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

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  • Safety net program for Pa. women and children is switching out paper for plastic

    Pennsylvania’s WIC program, offering people experiencing economic hardship food stipends, is switching from paper checks to plastic cards. The seemingly small change will have a huge effect on how the benefits are used, allowing participants to be more flexible in where and how they spend the money. Such flexibility means more of an opportunity to buy healthier food and to use the entire stipend across a month, rather than having to spend it all in one place at one time.

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  • Taking The Cops Out Of Mental Health-Related 911 Rescues

    Eugene, Oregon’s Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets (CAHOOTS) program provides specialists in response to mental health-related calls instead of police. The 30-year-old program partners with nonprofits, law enforcement, and social services to provide individuals in crisis the resources they need. Around the country, cities like Denver, Oakland, and Vancouver seek to implement similar approaches, recognizing the need for more supportive, community-oriented approaches to mental health.

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  • Free For All: Clarke County School District Provides Free Meals to Every Student

    Clarke County School District in Georgia has 21 public schools that all offer free meals to students, regardless of their financial needs. This is facilitated through a federally-funded program, so even though poverty rates are high in the area, local residents are not footing the bill. While there are still some challenges implementing the program, in general it is received well and allows students to focus on their work and well-being instead of being distracted by hunger.

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  • Income Experiment Offers Stockton Residents a Glimpse at the California Dream

    Stockton, California is piloting a closely-watched experiment with Universal Basic Income, providing a $500 allowance each month for 18 months to 125 low-income families. Preliminary data captured during the first 5 months of the pilot show how recipients spend the money, but participants report benefits beyond the financial, like lower stress levels.

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  • Finding Home: When Eviction Looms, Landlords Have Lawyers. Now More Tenants Do, Too.

    In North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County, they’ve allocated funding for tenants to have access to free legal aid, provided by Legal Aid of North Carolina, in their eviction cases. With eviction often being the start of a downward spiral, having legal representation can help people prevent or delay their evictions. Beyond funding some legal aid, the courthouse also provides residents with information about evictions and their specialty eviction court.

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  • Reducing Gun Violence

    Oakland’s Ceasefire initiative takes a collaborative, comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence. City officials, community advocates, residents, and law enforcement work together by prioritizing data analysis, multi-stakeholder gatherings, personalized social services, specialized police training, and weekly reviews of shootings and meeting with victims. While this approach has shown success, it was hard to get started and required the community to organize around demands to stop gun violence. As Philly grapples with similar issues, it looks to Oakland as a model for grassroots change.

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  • This new program lets people text to access government food aid

    Simplifying the enrollment process makes the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) more accessible to those who qualify. In Anchorage, Alaska, a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies funded a pilot program to help residents enroll in SNAP via text message. Instead of a complicated process, residents can simply text to receive information and begin their enrollment process.

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  • $1,000 a month, no strings attached

    A pilot program in Jackson, Mississippi called Springboard to Opportunities is providing 20 single, African-American mothers living in public housing with $1000 a month, with no stipulations on how that money should be spent. The experiment so far has allowed mothers to save money, avoid predatory loans, pay off loans, and consider classes and higher education.

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  • Atlanta refused to give up on homelessness. It's working.

    Atlanta has seen a decline in rates of people experiencing homelessness from 2008-2018, a trend that is particularly meaningful as other cities contend with stubbornly high numbers. Part of the solution? A new source of more flexible and consistent funding allowing non-profits to provide the assistance needed and help get people into permanent supportive housing.

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  • In wealthy Silicon Valley, a $500 million plan to save threatened farmland

    In Santa Clara County, California, the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation program is funding an effort to prevent development and bolster agriculture on local farmland. The County, home to Silicon Valley, purchases land at market prices to protect it from development, incentivize agriculture, and prevent sprawl. While still in the beginning stages, the county looking long-term to see how this program will be financially sustainable.

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