Story Search Results

Advanced Search

There are so many ways to search the solutions journalism stories in this database. Explore our searchable fields:

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 1996 results for your search. View and Refine Your Search Terms

A California town was promised police reform – then police got involved

Aaron Miguel Cantú

March 12, 2021 |

The Guardian |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chico, California

A series of killings by the police sparked a community-led movement urging greater accountability and better training. The campaign bore fruit when the Chico mayor formed a committee to examine use of force policies. While police-reform advocates got appointed to the committee, the panel was dominated by the police and their political allies. Use of force policies never got examined. The city, in fact, ended up giving the police more resources and power. One policing critic concludes from this episode that professionalizing the police without scrutinizing their mission is bound to fail.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Social Workers Instead of Police? Denver's 911 Experiment Is a Promising Start

Alissa Walker

March 10, 2021 |

Curbed New York |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Four years after pairing social workers with police officers on certain nonemergency calls, Denver's STAR program began dispatching a mental-health clinician and paramedic as sole first responders when health and social services are needed rather than arrests, jail, and the risk of police violence. The program in its first six months, though limited by geography and hours, handled 748 calls without any police involvement. Police, in fact, are relaying many of the calls that STAR takes. STAR teaches other large cities useful lessons, but it's only as good as the local mental-health infrastructure.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Mindfulness training is helping Philly students – and teachers – thrive

Jessica Blatt Press

March 09, 2021 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Amy Edelstein thought that if high school students knew how to meditate they could learn how to focus, stay on track, and regulate negative self-talk. They could become better. So, in 2014 she started the Inner Strength Foundation to provide public schools with research-backed mindfulness curriculum. The curriculum has become a 12-week program, with instructors visiting classrooms in 19 schools across the city once a week.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Mothers and Sons program helps women raise boys to become non-violent, respectful men

Sarah Moss

March 08, 2021 |

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Australia, New South Wales

Mothers and Sons is a six-week domestic-violence prevention program for boys 6-8 years old and their mothers. Unlike programs aimed at older youth and men, mothers sign up for this because they want their sons to grow up with healthy, respectful, non-violent attitudes toward women. While mothers meet with social workers to discuss parenting skills, boys meet with a male psychologist to learn good ways to handle their emotions and self-expression. Demand for the program has been strong among area mothers, who have given it positive reviews after they completed it.

Read More
Go to Original Story
With gun suicides on the rise, a rare hotline staffed by St. Louis teens saves lives

Kaitlin Washburn Rachel D. Rice

March 07, 2021 |

The Kansas City Star |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

Kids Under Twenty One has taken phone calls from thousands of St. Louis-area youth to its 24/7 crisis hotline and has educated many more students at 60 schools in four counties. Teens staff the hotline, a rarity. KUTO counters the myth that talking about teens' suicide risks encouraging suicides. Instead, education about mental health care and gun safety promotes intervention during critical moments and reduces the stigma associated with seeking help. Missouri's teen suicide rate is among the highest in the country, but the St. Louis area, where KUTO has worked for 20 years, is among the state's lowest.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Will New York allow incarcerated people to access treatment for drug addiction?

Sam Mellins

March 05, 2021 |

New York Focus |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York

Medically assisted treatment is proven to reduce fatal opioid overdoses, particularly among formerly incarcerated people. When people are denied treatment in jail or prison and then resume their previous doses once they're released, they are up to 40 times more likely to die of an overdose. Only 18 of New York's county jails and fewer than one in five of its prisons provide access to such treatment drugs as Suboxone and methadone. When Rhode Island became the first state to make MAT available throughout its prisons, its overdose deaths among people recently released from incarceration dropped 60%.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Japan's tsunami survivors call lost loves on the phone of the wind

Issei Kato Mari Saito

March 05, 2021 |

Reuters |

Photojournalism |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Japan, Otsuchi

A man who lost a cousin to cancer built a phone booth with an unconnected rotary phone to imagine conversations with his loved one. It became "the phone of the wind," used by thousands across Japan who lost family in the 2011 tsunami and others whose longing for contact with lost loved ones turns the "conversations" into a deep form of relief and grieving. People in Poland and Britain plan to adopt this approach for survivors grieving losses in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Schools Look To Algorithms To Flag Students Who May Harm Themselves

Alisa Roth

March 03, 2021 |

NPR |

Radio |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Mason City, Iowa

Companies like Gaggle are typically used by school districts to track student online behavior, but now they are tracking something else—self-harm. Machine learning flags words that might indicate a student is thinking of hurting themselves. “It gives us insight into what the student's thinking.” Gaggle identified 64,000 student references to suicide and self-harm. The company claims to have saved 927 student lives. In Mason City, districts receive alerts when a student’s search is flagged. “Nicole Pfirman says there have been a few times where she believes an alert saved a kid's life.”

Read More
Go to Original Story
Early intervention program to stem domestic violence in Poughkeepsie faces resistance

Saba Ali

March 03, 2021 |

Poughkeepsie Journal |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kingston, New York

An early-intervention program targets people suspected of domestic violence with services meant to end the abuse through deterrence and counseling rather than after-the-fact punishment. In Kingston, New York, the Intimate Partners Violence Intervention program has contributed to a 36% drop in reported abuse and a low recidivism rate. Multiple agencies provide services aimed at prevention of abuse, while police arrest threats escalate depending on the severity and frequency of the abuse. In nearby Poughkeepsie, the program's development has been stalled by objections from criminal defense lawyers.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Experiences elsewhere seek to quell abuse, providing lessons for Malheur County

Pat Caldwell

March 03, 2021 |

Malheur Enterprise |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Duluth, Minnesota

The Duluth Model is one of multiple successful responses to domestic violence that focus on prevention through counseling and education, rather than relying only on punishment after a crime has been committed. The often-copied Duluth approach uses an intense, multi-agency response that includes putting men who abuse their partners through a lengthy treatment program. That program leads men to examine their lives and attitudes toward women, and has been credited with keeping 70% of its graduates out of trouble.

Read More
Go to Original Story