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

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  • How Taiwan is containing coronavirus – despite diplomatic isolation by China

    Struggling countries look to Taiwan as an example of how to respond to a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. Strategies that Taiwan uses include tracking of mandatory quarantines, border control, and its use of technology. They are now looking to expand testing even further.

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  • Advocates, teachers aim to help growing number of young Texas voters wield their power

    Organizations and educators in Texas work to increase voter engagement among young people. Schools must provide voter registrations, but many don't, so some teachers register students and teach the importance of civic participation. Several groups also work to get high school and college-age voters to the polls. MOVE Texas and Texas Rising registered thousands of young voters on National Voter Registration Day in 2019. Utilizing technology, going to where young people are, and teaching media literacy increased civic engagement among young people in 2018, although the turnout was still relatively low at 25%.

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  • How Taiwan and Singapore Have Contained the Coronavirus

    Compared to countries of similar size and stature, Taiwan and Singapore both had extremely effective responses to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus. Each faced their own unique set of circumstances, but they used common tactics, including stopping flights from China, rationing mask purchases, and proactively finding new cases along with quarantining current ones. Both countries' government officials also had effective and clear communications with themselves and the public.

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  • Pour It On: How Dutch Cities Are Soaking up Rain and Reducing Flooding

    A green roof initiative is one of the projects Rotterdam, a city in the Netherlands, is working on to capture and store more rainwater; a solution that might work in Louisiana. With heavier rains and more intense storms due to climate change in both places, the amount of rainfall coming down can overwhelm drainage systems. Although the price tag can be high to build these green roofs, Rotterdam boasts 100 acres of green roofs that have increased the city’s water storage capacity by about 1.6 million gallons.

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  • The Dutch are giving rising rivers more room. Should we follow suit?

    The Dutch government bought out and relocated 200 households in high-risk areas as a way to create more space for rising water levels instead of building bigger levees. The program is called Room for the River, and more than 60,000 people now have much lower flood risk. The program also built new roads, bridges, and pumping stations, one of which doubles as a wildlife-watching tower. This, along with the green spaces, bike paths, and plazas, is credited for building public approval for the project.

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  • Private Prisons Profit Off Incarceration. One In Australia Shows How To Flip The Script

    Using a performance-based contract to give a private prison company the incentive to lower recidivism has encouraged the private operator of Australia’s largest prison to foster a more positive environment and provide a rich array of rehabilitative programs. Instead of penalizing the prison operator for problems, the contract rewards it for success, defined as fewer people returning to prison. Early indications are that it’s working well, by providing job training, counseling that continues after incarceration, and help finding housing post-release.

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  • What Would a World Without Prisons Look Like?

    Deanna Van Buren and her nonprofit firm Designing Justice/Designing Spaces use architecture to advance social justice and criminal-justice-reform ideas, designing workplaces, meeting places, and homes nationwide founded on the notion of "what a world without prisons could look like." The firm's projects, often planned with input from the people directly affected, have included privacy-enhancing temporary living units for people recently released from prison, a "peacemaking" space in Syracuse, N.Y., and two of the first restorative-justice meeting places for crime victims and those who harmed them.

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  • “We Are Not Lost Causes”

    In Rochester, NY, the Center for Teen Empowerment, a nonprofit that trains youth in community organizing, personal development, and anti-violence, is working to bring kids off the street and into safety. The program, which started in Boston, is centered on four ideas: jobs (paying the youth hired as organizers), teamwork, agency (letting them build their own activist agendas), and peer influence. While hard to evaluate because of its situational, qualitative nature, city officials, including law enforcement, point to the program as a factor in the decrease in violence across the city.

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  • Why Taiwan Has Just 42 Coronavirus Cases while Neighbors Report Hundreds or Thousands

    Because of drastic and proactive steps, Taiwan has been able to keep their number of positive COVID19 cases low. Preemptive actions like stopping flights from China and an early stimulus bill has helped the country get ahead of the public health and economic impacts.

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  • The Beautiful Place that Stopped Big Bottled Water

    Washington State could pass one of the toughest restrictions on water bottling operations in the United States, thanks to activists who raised environmental concerns over a bottling facility that wanted to open in a town. Their advocacy is modeled after a similar legal fight in Oregon, where environmentalists, Native American tribes, and labor unions came together behind the campaign. Their success could provide a plan for similar efforts in other communities.

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