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.thetrace.org/2020/07/baltimore-hits-pause-on-gun-violence-command-centers?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
J. Brian Charles
The Trace
6 July 2020
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A strategy to improve the intelligence that steers policing and violence-intervention efforts has worked in Chicago and shown promising early signs in Baltimore. But plans to expand Strategic Decision Support Centers in Baltimore ran into political opposition, based on sentiment in favor of diverting police resources to other strategies. Chicago’s SDSC program is credited with a much greater reduction in shootings than in untargeted areas of the city. Baltimore likewise has seen homicides decline where SDSCs help police and violence interrupters decide where and on whom to focus their interventions.
https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/paradise-lockdown?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Nina Milhaud
Asia Sentinel
6 July 2020
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Despite devastating economic consequences, Thailand’s quick and hardline response to early signs of COVID-19 spread contained the virus and within weeks limited the country’s infections to just over 3,000 as of July 1, a far better record than nearby countries. Tourism-dependent Phuket Island was Thailand’s only province to impose a total lockdown for more than one month. Thanks to aggressive travel restrictions, contact tracing, and quarantines of possibly infected residents and travelers, the stringent measures paid off as restaurants and shops began reopening in early May.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/05/us/cahoots-replace-police-mental-health-trnd/index.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Scottie Andrew
CNN
5 July 2020
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The CAHOOTS crisis-response program saves its city money and its people living on the streets a great deal of unwanted police contact – contact that in other places is a common cause of excessive force and arrests that solve nothing. And, while less than 1% of its calls require police backup, the resource-thin agency cautions that it is a partner with police, not an antagonistic replacement, and that its model cannot simply be copied wholesale regardless of where it's used.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90523974/whats-wrong-with-facebook-plan-to-sign-up-4-million-voters?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Alex Pasternack
FastCompany
3 July 2020
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In the past decade, Facebook's US voter engagement campaigns included registration and election-day reminders for its 61 million 18+ users and sharing friends’ voting behavior. One study attributes hundreds of thousands of more votes to these election campaigns, with friends’ voting behavior the strongest influencer. The California Secretary of State credits the 4th highest voter registration daily total to Facebook’s same day reminder. Criticisms include not releasing data for independent review and negative aspects of its influence like potential liberal biases and the 2016 Russian disinformation campaign.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/police-reformers-push-de-escalation-training-jury-effectiveness/story?id=71262003&utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Erin Schumaker
ABC News (American Broadcasting Company)
2 July 2020
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Teaching police de-escalation tactics to avoid the use of force in a crisis is a popular suggestion in the police-reform debate, but a number of structural deficits make success a great unknown. Before police departments embrace the concept, they must first realize there has been no rigorous testing of any particular training regimen for effectiveness, nor do any national standards on use of force exist. Police training and the definition of de-escalation tactics are both highly fractured, lacking common definitions based on proven effectiveness.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/02/world/europe/uk-coronavirus-domestic-abuse.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Amanda Taub
Jane Bradley
The New York Times
2 July 2020
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Ignoring the pleas of victim-aid groups and the examples set by other countries, the British government and courts failed to protect domestic violence victims during the pandemic. Italy, Spain, Germany, and New Zealand provided for emergency shelter for victims trapped at home with their abusers or made other preparations a formal part of their lockdown plans. But in England, where at least 26 deaths and multiple cases of abuse are blamed on the government’s failures, shelters overflowed and orders of protection went unenforced because of a lack of funding and effective planning.
https://www.geekwire.com/2020/voting-justice-group-common-power-turns-tech-time-covid-reimagine-outreach?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Lisa Stiffler
Geekwire
1 July 2020
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Common Power is a voting justice organization where volunteers conduct outreach to voters and lobby elected officials for things like widespread mail-in voting due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The group has prioritized creating a diverse workplace and offers year-round jobs to attract diverse candidates. 10 of the 13 paid staff members are people of color, even though the over 2,000 volunteers are largely white retirees. Another unique aspect of the group’s model is its focus on partnerships. It trains and funds volunteers to provide extra capacity for grassroots campaigns operating in 20 states.
https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.8/south-what-works-the-housing-policy-thats-turning-back-gentrification?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Nick Bowlin
High Country News
30 June 2020
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A "right-to-purchase" policy has enabled nonprofits to purchase residential buildings in gentrified neighborhoods in order to prevent the displacement of those relying on rent-controlled housing. Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) is a Bay Area nonprofit leading the cause to counter gentrification and prevent developers from purchasing residential buildings that house low and moderate-income households. MEDA has purchased and managed 32 buildings and is one of fewer than 10 nonprofits in the area that exercise the "right-to-purchase" policy.
http://www.thelocal.se/20200630/some-swedish-care-homes-have-had-no-cases-of-covid-19-what-did-they-do-right?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Anne Grietje Franssen
Petronella Uebel
The Local Sweden
30 June 2020
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The handful of Swedish elderly care homes that protected residents from COVID-19 infection shared some common traits: they improved hygiene practices, isolated possibly infectious staff, stocked up on protective equipment, and limiting outsiders’ access to the homes. Although luck may have played a role and it is not possible to be certain about success factors, the COVID-free homes all seemed to have management that took quick action without awaiting government mandates.
https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-06-29/food-banks-shelves-go-mobile-to-fight-pandemic-hunger-in-minnesota?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Gaby Galvin
U.S. News & World Report
29 June 2020
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Food banks and relief groups in Minnesota are delivering food to rural and suburban communities as food insecurity rises across the state. Suburban poverty presents unique challenges because communities are spread out and lack public transportation as well as social services, underscoring the importance of mobile food deliveries. Food pantries have been overburdened since March as more and more people experience food insecurity for the first time. One group reported a drastic increase in the number of people served, with 68 percent using the pantry service for the very first time.
https://apolitical.co/en/solution_article/how-countries-without-governments-are-relying-on-whatsapp-to-tackle-covid-19?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Ian Wylie
Apolitical
29 June 2020
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Digital platforms allow Syrian doctors living abroad to assist over-burdened local doctors deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Conflict has severely limited Syria's health services, so NGOs use online platforms like Zoom and WhatsApp to allow Syrian doctors abroad to provide consultations, deliver trainings, and share resources - including a daily forum for local doctors to get second opinions on cases. Thousands of volunteers have joined and organizers think this model can work in other conflict areas if local agents are engaged, they have the trust of the population, and there is the technical capacity.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/06/covid-19-facility-helps-homeless-in-unexpected-ways?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Eleni Gill
Honolulu Civil Beat
26 June 2020
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When Covid-19 began spreading throughout the United States, officials in Hawaii set up a quarantine facility for those experiencing homelessness that helped connect residents with other services to reduce their risk of contracting the virus. While it's too early to know if this could be a viable model for health care in the long run, the practice of temporary housing has currently helped curb the spread of the virus among the community's "unsheltered people."
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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
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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.
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