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

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 652 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • Without help, Philly kids who lost family to gun violence will 'self destruct.' So this grandmother gave them a getaway trip.

    The group Moms Bonded By Grief went beyond the support-group work it has done for years for survivors of gun violence homicide victims to take 50 children and their mothers and grandmothers to a Poconos Mountains water park and resort. The long-weekend respite from Philadelphia's relentless gun violence included group therapy for children and adults, enabling them to talk about topics that often get buried or ignored. The excursion, funded by donations, is planned to be repeated next summer.

    Read More

  • Queering Climate Activism

    Queer activists and organizers are centering their identity in the environmental justice movement. They form part of a growing movement that doesn't exclude their queer identity in the fight against climate change. Some examples of this work include "Queer Nature," a community where queer people can reconnect with nature. Another example is the "Queer Ecojustice Project," which addresses how queer perspectives were ignored by the environmental movement. This article presents several other examples of the intersection of queer identity with the environmental movement.

    Read More

  • Communities explore out-of-the-box mentorship programs to reduce gun violence

    Richmond's Operation Peacemaker Fellowship pairs mentors with young people at risk of violence, paying the youth a stipend if they meet particular goals toward a more stable and safe life. The mentors are former gang members and others with criminal records who earn the trust of their clients through their experiences and independence from the police. Other cities have adopted this model or similar approaches to preventing gun violence. One study said the Richmond program may have contributed to a significant decline in violence in that city.

    Read More

  • Meet the amazing people rewriting the narrative about LGBTQ youth homelessness

    The Ali Forney Center is the largest of several organizations across the country serving LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. It has seventeen sites and serves about 2,000 young people a year, nearly half of whom come from out of state. In addition to setting people up with stable housing, the drop-in center serves daily meals and offers showers and laundry. Advocacy programs and case managers help the youth find permanent jobs, further their education, or put funds aside to secure stable long-term housing. They also offer counseling services, support groups, and temporary employment for many young people.

    Read More

  • Anti-violence programs are working. But can they make a dent in Chicago's gun violence?

    Chicago is home to multiple street-outreach programs that target the people most likely to be shot or to shoot others, and that provide them with social services that keep them and others in their network safe. Programs like READI, CRED, and CP4P have shown strong results in studies of their ability to help people get access to education and jobs while avoiding arrest or injury. But community violence in Chicago is so entrenched that the existing programs lack the scale and structure to make meaningful reductions in Chicago's street violence.

    Read More

  • To Fight Rising Murder Rate, More Cities Find, Mentor and Pay Likely Shooters

    Advance Peace Fresno tries to turn youth away from violence through mentoring, job training, and by paying them a monthly stipend of up to $1,000 if they hit certain benchmarks in their rehabilitation. The program has recruited 19 young people for its fellowships, following a model that is associated with violence declines in Richmond and Sacramento, and is spreading to multiple other cities. Opponents of the stipends say the agency should not pay people to obey the law. But Advance Peace's strategy is based on using the promise of legitimate income to keep people engaged.

    Read More

  • Philadelphia is fighting street violence through hospital and doctor visits

    Healing Hurt People helps the survivors of gun violence and other assaults starting bedside in hospitals and continuing during a patient's recovery. The group, partnering with other services providers, treats mental trauma with cognitive therapies led by peer counselors – people with the street credibility that earns trust among the young people who are the target of these services. When people better understand their experience, they can learn from it and find safer, healthier ways to live.

    Read More

  • In Arizona, a radical change in juvenile detention

    Unrealistic fears of a wave of youth violence left rural Apache County, Colorado, with an unused, costly youth detention facility. So the local courts decided to refashion the empty jail into the Loft Legacy Teen Center, an after-school hangout offering a "care-first" approach to teen problems. Mentors and a truancy prevention program help youth avoid trouble and get educations. Youth arrests have dropped, though that might also be credited to the state's risk-assessment tool that is meant to guard against overuse of punishment.

    Read More

  • Where Juvenile Detention Looks More Like Teens Hanging Out

    Apache County, Arizona, once had a costly, under-used juvenile detention center and a traditional philosophy that stern punishment would steer young people away from misbehavior. Now the abandoned detention center is The Loft Legacy Teen Center, an after-school hangout with mentors, connections to social services, and a place where youth can go to socialize – a rare commodity in this rural community. It's run and staffed by the court system and its probation department. But its methods are love and support, not threats of arrest and incarceration. Juvenile arrests are now way down.

    Read More

  • This Experiential Learning Farm Helps Youth Build a Better World

    Low-income communities of color have less access to nature, they experience "nature deprivation" at a rate three times higher than white people. Regular access to the outdoors improves respiratory health, physical fitness, cognitive functioning, and psychological well-being. The Freetown Farm was conceived as a place where all people can experience nature. Its exposing young people of all backgrounds to nature. Through its year-long internship program learned how to plant food, among other things.

    Read More