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://wurdradio.com/philadelphia-is-fighting-street-violence-through-hospital-and-doctor-visits?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Peak Johnson
WURD
25 October 2021
Radio / Under 3 Minutes
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.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-shoot-to-incapacitate-policy-puts-georgia-police-chief-and-town-in-the-spotlight/2021/10/24/d64b86f4-3378-11ec-9241-aad8e48f01ff_story.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Jamie Thompson
The Washington Post
24 October 2021
Text / 1500-3000 Words
The police chief in majority-Black LaGrange, Georgia, thinks the standard shoot-to-kill training police receive is unnecessarily lethal and lies at the heart of the breach in police-community trust. So he has trained his department's officers with a Shoot to Incapacitate strategy to give them an alternative when confronted by someone not armed with a gun. The department's skeptics were won over, and one managed to save the life of a machete-wielding man by the way he shot him. External critics say this approach is impractical, though it was copied from what's worked in other countries.
https://www.ft.com/content/6514e1be-e49d-4b43-9c04-b4d704ebc9c0?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Joshua Chaffin
Financial Times
23 October 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence is a city-funded crew of "violence interrupters," former gang members or the formerly incarcerated who have enough street credibility to de-escalate disputes in ways the police often cannot. Founded in 2014, BRAG works in three "hot" zones, two of which have gone murder-free for more than five years. Such groups, using the Cure Violence public-health approach to gun-violence reduction, occupy an "uneasy niche in public safety" between the streets and police.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/10/22/police-say-jiu-jitsu-can-make-them-less-violent-during-arrests?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Jamiles Lartey
The Marshall Project
22 October 2021
Multi-Media / 1500-3000 Words
Police recruits in Marietta since 2019 have been required to be trained in the martial art of jiu-jitsu before they can go on patrol. Many officers stick with the training, and many other police departments are copying Marietta's policies. Supporters argue that jiu-jitsu, which involves no kicking or hitting, gives officers greater control and confidence in confrontations with potentially violent people. That, they claim, will lead to fewer uses of deadly force or Tasers. Marietta data shows that fewer officers have been injured, but members of the public get injured at about the same rate.
https://apnews.com/article/death-of-george-floyd-religion-police-george-floyd-seattle-b20b50bd1562c70e59fe30689a8a867f?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Martha Bellisle
Associated Press
21 October 2021
Text / 1500-3000 Words
A growing number of prosecutors compile lists of police officers deemed untrustworthy witnesses, information they disclose to defense lawyers to prevent unjust criminal convictions. Called "Brady lists" or "do not call" lists, the practice is arguably a constitutional requirement for a fair trial. Broad disclosure of such a list in Philadelphia led to the dismissal of more than 2,000 convictions. But many prosecutors fail to keep such lists, or ignore categories of misconduct such as the use of excessive force. Police unions and privacy laws have helped block the effective use of such lists in some places.
https://wichitabeacon.org/stories/2021/10/21/sedgwick-county-combat-vaccine-hesitancy?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Celia Hack
The Wichita Beacon
21 October 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
The COVID Ambassador program trains people to listen, be empathetic, and acknowledge people’s COVID-19 vaccine concerns. Ambassadors’ training includes substantial practice talking to people who are resistant to getting vaccinated and they receive ongoing support at bi-monthly meetings, which has increased their confidence and led to more conversations with community members hesitant to get vaccinated. Like other community health worker programs, the ambassador program’s ability to be successful relies on the idea that people trust information from their peers more than from the government.
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2021/10/19/rcsd-reconsiders-police-presence-in-schools-after-fights-rochester-ny/8517940002?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Justin Murphy
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
19 October 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
During the 2020 social justice protests, Rochester city school leaders quickly acted to remove police officers from the schools. A long-time goal of school-discipline reformers, ending the use of school resource officers was meant to create openings for responses to student violence other than arrest or suspension. Eighteen months later, the school superintendent sought to increase a police presence in schools in light of a rise in fights among students. Reform advocates accused the district of failing to follow through with effective alternatives to the punitive responses to discipline problems.
https://nigeriahealthwatch.com/rural-health-mission-nigeria-providing-lifesaving-care-to-mothers-and-babies-in-plateau-state?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Bashar Abubakar
Nigeria Health Watch
18 October 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
The Lifesaving Intervention Project offers postnatal services to mothers and newborns via community health workers who are trained in maternal and child health. After giving birth, the women receive follow-up care over the phone and through home visits and are referred to health facilities when additional care is needed. The support services have increased the percent of women getting post-natal care and have improved postpartum mental health. The health workers also provide information about the health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, delivering in facilities, and birth control to space out children.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/world/americas/colombia-machismo-hotline-masculinity.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Julie Turkewitz
The New York Times
18 October 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
Bogotá’s city government started the Calm Line to give men a way to connect by telephone with psychologists trained in therapeutic responses to the machismo that leads to gender-based violence. Despite doubts that Colombian men would use the service, the line fields about a dozen calls a day. "Fear, shame and confusion pervade many of the conversations," but also can lead to breakthroughs in understanding the attitudes that oppress women. That understanding is the first step toward cultural change, the Calm Line's supporters believe.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/17/us/san-diego-drought.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Jill Cowan
The New York Times
17 October 2021
Text / 1500-3000 Words
While much of the state is still facing a severe drought, San Diego has access to plenty of water. Restrictions - like not allowing restaurants to serve water unless it’s asked for and barring residents from watering their yards during the day – have helped. Diversifying where the city gets their water from and investing in water-saving infrastructure, like lining Imperial Valley canals with concrete to prevent water from seeping into the earth, growing desalination capabilities, and adding more capacity to the reservoir, have also helped diversity and save water.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/16/world/americas/venezuela-rum-rehabilitation-crime.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Isayen Herrera
Anatoly Kurmanaev
The New York Times
16 October 2021
Multi-Media / 800-1500 Words
Rather than fleeing or fighting the twin threats to its business from criminal gangs and an aggressively anti-business government, the managers of Venezuelan rum-maker Ron Santa Teresa chose to make peace with both through social programs that have calmed what once was one of the violent country's most troubled towns. The company's Proyecto Alcatraz creates economic opportunity for gang members, providing them with job training and psychological counseling. It also courted favor with the socialist government with a housing initiative for the poor. Both programs have proved a boon for business.
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/entry/the-radical-shift-in-drug-treatment-happening-inside-california-prisons?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Juan Moreno Haines
Next City
15 October 2021
Text / 1500-3000 Words
To combat opioid overdose deaths among incarcerated people, the California prison system in January 2020 launched a treatment program that combines medication-assisted treatment with professional and peer counseling. The program uses the three most effective medications to reduce opioid dependency. The one-year program features intense counseling, individual and group, based on a workbook that takes gender and trauma-related causes for drug abuse into account. Preliminary data show a decrease in deaths at San Quentin prison. More than 15,000 people have enrolled in the program.
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