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

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  • 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.

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  • ‘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.

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  • Students lost in the virtual learning shuffle? This school district comes to find them

    In order to reach students who aren’t attending virtual classes during the pandemic, a school district in Sacramento created a program called “Student Find.” If teachers and school administrators can’t reach students who’ve been absent, then school counselors hit the pavement. They go door-knocking in an attempt to make contact with families. “That’s the thing I would encourage other districts to consider,” Reyes says. “If we could all take part responsibility and make it something that’s manageable and doable in other places.”

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  • Three Approaches to Rural Rejuvenation

    Despite the pandemic-induced economic slowdown, three small cities have managed to thrive due to successful economic development plans that have led to “rural rejuvenation” in an effort to attract young families to live there. The city of Taos, New Mexico has used a regional strategy to increase tourism while Durango, Colorado, chose to diversify the economy by focusing on its other resources such as high education, natural gas, and healthcare. Bozeman, Montana focused on nurturing local business instead of enticing outside businesses.

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  • In Place of Police: The Oregon Experiment

    CAHOOTS fields teams of mental-health first responders as a cost-effective and more humane alternative to sending the police to 911 calls for crises and even mundane problems concerning mental health, drugs and alcohol, domestic disputes, homelessness, and potential suicides. Weeks of observing their work illustrates the carefully circumscribed role they play in defusing the immediate crisis without necessarily solving the underlying problem entirely. Responding repeatedly to the same people's problems builds trust, but its ultimate success depends on a broader network of health and social services.

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  • An Oregon school district's unique approaches to keeping students fed

    A school district in Oregon took a multi-pronged approach to serving students their school lunches during the pandemic. Some of those things include curbside pickup, using buses to deliver food, and packing more than one meal per pickup. “We definitely saw a decline in the number of people we were able to serve, or who were coming out for meals, so we’re really trying to reach everyone to come get a meal.”

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  • 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.

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  • Detroiters are Fighting for the Right to Water

    Throughout the United States, people living below the federal poverty level often struggle to pay for utilities, but in Philadelphia, the Tiered Assistance Program (TAP) aims to alleviate that burden by basing water utility rates on income. In the four years since the program launched, more than 15,000 residents have participated and 96% of those participants have avoided water shutoffs.

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  • 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.

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  • Can an Algorithm Help Solve Political Paralysis?

    Citizen assemblies bring together residents for in-depth discussions about solutions to social issues. This alternative form of democracy led to policy changes in many countries, including legalizing abortion in Ireland. In the UK, an algorithm was applied to form a 110-person “climate assembly.” In a multistage process, the algorithm selected a representative sample of the U.K.’s population, sometimes oversampling harder to reach groups to ensure inclusion. A small stipend was also offered to offset costs for people with lower incomes. The group submitted a final report with climate policy recommendations.

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