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

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  • Five Days Without Cops: Could Brooklyn Policing Experiment be a ‘Model for the Future'?

    For 50 hours over five days, police and community members collaborated on the Brownsville Safety Alliance pilot project, which kept police officers away from a longtime crime hotspot so that community members could provide for police-free public safety. During the experiment, no one in the neighborhood called 911 to report a serious crime. Criminologists caution that the test does not prove that police can step away permanently. But residents say that after longstanding friction over policing, they and the police struck a new tone of cooperation in community-led crime prevention that they hope can continue.

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  • How This New App Can Teach You About Forgotten Histories

    The Staten Island African American Heritage Tour is a website and mobile app that offers virtual tours of Staten Island’s Black History, which was oftentimes intentionally erased from the city's historical accounts. The tours are based on genealogical and historical investigations and the app was tested by local students for user-friendliness. The students were empowered to learn about their own histories and reported that their knowledge of local histories expanded. Five days after the website launched, before the app was public, there were already hundreds of local and international unique users.

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  • Fragile cities are being inundated with people fleeing the impacts of climate change. How can they cope?

    Durable Solutions Initiative (DSI) aims to create long-term solutions to help internally displaced people in under-resourced urban areas, many of whom fled climate-related disasters. DSI relies on ideas from the displaced communities about how to move towards self-reliance. In Somalia, the participatory and locally-created approach led to Midnimo I, a donor-funded initiative that created short-term jobs, built or upgraded community-prioritized infrastructure projects like schools and hospitals, and improved relations between authorities and displaced communities, benefiting nearly 350,000 people directly.

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  • Ajo bands together to fight COVID food insecurity

    The Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture has helped the town of Ajo in Arizona distribute affordable and nutrient-dense food to the community after the coronavirus pandemic created a significant financial strain on many families. Additional support has come from the town's participation in the Environmental Protection Agency's program Local Food, Local Places which "provides technical support and expertise to help towns leverage food systems to boost economic development."

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  • The marathon: How Ontario succeeded in former GM plant's redevelopment this time

    The city of Ontario, Ohio, redeveloped the site of a former General Motors plant in an endeavor to bring back jobs. Extensive cleanup, construction, and collective action resulted in a clean facility and a bright future. The site will soon be home to the first new tenant: A specialty bags production plant.

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  • The Island Where Everyone Owns the Wind

    Denmark’s Samso Island has not only succeeded in generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy - which is the nation’s goal by 2030 - it is now carbon negative. Locals initially pushed back on the idea of loud and unsightly windmills but had a change of heart when part ownership of the turbines was offered. Samso Island’s success in addressing climate change so effectively was a result of civic participation and the opportunity for economic development.

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  • When money is running short, print your own

    A community currency was introduced to boost the local economy in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts. $133,000 worth of BerkShares, as the currency is known, are in circulation and accepted by small businesses in town. The concept arose from the desire to support “a strong commitment to speak with buying choices.”

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  • Lessons From Portland's Protest Movement

    Organized groups of volunteers helped sustain over four months of Black Lives Matters protests, with centralized information sources keeping the public informed and essential support services provided. A network of over 160 medics tended to protesters' health needs and organizers provided air filters to deal with tear gas. Protestors getting out of jail were given food, water, and other resources, and affected neighborhoods were cleaned up by teams of volunteers. Such support created other ways to participate while also providing critical infrastructure to sustain months of protests for racial justice.

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  • Saving mums and their unborn babies

    Women who faced difficulty getting to the nearest hospital when they were in labor, organized to raise money to buy a car that could be used as an emergency vehicle. Although having the car has helped significantly with accessing the hospital, it's not a fail-proof system and can be costly for the community to maintain. The state government was impressed with the scheme, however, and has launched an initiative that helps provide financial incentives to drivers for the program.

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  • Everyday resilience in a Lesvos refugee camp

    People living in the Kara Tepe refugee camp find creative ways to withstand the oftentimes inhumane conditions. To supplement insufficient food rations, volunteers bake and distribute up to 400 pieces of bread a day while others fish to provide their own food. The NGO Yoga & Sport for Refugees organizes swimming, running, and team sports to provide mental health outlets. Residents also organize non-formal educational activities because no formal schooling is provided for camp residents. The Instagram account Now You See Me Moria publishes photos taken by camp residents to raise awareness of these issues.

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