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

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  • Minnesota nonprofits boost voter outreach for 2020 election

    Nonprofits increased voter engagement in communities that face barriers to voting. Deaf Equity posted videos on social media in ASL to educate voters on how to register to vote and track mail-in ballots. The Native American Community Development Institute is engaging with voters in rural Minnesota, religious leaders at mosques, churches, and temples are encouraging members to vote, and volunteers at food shelves are handing out voter registration forms. Several groups have received funding to conduct voter outreach with Black and Muslim communities as well as neighborhoods where people have lower incomes.

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  • How diverse is your government? These two laws changed who holds power in California Audio icon

    In California, two laws have helped to open opportunities for less experienced candidates to win state and local offices, which has increased representation among people of color. A 1990 law set term limits for the state legislature, which forces turnover, and the California Voting Rights Act allowed communities of color to demand electoral changes, including by-district elections that have increased Latinx and Black representatives at the local level. These laws have helped to level the playing field but the benefits have not occurred across all districts, instead they tend to be driven by a few cities.

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  • Tucson program helping women- and minority-owned small businesses access COVID-19 relief money

    To help small businesses survive the coronavirus pandemic, the city of Tucson launched the Small Business Continuity Grants to supplement the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program. Although the fund can only provide so much for businesses and still requires an application process, it has helped over 170 businesses so far, with the majority being woman-owned or minority-owned businesses.

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  • Meet the Bristol collective putting surplus wealth in the hands of people tackling injustice

    Bristol Redistro is an experiment in wealth redistribution that taps the social-justice consciences of people who pool what they see as their excess money to make grants to small community groups that are "challenging unfair power structures." An initial round made £1,000 grants to such groups as Mandem, an online artistic platform for young men of color, and No More Exclusions, which seeks to reform school discipline. Funding decisions get made by a collective, not Redistro's leaders, with the aim of driving social change and challenging inequality by sharing the wealth with grassroots community groups.

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  • Health on Wheels: Tricked-Out RVs Deliver Addiction Treatment to Rural Communities

    Because access to addiction treatment is difficult in rural communities, a state program in Colorado has allowed for RV's to be turned into mobile clinics, which has proved especially useful during the coronavirus pandemic. Not only do the mobile clinics offer services such as testing, but they also provide internet access for patients who need to connect with a doctor.

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  • Harvard medical student knocks down a big barrier to COVID-19 info

    A volunteer organization is helping to address a language barrier as it pertains to COVID-19 by translating and distributing public health information in the native languages of tribes. Although this is not as simple as translating word-for-word since some of the words do not exist in the local dialects and because some of the guidelines are not practical for the communities, the organization has translated the health sheets into 45 different languages and has worked with "schoolchildren in the tribe to act as conduits for the information."

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  • Black women legislators are rare in statehouses. This could be the solution.

    A newly established PAC in Washington state aims to increase the likelihood of Black women being elected to Washington State Legislature by eliminating the financial barrier that often impedes candidates from running their campaigns on an equal playing field. Although it is yet to be seen how the elections will turn out, the PAC has already succeeded in fundraising over $200,000 and distributing those funds to various campaigns.

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  • This Philly charter school is trying to grow the ranks of Black male teachers

    Data shows that nationally only 2% of public-school teachers are Black men. To fill that gap, Boys’ Latin, a charter school in Philadelphia, launched a program that creates teaching positions for Black men who want to teach. Research shows that having Black teachers in the classroom decreases the likelihood that Black boys will drop out of high school. “With students at Boys’ Latin, “there’s still work to be done” to forge a connection, said Fletcher, who is teaching Latin to ninth and 10th graders. “But one of those walls is down, because he sees me like I see him.”

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  • Rapid rehousing strategy helps protect domestic violence victims during a pandemic

    A housing program known as REACH Rapid Rehousing program is providing relief for domestic violence survivors who are left without shelter and financial aid. Rent, utilities, and security deposits are provided for up to nine months. The program proved to be a lifeline, especially during COVID-19 lockdowns.

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  • Can't Pay Your Rent? ‘Lawtech' Is Here to Help.

    Soon after the federal government imposed a second moratorium on evictions, SixFifty, a tech firm, released Hello Landlord, a mobile app for tenants to generate a legally compliant form letter invoking the law with their landlords to block a threatened eviction. In the first nine days after its release, the app was used by more than 200 people. The free service is an example of what's called lawtech: technology giving access to legal information to individuals and small businesses. Hello Landlord asks 19 questions that serve to automate what a tenant's lawyer might do – if only the tenant could afford one.

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