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

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  • How employee ownership helped Phoenix Coffee survive Covid-19

    In Cleveland, Ohio, several small businesses have joined a co-op of companies using an employee-owned model to help with the financial constraints brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Although the process of joining the cooperative can be complicated, it has shown promise for increased business stability and, already, employees have reported it has helped with personal finances.

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  • Breaking Buildings' Addiction to Fossil Fuels

    BlocPower retrofits buildings with energy-efficient equipment in financially underserved communities by offering loans to building owners for no money down. The company has completed about 1,000 projects by bundling the financing for many projects and finding investors willing to provide capital for the larger sum, which reduces investor risk. The group also created technology to reduce the costs of building inspections and energy usage monitoring. The new equipment increases building values and reduces energy costs so that owners pay less in monthly loan repayments than they would with the old equipment.

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  • Newly Formed KC Bail-Out Group Successful After Its First Year in Action

    In its first year, Operation Liberation helped more than 30 people post bail to be released from the Jackson County Detention Center. The operation focuses on bailing Black people out of jail when their lack of money keeps them jailed on low-level charges. Kansas City's population is about one-quarter Black, but its jail skews 58% Black. Operation Liberation provides social supports to people once they are released from pretrial detention, helping with everything from housing to transportation. Its first year's work was funded by more than $75,000 in donations.

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  • Tip Me's Digital Tipping Solution Lets You Tip the Workers Who Made Your Clothes

    To mitigate the problem of unfair supply chains, Tip Me allows consumers to send money directly to the workers creating the merchandise in factories halfway across the world. Brands pay a fee to sign up for the system "in order to boost their ethical credibility" which provides funding for Tip Me, allowing the company to handle the logistics of getting tips into the hands of those for whom they are intended. Half of all shoppers have used the tipping feature when presented with the opportunity.

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  • S.D. farmers raise 'heritage' turkeys to preserve ancient breeds and meet growing consumer demand

    A band of farmers in South Dakota are reviving “heritage turkeys,” an ancient breed of turkeys that went nearly extinct in the 1990s. There can be a learning curve and upfront costs when working with heritage turkeys, but because of efforts nationwide, the breeding stock of these creatures went from 1,335 in 1997 to 14,000 by 2016. The farmers are breeding, raising, and selling these turkeys as part of the farm-to-table movement, but they’re also working to preserve the critically endangered breed.

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  • How College Students Are Helping Each Other Survive

    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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  • Streaming Needs to Pay Artists More—but There's an Idea From China That Could Help

    A music-streaming service in China has successfully created a revenue stream for artists who can monetize direct exchanges with their loyal fanbase. Platforms like Apple Music, Pandora, and Spotify are responsible for almost 80 percent of global music revenue but royalties to artists are generally low. Some applications and services in the United States have allowed artists to receive micropayments from fans but making the process easy and convenient would require the larger streaming services to cultivate direct exchanges and incentivize "a digital tip jar."

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  • Coronavirus vaccine: How will poorer countries get a fair shot?

    As the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine continues, many officials are preemptively discussing how the vaccine will be disseminated, especially as richer countries have already "staked their claim to the first doses." The solution may be an advance market commitment – a concept employed in the early 2000s by GAVI to more equitably distribute the pneumococcal vaccine.

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  • Crowdfunded solar puts Red Lake Nation on a path to energy sovereignty

    The Red Lake Nation in Minnesota is building a 240-kilowatt solar array on top of a workforce training center, which will generate about half of the building’s electricity. This project was financed through crowdfunding, where they raised $250,000 from religiously inclined microlenders. The goal: to allow the tribe to have energy sovereignty, create higher-paying jobs, and maintain a healthy environment.

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  • Rural Hospitals Are Dying. This One Saved Itself—And Its Community

    Rural hospitals across the country often struggle to stay open in states where Medicaid has not been expanded, but a method known as "swing beds" has helped two critical-access hospitals in Georgia to avoid this fate. This method, which allows hospitals to swing beds from "only patients in need of acute care to those who no longer require the emergency department but still needed more treatment before a nursing home," allowed for the hospitals to pay off debt and expand services.

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