The Solutions Story Tracker® is a curated database of rigorous reporting on responses to social problems. We collect and tag every story, providing you with the ability to find coverage of effective or promising ideas and approaches— by issue, location, journalist, and success factor (strategic insights that emerge as patterns).
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article239683693.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Manuel Tobias
Fresno Bee
19 February 2020
Text / 1500-3000 Words
A school attendance campaign in a rural California district relies on buy-in from a variety of community partners. For instance, administrators supported the construction of a new health clinic next to the school, concentrating multiple key resources on one block and making it easier for parents to access health care for their children.
https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2020-02-16/street-medicine-usc-homeless?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Soumya Karlamangla
Los Angeles Times
16 February 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
Doctors from USC have formed a small street team that travels to homeless communities to treat medical concerns and help provide assistance. Part of a growing trend around the United States, these teams are playing a vital role for the homeless by eliminating barriers such as the need to "schedule an appointment, find transportation to the clinic, pick up prescriptions, or pay for their treatment"
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education-lab/article239696228.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Monica Velez
Fresno Bee
13 February 2020
Multi-Media / 1500-3000 Words
A career technical education program in California exposes children to work in fields including biotechnology, business, marketing, and psychology, and has been shown to improve test scores. The twist? The program is run and funded jointly by two districts with widely varying socioeconomic demographics.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/13/the-fight-to-save-chamoru-a-language-the-us-military-tried-to-destroy?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Anita Hofschneider
The Guardian
12 February 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
CHamoru, the indigenous language of the Mariana Islands, is endangered. In an urgent move to save the language, Chief Hurao Academy was founded, a nonprofit that offers a CHamoru summer immersion program, an after-school immersion program, and a CHamoru-language preschool. There are barriers to its success, particularly funding, but the response has been overwhelming and already the children can chat casually in CHamoru.
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/12/804586191/beer-waste-saves-montana-town-1-million-on-water-treatment?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Rachel Cramer
NPR
12 February 2020
Radio / 3-5 Minutes
Finding ways to reuse brewery waste can save water treatment plants money. In Havre, Montana, Triple Dog Brewing has entered into a partnership with the town’s wastewater treatment plant, supplying discarded barley to feed the plant’s microbes. The barley replaces commercial bacteria feed, which would have cost the plant thousands of dollars. The town was also able to avoid having to do costly upgrades to its water treatment plant. Other towns are looking to this process for inspiration.
http://c-hit.org/2020/02/12/preventable-cancer-death-rate-falls-in-litchfield-and-windham-counties-comprehensive-accessible-care-cited?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Carol Dannhauser
Connecticut Health Investigative Team
12 February 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute in Connecticut has expanded its reach to specifically target rural communities, which has played a role in the declining rates of “potentially preventable” cancer deaths. Both employing foreign-born doctors who have specific specialities and who better align with the demographics of the counties and creating clinics that are inclusive of all necessary testing and treatment have helped bridge a gap in care for those living outside of major cities.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/02/11/newsrooms-rethink-a-crime-reporting-staple-the-mugshot?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Keri Blakinger
The Marshall Project
11 February 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
Around the United States, news organizations are taking a new approach to the use of mugshots in their crime reporting. While still the norm in many places, newsrooms like the Houston Chronicle have stopped publishing the common “mugshot slideshow,” and some, including Connecticut’s New Haven Independent, have stopped publishing them altogether. The practice, often used to generate page views, depict people at their worst, doing more harm than anything else.
https://www.thejakartapost.com/seasia/2020/02/10/gotta-catch-em-all-pokemon-style-app-aims-to-save-indonesias-forests.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Michael Taylor
The Jakarta Post
10 February 2020
Text / Under 800 Words
Inspired by Pokemon Go, a new app is encouraging residents to get out into Indonesia's vast forests and help map land uses, a process that can take researchers much longer when done alone. The gameified approach is helping authorities better understand the landscape and fight deforestation.
