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How Snail Mail Connected This San Gabriel Valley School District To Its Youngest Students

Mariana Dale

November 30, 2020 |

LAist |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Rowland Heights, California

One school district is taking a creative approach to increase student attendance during the pandemic— care packages. In Rowland Unified School District, kindergarten teachers came up with the idea of sending care packages via the postal services to students twice a month. They hope that by doing so it will increase attendance among kindergarten students, a grade that has nationally seen plummeting enrollment. The packages include paper, pens, and books. “"It's really an opportunity for us as kindergarten teachers to help kids feel seen, and from the start, tell kids that they belong in school."

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Seattle Public Utilities' waste-pumping program has cut sewage spills from homeless people's RVs in half

Scott Greenstone

November 28, 2020 |

The Seattle Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

To help those experiencing homelessness, Seattle Public Utilities workers travel around the city knocking on RV doors and asking occupants if they need their sewage tank pumped. Some RVs are broken down and occupants can’t get to a public dump site to dispose of their waste, so wastewater spills have increased over the years. However, since the pilot program was introduced in 2020, the spills from RVs have been cut in half.

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How the Criminal Justice System Fails People With Mental Illness

Jordan Smith

November 26, 2020 |

The Intercept |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tyler, Texas

Crisis-intervention and de-escalation trainings for police were meant to reform the criminal justice system's handling of people suffering from mental illness. But a lack of rigorous standards in the training and use of these approaches means that they routinely fail as a means of diverting people from arrest and incarceration toward treatment. That failure, combined with a lack of adequate mental-health-care resources, maintains jails' and prisons' role as the nation's de facto mental health care hospitals, even though they lack the will and the means to help people heal.

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‘It's a conversation': Philly's alternative to landlord-tenant court is preventing eviction

Taylor Allen

November 24, 2020 |

WHYY |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia's mandatory Eviction Diversion program, started as a way to help landlords and tenants to cope with pandemic-related economic struggles, requires landlords to enter mediation with tenants who are behind on their rent. By skipping eviction court, the parties can work out repayment plans and tenants can gain access to rental-assistance programs. Mediated agreements avoid a legal judgment that would hurt a tenant's credit and make it difficult to find another place to live, while preventing evictions during the pandemic reduces homelessness.

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Alternative sentencing program offers resources for recovery rather than jail time

Katie Ellington

November 23, 2020 |

Richland Source |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Mansfield, Ohio

The Richland County Community Alternative Center provides court-ordered drug and alcohol treatment in lieu of jail for people facing criminal charges related to their addiction. In 60-, 90-, or 120-day treatment terms, patients from across Ohio receive addiction counseling, therapy, work training, and other skills classes. Case managers help prepare people for re-entry when their sentence has been served. The center is run by the courts, which pay for treatment services, which makes it unusual.

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How College Students Are Helping Each Other Survive

Ezra Marcus

November 23, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Students across the country are dealing with food and housing insecurity, and financial loss, conditions that have been exacerbated because since the pandemic. In response, students in some colleges and universities created mutual-aid networks, raising and distribution thousands of dollars to their peers. “Students continue to lead the fight to address their basic needs.”

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Program in Montrose County Helps Homeless Families Pursue Self-Sufficiency

Laura Palmisano

November 17, 2020 |

Mountain Grown Community Radio (KVNF) |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Olathe, Colorado

Haven House, a faith-based provider of transitional housing for families experiencing homelessness, offers a safe place to live while working to reunite families that face possible loss of child custody over their housing or substance-use status. Required classes in parenting and budgeting, plus job-search services and other classes, have helped more than 370 families over the past decade. Families, who often are referred to the program from the county's Child Protective Services agency, can remain at the house for up to two years if they comply with the rules.

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From prison to star employee

Jo Mathys

November 17, 2020 |

BBC |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Frustrated by a tight labor market, two locally owned Grand Rapids employers discovered the virtues – economic, not just moral – of hiring formerly incarcerated people, whose gratitude for an opportunity translated into excellent performance and less risk of adding to rapid turnover. The employers helped guarantee success by paying for support services that made post-prison transitions easier. The employers then talked hundreds of other local employers into doing the same. Besides providing a business advantage, the program changes lives and is evidently contributing to much lower rates of recidivism.

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In Denver, Unarmed Mental Health Workers Respond To Hundreds Of 911 Calls Instead Of Police

Leigh Paterson

November 17, 2020 |

KUNC |

Radio |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Since Denver launched its Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program in June, it has handled more than 600 calls for help with a mental health clinician and a paramedic instead of sending police officers. Modeled on Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS program, STAR is based on the notion that low-level emergencies involving mental health, homelessness, and substance abuse do not require police responses, and in fact can more often end peacefully by removing police from the equation. STAR started small, with one van on duty during weekday hours. Police support the move, and often call in STAR for assistance.

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Manhattan Mental Health Court offers lifeline to those with serious mental illness — but they have to get in

Chelsia Rose Marcius

November 14, 2020 |

New York Daily News |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Manhattan Mental Health Court was created in 2011 to divert felony criminal cases to treatment, and away from prison, for people in need of mental health treatment. But few people with serious mental illness ever benefit from it. Too few defense lawyers know to request the intervention or do it correctly. Prosecutors act as gatekeepers in deciding who gets the help, and many do not see its value. And, once cases are admitted to the court, they can sometimes take years to be resolved. Covid restrictions on the courts have only aggravated these problems.

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