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

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  • Sustaining the Work of Artists With a Living Wage and Benefits In Western Massachusetts

    Artists at Work is a pilot project of THE OFFICE performing arts + film that paired artists with cultural and community partners to work on local initiatives. For their work, the artists were paid a living wage, including healthcare, which resulted in responses to issues like youth mental health, food justice, and COVID-19 awareness campaigns in communities that are marginalized. From empowering youth to build community through food and farming to engaging young queer people of color, the successful six-month pilot led to a new fundraising campaign to continue and expand to seven regions across the U.S.

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  • Recovered Covid Patients Send Their Leftover Meds to Those in Need

    Volunteers with India’s Meds For More initiative (MFM) collect leftover unused medications from recovered Covid-19 patients by canvassing their apartment buildings, offices, student clubs, schools, and other locations. Once collected, MFM distributes them to NGOs licensed to work in the health sector, who transport the medicines to marginalized communities in urban and rural areas. Medical professionals sort and pack the medicines and give them to local hospitals and health care centers, who distribute them to patients. The success of the program has inspired similar initiatives in several other cities.

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  • Bogota crowdsources a green transport future to cut emissions

    Citizen participation in meetings, door-to-door surveys, and via an open-source online platform where residents could edit and add to draft plans resulted in 7,000 citizen proposals to redesign one of Bogota’s major, car-choked, 23-km thoroughfares. Residents as young as 10 years old contributed to design plans that will cut climate-changing emissions and pollution by adding more bike lanes, pedestrian paths, and electric buses and cable cars. City officials spent substantial time listening to residents’ ideas and concerns, including talking with populations that are often ignored by those in power.

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  • How Social Media Fact-Checking Limits, But Can't Eliminate, Online Disinformation

    Social media companies are using artificial intelligence to help identify misinformation. Once identified, human fact checkers will verify the posts. Facebook uses 60 partnered fact-checking organizations as well as SimSearchNet++ image-recognition system that can identify image manipulation and slight changes to misinformation. Hundreds of millions of posts are flagged every year and those that are identified as “false” or “altered” are labeled with warnings and distribution is reduced.

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  • Jirogasy's solar computers power offgrid schools in Madagascar

    Jirogasy developed solar-powered computers and, maximizing a partnership with an education NGO, has helped expand computer access among rural schools without access to a grid. Using internationally-funded grants, they created the Jirodesk II, a Windows 10 powered PC that can be powered by the grid or charged via a solar panel. The computers are monitored remotely, which allows users to quickly get tech support, and the company monitors usage in Watt-hours for its “pay-per-use-until-you own model,” where users pay per number of Watt-hours used, and after a certain number of Watt-hours the machine is paid off.

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  • ‘What difference would that make?'

    A participatory budgeting pilot in ten Chicago Public Schools empowers students to influence change by deciding how small grants, typically $1,000 to $2,000, should be spent for school improvement. Students brainstorm ideas, construct persuasive proposals, and vote on which to implement, providing valuable lessons in civic participation. The proposals revealed student needs that staff hadn’t previously considered. Ultimately, grants supported gender-neutral bathrooms, locker room shower curtains, a peer mentoring program, and spaces for students to reflect and decompress when feeling overwhelmed.

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  • In Dallas' food deserts, community gardens ease — but don't end — food insecurity

    A resolution in Austin, Texas, allows community gardens to use public land. It also created the City of Austin Community Garden Program to help people find partnerships and apply to create a garden. The government support allowed more community gardens to open and help fight food insecurity across the city.

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  • Co-Governing to Build Back Better

    The city of York trained volunteers to help identify causes and solutions to loneliness and social isolation, an issue with public health consequences. Volunteers conducted research and spoke to 1,000 fellow residents and 100 other stakeholders to identify community knowledge and priorities. Working closely with local partners, volunteers helped design and implement solutions, including pairing young runners with isolated older citizens to serve as coaches and provide motivation. Participants reported positive outcomes, like feeling less lonely and experiencing improved well-being.

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  • 'Virtual rangers' help South African reserve keep poachers away

    Over 55,000 people have become “virtual rangers,” helping to protect South Africa’s Balule Nature Reserve from poachers. Officials at the reserve teamed up with Samsung and Africam to increase the ability to keep watch over the park, which is home to some of the most vulnerable animals to poaching, including rhinoceros, leopards, and elephants. Camera phones, held in protective cases, are mounted around the reserve and stream images to “virtual rangers” worldwide who have already reported hearing gunshots, which could indicate the possibility of poachers, and seeing trapped animals needing rescue.

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  • How Taiwan triumphed over Covid as the UK faltered

    Taiwan was among the first countries to respond to COVID-19 with decisive actions that contained the virus’ impact on the population. Its 2003 experience with the SARS virus provided an established infrastructure to focus on eliminating the virus rather than its mitigating spread. In-bound travel was quickly regulated, a centralized office coordinated responses across sectors, and clear communication campaigns limited disinformation. Officials temporarily authorized “intrusive data collection measures” to track, trace, and isolate infections and masks were required and made widely available.

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