https://india.mongabay.com/2020/02/return-of-indigenous-crops-helps-reduce-farm-distress-and-restore-ecosystems?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Basudev Mahapatra
Mongabay
10 February 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
By returning to indigenous varieties of crops, farmers can increase ecological diversity and reliance to climate change. In India, hundreds of farmers in the state of Odisha have been returning to indigenous crops, like millet, vegetables, and tubers. In contrast to the high yield varieties of seeds provided by the government, heritage crops prove more resilient to changes in climate, water shortages, and local pests. Using heritage crops also reduces the need for pesticides, helping to restore ecological balance in the region.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/10/us/politics/2020-campaign-latino-outreach-workers.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Isabella Grullón Paz
The New York Times
10 February 2020
Text / 1500-3000 Words
The Democratic Party consistently struggles to turn out the Latinx vote, which is projected to be 32 million people. Instead of trying to find a cohesive message for this incredibly diverse group of people like in the past, Democratic candidates this year are letting Latinx people lead engagement in their own communities.
https://www.ypradio.org/post/havres-wastewater-woes-solved-beer?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Rachel Cramer
Yellowstone Public Radio
10 February 2020
Radio / 5-15 Minutes
Upcycling spent barley helps to ease wastewater treatment. In Havre, Montana, the town’s wastewater treatment plant uses barley from a local brewery, Triple Dog Brewing, to feed bacteria. The nutrients from the barley give the bacteria a boost, helping to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous levels in the water. The collaboration means that Havre can save on expensive solutions and upgrades to its wastewater treatment plant.
https://ctmirror.org/2020/02/10/juvenile-justice-advocates-lets-raise-the-age-again?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Kelan Lyons
The Connecticut Mirror
10 February 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
Since 2007, Connecticut has taken major steps in juvenile justice reform – namely, the ages that youth are arrested or charged as adults. By moving 16 and 17 year olds out of the adult system and into the juvenile justice system, the state has seen a 40% decrease in new juvenile court cases, leading to less stigma and large taxpayer savings. With such success, the state now looks to make further reforms in the juvenile justice system.
Help us grow our database of solutions stories! Please enter the following information. Our staff will review the story, and if it meets our criteria (see below), it will be added to the Solutions Story Tracker®.
If you want to get notified when your story is added, register or login before submitting stories here.
Great suggestion! So great, that we already have that story listed in the Solutions Story Tracker®. View it here.
It may take a few weeks to see your piece in the Solutions Story Tracker®, as we have a backlog of submissions longer than Ben Hur that we’re diligently working to eliminate. We appreciate your patience.
Weekly email with three solutions stories illustrating responses that work, pivoting off the latest news moments.
Our issue area taxonomy was adapted from the PCS Taxonomy with definitions by the Foundation Center, which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International License.
Photos are licensed under Attribution Non Commercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license / Desaturated from original, and are credited to the following photographers:
Fondriest Environmental, David De Wit / Community Eye Health, Linda Steil / Herald Post, John Amis / UGA College of Ag & Environmental Sciences – OCCS, Andy B, Peter Garnhum, Thomas Hawk, 7ty9, Isriya Paireepairit, David Berger, UnLtd The Foundation For Social Entrepreneurs, Michael Dunne, Burak Kebapci, and Forrest Berkshire / U.S. Army Cadet Command public affairs
Photos are licensed under Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license, and are credited to the following photographers:
Ra'ed Qutena, 段 文慶, Fabio Campo, City Clock Magazine, Justin Norman, scarlatti2004, Gary Simmons, Kathryn McCallum, and Nearsoft Inc
Photos are licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license / Desaturated from original, and are credited to the following photographers:
Burak Kebapci and SCY.
Photos are licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) and are credited to the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Conference attendee listening to speaker, Jenifer Daniels / Colorstock getcolorstock.com.
Photo Credit: Kevork Djansezian via Getty Images
Photo Credit: Sonia Narang
