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The Mississippi Program That's Showing How Effective Direct Cash Transfers Can Be

Lauren Gill

September 14, 2020 |

The Appeal |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Mississippi

Families experiencing poverty have been given $1,000 each month in an effort to address the racial wealth gap through the Magnolia Mother's Trust program. The cash payments yield an increase of recipients who were able to earn their GEDs, cook fresh meals for their families, and meet all their basic needs. The payments began prior to the onset of the pandemic but have proven to be a crucial safety net.

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Inside Glasgow's Safer Drug Consumption Van

Mattha Busby

September 14, 2020 |

Vice |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Scotland, Glasgow

In Glasglow, a former outreach workers has launched a mobile harm reduction facility to help those who are living with addiction have a safe space to use drugs. Although the idea is controversial and "political," users of the van say that if it weren't for it, they would be risking overdoses or illnesses from using dirty needles.

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Changing their minds, and their lives: A way out of poverty in Philadelphia

Harold Brubaker

September 12, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network) |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The MindSet program adopts 30 people per year for a five-year "mobility mentoring" program, coaching people living in poverty to set clear goals and helping them save toward economic independence. Run by the nonprofit Episcopal Community Services and modeled on Boston's EMPath (Economic Mobility Pathways), MindSet rejects traditional case management and approaches that merely maintain people's lifestyle, focusing instead on plotting a path to a better future. More testing is needed on its effectiveness, but EMPath participants increased their annual income from $16,000 to $47,000.

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Gaining traction: With an eviction crisis still on the horizon, sanctioned overnight parking lots provide temporary relief

Emma Athena

September 10, 2020 |

Boulder Weekly |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Boulder, Colorado

The nonprofit Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement (HOPE) began SafeLot, a program providing an approved parking lot where people living in vehicles can spend the night safely. Safelots have sprung up nationwide, particularly during high unemployment thanks to the pandemic. In Boulder, they've created tension with the regional agency charged with reducing homelessness. Its Housing First approach, emphasizing more permanent housing solutions, strikes some as contradicting safelots' shorter-term fix. Safelot advocates say it offers stability that acts as a bridge to a more settled lifestyle.

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Homelessness on wheels: Boise Police, social workers launch new initiative for those living in vehicles in downtown Boise

Margaret Carmel

September 08, 2020 |

BoiseDev |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Boise, Idaho

An emergency shelter, a housing nonprofit, the City of Boise, and the Boise Police Department came together to coordinate efforts and give assistance to the growing number of residents experiencing homelessness and living in RVs and cars around the city. The “Street Outreach Support” program involves knocking on the vehicle doors and offering temporary housing and medical attention to those who need it. While there are a smattering of reasons that people are living in their vehicles, the city is searching for a more permanent solution to getting people access to affordable housing.

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Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.

Elise Schmelzer

September 06, 2020 |

The Denver Post |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

To avoid unnecessary arrests and reduce police-public friction, Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assistance Response) sends a mental health professional and a paramedic to some mental-health-related 911 calls instead of sending police. In the first three months of the pilot program, the STAR team – covering only certain areas of the city during weekdays – handled 350 calls without needing police backup. STAR builds on a 4-year-old program pairing Denver police with mental health professionals. That program handled 2,223 calls in 2019 and is expanding.

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In CAHOOTS in Oregon

Taylor Perse

September 04, 2020 |

Voices of Monterey Bay |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

Oregon's CAHOOTS program has succeeded in replacing police on many mental-health crisis calls over its 30-year history because it is integrated in a larger system of services, including law enforcement. CAHOOTS' crisis workers, who cover the cities of Eugene and Springfield with three vans taking dozens of calls for help a day, come to their jobs with expertise as EMTs, nurses, or social workers. Then they spend 500 hours of training in crisis management and de-escalation, learning to offer help without forcing it, and without the threat of arrest except in the few cases when police backup is needed.

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Where Calling the Police Isn't the Only Option

Sarah Holder Kara Harris

September 03, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

As the "defund-the-police" campaign sparks interest in alternatives to police-only responses to crises involving mental illness or similar problems, cities as disparate as Eugene, Oregon, and Stockholm serve as exemplars of ways to handle thousands of calls per year without involving the police. Like Eugene's CAHOOTS program, Stockholm's Psykiatrisk Akut Mobilitet (PAM) sends mental health and medical professionals to help people suffering mental crises. Now Oakland, Portland, Denver, New York, and other cities are exploring how to customize such programs to their own communities' needs.

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Minnesota COVID-19 outreach focuses on vulnerable communities of color

Joey Peters

September 02, 2020 |

Sahan Journal |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Minnesota

To extend aid to the Minnesotans most vulnerable to the coronavirus, state and local health departments, backed by $4 million in state funding and by community groups' on-the-ground help, conducted an extensive campaign of culturally appropriate outreach to offer free COVID-19 tests and healthcare advice. The efforts have included one-on-one contacts, email blasts to free-school-lunch recipients, and TV and radio ads on media targeting Black, Latinx, immigrant, and refugee populations. Immigrant communities and people of color have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic.

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Rural California Transit Agency Reinvents Itself During COVID

Carl Smith

August 31, 2020 |

Governing |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

The coronavirus pandemic drastically reduced the ridership of the Monterey-Salinas Transit District, so the system shifted services to help the mostly rural community it serves. Despite cash-flow problems, unused drivers and vehicles helped Meals on Wheels deliver 8,000 meals to seniors and persons with disabilities, wi-fi-enabled commuter buses parked in rural areas to provide hot spots for students, and the system donated unused vehicles to groups serving veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and at-risk youth. The system continues to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances.

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