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

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 17062 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • The US police department that decided to hire social workers

    When Alexandria, Kentucky's police chief realized how many of his officers' calls were for mental health crises or minor interpersonal disputes, and then how many of these unresolved problems resulted in repeat 911 calls, he hired a social worker to follow up with people to offer health and social services after the police leave. Now the department's two staff social workers do that work, costing less than hiring more police and reducing repeat calls. Alexandria is a small town, but now its approach is being copied in nearby Louisville.

    Read More

  • Hi, There. Want to Triple Voter Turnout? Audio icon

    Vote Tripling is a get-out-the-vote strategy where volunteers set up outside of polling places, a safer pandemic option, and ask voters to text three friends with a reminder to vote. A randomized trial showed turnout was nearly 8 percentage points higher among people receiving texts. The message to vote holds more weight coming from a friend and it empowers those doing the texting, who also receive an election day reminder to send the texts. To be most effective, the technique requires a busy polling place where proximity to the polling place is legally allowed.

    Read More

  • Citizens' assemblies are increasingly popular

    Citizens' assemblies have been used in a number of countries to give groups of ordinary people the chance to grapple with big, difficult problems and then recommend what actions their governments should take. Assemblies in Ireland led to referenda on subjects long considered intractable, same-sex marriage and abortion, leading to public approval of liberalized policies. As in France, the key to success is when politicians actually listen. By hearing from experts and giving a range of views space to be heard, citizens' assemblies can move people off extreme positions toward compromise.

    Read More

  • Could 80,000 family woodlot owners be the key to saving the Acadian forest?

    Community Forests International created a carbon project to preserve Acadian forest. They measured and quantified carbon storage on small family-owned forest land, certified it by third-party standards, and sold the carbon offsets to an architecture and engineering firm. A conservation easement was also put on the land to ensure the forest’s longevity. The organization has stored enough carbon dioxide to equal the greenhouse gas emissions of 8,229 passenger vehicles driven for a year in three Wabanaki-Acadian forest preserves. The money raised helped buy some of the land to practice sustainable agriculture.

    Read More

  • Program offers alternative to calling police

    For 31 years, CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) has used unarmed medics and crisis intervention experts to respond to mental health and other non-violent crises, saving money and preventing potentially violent reactions that can result from having police respond first. No effects on police officers' use of force have been measured. But CAHOOTS estimates it saves taxpayers $8.5 million annually in police costs.

    Read More

  • ‘Vigilantes' on a mission to reunite owners with their stolen bikes Audio icon

    Facebook groups are reuniting bicycle-theft victims with their property by creating a place to report thefts and alerting others to be on the lookout for the bikes. A pandemic-inspired boom in bicycling, as a means to avoid public transportation, has fed a concurrent boom in bike thefts. Police praise the Facebook groups' public spirit and effectiveness, but warn of risks when confronting those trying to sell stolen bikes. More than 90% of bike theft reports to police hit a dead end, lowering faith in the police as a solution.

    Read More

  • No WiFi at home? One Virginia school district has a creative solution for students

    A school district in Virginia has implemented a two-prong solution to provide internet access to rural students during the pandemic. The indoor solution allows students to make appointments to be inside the school to access the internet. The outside solution, equipping three schools in the district with equipment to boost their Wi-Fi signals, allowing students who can’t make indoor appointments a way to access the Wi-Fi. “We just took advantage of something that was already happening in the district."

    Read More

  • Mental Health And Police Violence: How Crisis Intervention Teams Are Failing

    More than 2,700 police departments in the U.S. have crisis intervention teams aimed at responding to mental health crises with fewer arrests and less violence, but the death of Daniel Prude in Rochester police custody offers clear lessons in the shortcomings and misuse of the CIT model. A lack of adequate mental health services across the country, coupled with superficial training of the police, too often means a police response to a crisis will not de-escalate the situation or lead to meaningful help for the person in crisis. A recent study found CITs have not shown they will lower violence.

    Read More

  • How schools are finding thousands of students they couldn't reach when the pandemic began

    For one school district in Texas, using personal relationships established before the pandemic, proved the best way to reach bilingual students in rural parts of the district who weren't showing up to remote classes. One librarian and a parent “went door-to-door there to track down students and find out how they could help families transition to virtual learning. They also had parents fill out note cards showing how many children lived in the home to make sure no child was left behind.” Other Texas districts are similarly relying on home visits to check on students. Data shows those methods work.

    Read More

  • South L.A. Community Fridges feed and support local residents

    A mutual aid network in Los Angeles is providing communities across the city with the tools and resources to set up community refrigerators in neighborhoods that request them. A total of 15 refrigerators have been installed and are restocked with fresh foods and basic essentials and maintained by the neighborhoods they serve.

    Read More