"We can all be placemakers": The programs training Detroiters in development

A novel way to help young men growing up in communities in which concentrated poverty, violence and unemployment are well-documented barriers to health and longevity: male youth of color are trained to be the emergency response team to help stabilize street victims before doctors or nurses begin procedures.

For young people, learning the social norms of the office is crucial for survival in the new economy. Year Up is an organization that is unusually successful at preparing young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds for jobs in big companies.

There are many other adults beyond teachers who regularly interact with children — and who are often overlooked as potential contributors to the educational mission. Hartsville, South Carolina, uses school bus drivers as a resource and extra set of eyes to observe how students are doing.

In Memphis, a creative blight-reduction initiative called 25 Square Blocks broke down the city into blocks. Inspectors were able to quickly identify all the violations and fix them, using the same amount of funding, but less time, as the old call-and-respond model.

Half of U.S. farm workers are Hispanic, but few make it to leadership positions. A historically white non-profit, FFA, is creating equal education programs in California to increase leadership opportunities for minorities in agriculture.

In Tanzania, mapping of water points showed that nationally, less than half the existing rural water points were working—of water points that were less than two years old, a quarter had already stopped functioning. British charity WaterAid sets up workshops in poor countries like Tanzania and India to train mechanics in order to have a local fix for these problems. The mechanic position offers employment opportunities for women, fixes pumps for an average of 100 rupees (roughly $2.00), and repaired more than 1,100 pumps in the first 14 months.

As a state with robust populations of wildlife, Montana has had its share of roadkill. Its Department of Transportation developed animal shelving, a type of wildlife crossing, to enable safe passage for small animals who need to cross the road. The measure, combined with other types of crossings, has reduced animal-vehicle collisions by half.

New York City suffered from fires that erupted in overcrowded, run-down apartments. Then the city sleuthed through residential records and found that landlords who foreclosed let their properties fall apart and ignored safety-code violations. Greater Toronto wants to expand upon New York City’s method by using transportation surveys, census data and computer data to build transit lines.

When adults want to return to school, they face many challenges including the experience of long waitlists for classes, and poor relevance to the job skills they need for future employment. The Washington state community college system has started a program known as Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) that instead teaches in two parts: academic content and basic soft skills.

Bangladesh has often struggled maintaining safety in the workplace. But a new effort ensures that Bangladeshi workers are trained about how to better follow security and safety restrictions to create a safer working environment.