Satélites, mapas e trajeto do boi: saída para reduzir desmatamento já opera no Brasil

The AmeriCorps program places students and recent graduates in community service positions across the country, helping to fill local needs for everything from tutoring to wildlife management while also allowing participants to build valuable professional and academic skills. But recent federal cuts to the program's funding have put its future in jeopardy, with some participants being forced to leave their positions early.

To help shore up learning gaps in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, two Indiana middle schools doubled students’ instructional time in English and math, dedicating two class periods to each subject each day. The state also made it easier for schools to test students throughout the year instead of just once at the end of the year, providing checkpoints for educators to measure their progress and tailor instruction accordingly.

The creation of forest gardens—the modern term for an ancient agroforestry model that mixes shrubs, herbs, vines, fruit and nut trees, and perennial vegetables—are helping supply communities in sub-Saharan Africa with food, medicine, and animal feed. The U.S.-based NGO TREES claims to have created 38,000 active forest gardens in five countries, each comprising about 4,000 trees. This has restored 99,743 acres of degraded land, having reached 56,273 farmers and their families across 174 community projects.

King County, Washington, is building an alternative mental health care system to avoid escalating unnecessary 911 calls and including law enforcement when it’s not necessarily needed. The County created a mental health-focused response team in collaboration with the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline to divert calls that don’t pose a safety risk and help de-escalate situations. The communications center that fields most of the calls says they get about 20 transfers to the 988 line each month.

To help more private-sector employees save for retirement—and hopefully reduce future needs for public safety net programs—more states are launching automatic IRA programs that enroll employees who don’t have access to a retirement plan through their employer. In Colorado, more than 70,000 workers have been enrolled so far.

Government initiatives, certification programs, ecological consultants, and international environmental associations are all part of Singapore's concerted effort to coexist with its wildlife and reduce impacts of climate change like air pollution and stress.

To safely get students back into in-person learning environments amid ongoing Russian attacks, the Ukrainian government has prioritized building underground schools, some of which are in repurposed metro stations while others are dedicated shelters attached to existing schools. So far, the country has completed 20 underground schools, with 221 more under construction, but concerns have also been raised about potential corruption among contractors.

The Sun Meals Program distributes free breakfast and lunch to Connecticut children in the summer, with no registration or identification required. The program has handed out more than 1.75 million meals since June, but federal funding that helps support the distribution is being eliminated, leaving the state to shore up the gaps.

Finland’s approach to national security focuses on creating a comprehensive culture, emphasizing the idea that defending the country is a shared responsibility. Regular citizens can take volunteer courses in everything from using firearms and recognizing disinformation to surviving in the wild and interpreting maps, and the country’s men are conscripted at 18 for military or community service.

DeWitt Clinton High School offers formal career pathway programs that allow students to gain real-world work experience and sometimes even earn industry credentials while completing their high school diploma requirements. There are pathways available for everything from visual arts to agriculture to health care careers, and the high school has seen its graduation numbers go up and absenteeism rates drop since establishing the programs.