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Los Angeles Offering Cash Cards for Laid-Off Angelenos, with No Strings Attached

Zoe Sullivan

April 10, 2020 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

The Mayor’s Fund for the City of Los Angeles has launched a program that literally hands people cash, no strings attached as long as they can prove that they have lost their jobs during the pandemic. In order to make the process as quick and seamless as possible, they issued debit cards instead of checks (making it more accessible to those without bank accounts), making the cards fee-free, and by making the process to apply as simple as 2 phone calls. They also had $1 million in grocery store gift cards, but the supply was exhausted in a few days.

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Sweden's government has tried a risky coronavirus strategy. It could backfire.

Alex Ward

April 09, 2020 |

Vox |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Sweden

Where government restrictions are lax, residents adopt social distancing measures voluntarily to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Sweden, the trust between much of the country’s population and a public health system disinclined to advise for long-term shutdowns at the national level has left residents and businesses to enact social distancing and sheltering measures more gradually. In the long-term, there appears to be a relationship between Sweden’s relatively higher caseload and voluntary containment policies when compared to its neighbors.

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12 Ways Communities Are Taking Care of Each Other During the Pandemic

Ruth Terry

April 07, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

With a crisis as ubiquitous as the COVID-19 pandemic, silver bullets simply do not exist. Fortunately, many grassroots initiatives have sprung up around the United States, like Pass the Lettuce, which encourages people to donate their stimulus checks if they are able, the Coronavirus Relief Fund, which provides relief to domestic workers forced to stay home, and the Sex Worker Relief Fund, which gives aid to sex workers who are outside of the system.

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Are We Firing Too Many People In The U.S.?

Greg Rosalsky

April 07, 2020 |

NPR |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Germany, Berlin

“Kurzarbeit” is a German governmental program that helps preserve jobs in an economic crisis. A company can reduce the hours of workers and the government will help pay them, which preserves the important specialized training invested in manufacturing jobs, helps workers get some pay, and reduces the reliance upon unemployment benefits that are comparable to those in the U.S. It worked in the 2008 recession, and it is working in the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.

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Seamstresses after the Virus Hit Cuba: from Dresses to Masks

Ana Lidia García

April 06, 2020 |

elTOQUE |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Cuba, Havana

In Havana, Cuba, the city's seamstresses quickly pivoted from sewing dresses and costumes to much-needed face masks as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. Many seamstresses are even using recycled clothes to bring costs down.

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Swiss lead way with crisis loans to small businesses

Sam Jones

April 06, 2020 |

Financial Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Switzerland

The Swiss government's economic stimulus package for small business is being lauded around the world for its speed and efficiency. They have pledged $40 billion in emergency loans to support small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. The application is only a page long, the loan is interest-free, and businesses receive the money almost immediately. Their success is credited to their insular network of businesses and political elites that made the rollout exceptionally quick.

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A German Exception? Why the Country's Coronavirus Death Rate Is Low

Katrin Bennhold

April 04, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Germany, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg

Germany has had plenty of coronavirus patients—more than 100,000 laboratory-confirmed infections—but their death rate is remarkably low compared to neighboring countries. Experts attribute this to extensive and widespread testing, a trusted government, social distancing, and plenty of hospital care available if needed. Their capacity is so great that the country is now taking in patients from Italy, Spain, and France. As a result, the curve is beginning to flatten in Germany.

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Convention Center Helps Build Sanitation Stations to Combat COVID-19

Cheryl Rodewig

April 02, 2020 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Athens, Georgia

In Athens, Georgia, 70 miles east of the capital Atlanta, one empty convention center put its space to good use by producing sanitation stations to combat COVID-19. After losing $1.2 million dollars of business in a single day, the convention center leadership found a way to leverage their forklifts, exhibit hall, and loading docks.

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Baltimore Social Enterprises Turn Abandoned Homes into High-End Furniture and So Much More

Scott Kirkwood

April 02, 2020 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

In Baltimore, a successful social enterprise collaboration involves employing formerly incarcerated people to deconstruct valuable old wood from abandoned homes, preparing the wood for production, then turning the wood into high-end furniture. The initiative has expanded by working with the U.S. Forest Service to repurpose fallen wood from around the country, and it has already found a new life for wood for at least 90 homes.

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A Simple Mask

Tomáš Brolík Petr Horký Jiří Nádoba

April 01, 2020 |

Respekt |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, a seamstress named Michaela Moudra encouraged people across the country to meet their nation's acute need for face masks to reduce COVID-19 transmission. From her Facebook group Czechia Sews Face Masks, which now has tens of thousands of members, Moudra inspired hundreds to start sewing masks.

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