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How Memphis Outsmarted Tennessee to Remove Its Confederate Monuments

Henry Grabar

December 28, 2017 |

Slate |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Memphis, Tennessee

While there is support among the Memphis government to remove statues of Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Tennessee state government has passed legislation which stymied local efforts. In response, the Memphis government passed a law to sell public parks to a private organization and legislators established an organization to purchase the parks where the statues were located. Through this legal means, the statues were removed and this action was outside the state’s jurisdiction.

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In push to end child marriage in Guatemala, young women are on the front line

Sara Schonhardt

December 28, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Guatemala, Tierra Blanca

In some rural parts of Guatemala, "more than half the girls...marry before the age of 18." While a coalition of organizations was able to lobby lawmakers, and raise the legal marriage age to 18, real changes happened at the community level when mentors engaged with girls.

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How Texas' Harris County went from ‘capital of capital punishment' to zero executions

Henry Gass

December 27, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

In 2017, Harris County, TX saw a year where no one was sentenced to death and no one was executed. The county, nicknamed as the capital of capital punishment, is seeing a shift in the support of the death penalty. While studies haven’t shown a definitive answer, it has been linked to new, reform-focused DAs, the introduction of life sentences without parole, and Supreme Court decisions that likely diminished the use of capital punishment.

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‘I Never Thought That Would Happen in Our Family'

Jennifer Reed

December 27, 2017 |

Gulfshore Life |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, North Naples, Florida

A network of pediatric care providers and mental health specialists are teaming up to offer comprehensive mental health services for children in Florida, something that has previously been neglected. The Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida establishes mental health checkups are part of the primary health care for children with their Beautiful Minds initiative, which also creates the network of integrated care. Today the Healthcare Network has psychologists in all 16 of their pediatric and adult practices and as a result has seen behavioral health visits jump from 964 in 2013 to 4,606 in 2016.

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Lifting Up Community Voices to Tackle Injustice

Jean Trounstine

December 26, 2017 |

Truthout |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Richmond, Virginia

This article uses the stories of five different activist women across the United States as examples of successes using the human-centered design strategy of centering the people most directly affected in the decision-making and healing process. The women work in a variety of justice areas (from housing equity to incarceration), but they all testify to a community justice model as being the most effective and empowering solution to past and current injustices.

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Arkansas Spurns Warehousing of Floundering Students

Heather Vogell

December 22, 2017 |

ProPublica |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Bentonville, Arkansas

The state of Arkansas cares deeply about the wellbeing of its students, as evidenced by its flourishing system of alternative schools that provide extra counseling in academics, social and mental support, and research-backed techniques that reduce bad behavior, poor grades, and absenteeism. The schools even work to dismantle the taboo around alternative schools, presenting them as an intervention rather than a punishment. The introduction of these schools correlates with a decline in Arkansas' overall dropout rate from 2002 to 2012, and nearly 10% of its graduates have spent time in alternative education.

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Carbondale Cops Learn Spanish in Compliance with Town Resolution

Raleigh Burleigh

December 22, 2017 |

KDNK Community Radio |

Radio |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Carbondale, Colorado

To mitigate against growing concerns about the disconnect between Carbondale, Colorado police officers and community members, a local high school proposed a plan: have the cops learn Spanish. Not only has this impacted the police departments outreach, but it has also improved community and police trust.

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How to Get Wheelchairs on Planes

William Kremer

December 17, 2017 |

BBC |

Radio |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: England, London

When you step on an airplane, you might not be thinking about people who use wheelchairs, neither are airlines. People who need to use wheelchairs have faced a number of challenges on airplanes, like lost and damaged wheelchairs, not being able to use the restroom, and feeling dehumanized. Some people, are taking matters into their own hands.

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Rethinking Rikers

Michael Schwirtz Neeti Upadhye Michael Kirby Smith Kaitlyn Mullin

December 16, 2017 |

The New York Times |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

In the ongoing challenge to reform New York’s Rikers Island prison complex, many have turned to Chicago’s Cook County jail as a model. While Rikers has made some reforms – including group therapy for those with mental health concerns and doing away with solitary confinement for inmates under 22 – there is more that they can do to follow in Chicago's footsteps. There, they have introduced the use of real-time data collection to map violence, made mental health care a key component of their services, and trained guards in verbal de-escalation.

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The Radio Show Bringing Prisoners Messages from Home

Ivy Brashear

December 11, 2017 |

Yes! Magazine |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

“Calls From Home” is an Appalachian radio show that allows people in prison to hear messages from family and friends. People call in the radio show, leave a message, and every Monday from 9 to 10 p.m. the messages are played over the airways making a message from home accessible to the 11 prisons and facilities within range. “The folks who are locked up here are also a part of our community. They’re the least visible parts of our community, for sure, but they are here, and I see that as part of our responsibly as a radio station.”

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