Black neighborhoods was a contributing factor and decided to launch mobile testing, barrier-free sites, and other interventions at the state level.

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  • In South Bend, Pete Buttigieg challenged a decades-old assumption that streets are for cars above all else

    Reconfiguring streets to slow automobile traffic through its downtown business district and encourage pedestrians and bicycling enlivened South Bend's street life and proved a boon to its restaurants and other businesses. Then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg pushed for the $25 million plan to make the streets safer and encourage people to spend more time and money in the area. Drivers complained about increased travel time, as they have about other cities’ “complete streets” programs. But Buttigieg and his supporters hope to push the concept when he runs the federal Transportation Department.

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  • On its 20th birthday, Wikipedia might be the safest place online

    Wikipedia’s large number of volunteer editors document history in real time, while making sure different viewpoints are considered and avoiding misinformation. While other social media sites are hesitant to label unreliable sources and misinformation, Wikipedia clearly labels controversial and unproven topics and deploys many tools to avoid false information. A single page per topic makes monitoring easier, pages can be locked from new edits, and people who frequently make false edits can be banned. While it doesn’t claim to be a reliable source, editors do follow policies meant to keep out anything untrue.

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  • Plantation tours bypass the ‘big house' to focus on the enslaved

    In an effort to combat racial injustice, former plantations are shifting the narrative typically given on tours to focus on the lives of the enslaved who once lived there instead of enslavers who owned the plantations. The initiative sprung from a need to accurately portray the history of slavery and better “inform the present.”

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  • Give Housing, Save Money

    Providing people with housing and then giving them the services they need to stay housed is also a very effective way to save tax-payer money. Reducing chronic homeless through programs like The Madrone Project helps keep the unhoused healthier, reducing their trips to the ER, and also saves tax dollars that go into policing those living on the streets. Spending money on housing and services can be considered an investment that helps get people housed and healthy again, as well as a financial strategy to reduce government and hospital costs.

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  • The Sausage-Making to Revive a Black-owned Sausage Factory in New Orleans

    Community land trusts typically provide affordable housing but now one is responsible for the revival of a family business in New Orleans. Commercial community land trusts are emerging as viable solutions for tenants being displaced by higher rents as well as the revitalization of historically Black centers of commerce. Commercial land trusts are an avenue for the Black community to have “economic self-determination.”

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  • Helping Summit County's 90,000 older adults stay safe in their homes

    Senior citizens are getting the home renovations they need to make their homes accessible and safe. These renovations allow them to remain safe and comfortable in their homes, where they have made a lifetime of memories.

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