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.themarshallproject.org/2021/06/23/millions-of-people-with-felonies-can-now-vote-most-don-t-know-it?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Nicole Lewis
Andrew R. Calderón
The Marshall Project
23 June 2021
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Thirteen states restored the right to vote to millions of formerly incarcerated people in the years leading up to the 2020 elections. An analysis of four of them – Nevada, Kentucky, Iowa, and New Jersey – shows the new rights were rarely exercised, ranging from 4% to 23% of newly eligible voters actually registering. None of the four states required prison, parole, or elections officials to notify eligible voters. Those and other information gaps and barriers teach instructive lessons as the 2022 elections approach.
https://www.sprawlalberta.com/the-fight-for-safeworks-supervised-consumption-site-calgary?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Hamdi Issawi
The Sprawl
22 June 2021
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In less than three and a half years, Safeworks, the only supervised drug-use site in Calgary, saved thousands of people from opioid-overdose deaths and helped users for whom abstinence-based treatment didn't work. The government of Alberta deemed the site a scene of "chaos" and ordered it closed once two new sites open. Safeworks supporters oppose the disruption in harm-reduction work that move would bring, considering how critical personal relationships built on trust are to this kind of service.
https://thecrimereport.org/2021/06/21/the-everglades-experiment-floridas-first-incentivized-prison-redefines-punishment?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Ryan M. Moser
The Crime Report
21 June 2021
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Two years into an experiment in "incentivized prison" management, Florida's Everglades Correctional Institution is considered the state's safest prison. An incarcerated journalist reporting from inside writes that by rewarding good behavior instead of only punishing bad behavior, the prison has expanded the classes it offers incarcerated men who can participate if they have a trouble-free record for four years. Separating men from the general population based on their desire to work toward their own rehabilitation and success once they leave prison has reduced stress and violence in the prison.
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/formerly-incarcerated-people-pass-bar-exam?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Allen Arthur
Reasons to be Cheerful
21 June 2021
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The Formerly Incarcerated Law Students Advocacy Association at City University of New York's law school mentors people whose criminal records serve as a barrier to pursuing a law career. FILSAA is part of a movement to nurture law-practice dreams and make them a reality by knocking down those barriers, including restrictive use of states' "character and fitness" requirements to become licensed to practice. Before that step, mentors can help people prepare for the LSAT and succeed in law school. Advocates say that lawyers with lived experience can serve clients better by earning their trust more readily.
https://gothamist.com/news/how-does-treating-gun-violence-public-health-crisis-work-one-bronx-program-offers-potential-flagship-model?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Elizabeth Kim
Gothamist
21 June 2021
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Stand Up to Violence is the only street-outreach gun-violence-prevention program in New York that centers its work in hospitals. Street outreach is a policing alternative that uses former gang members and formerly incarcerated people to intervene before arguments turn deadly. Hospital-based intervention work puts counselors and mediators at gunshot victims' bedside to start the intervention, and offers of services, at the earliest stage. In a four-year span, the areas covered by Stand Up, based at Jacobi Medical Center, saw many fewer shootings and instances where victims got shot again.
https://prismreports.org/2021/06/21/college-in-prison-programs-have-many-benefits-but-barriers-to-access-abound?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Tamar Sarai Davis
Prism
21 June 2021
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College-in-prison programs like Wesleyan University's Center for Prison Education have a track record for improving incarcerated students' lives, lowering crime, and making prisons safer. But a number of factors compromise the number and effectiveness of such programs. Many fewer programs exist since incarcerated students were denied Pell Grants beginning in the 1990s. A 2015 program aimed at making financial aid more accessible poses a number of logistical hurdles. Prisons themselves can be inhospitable environments for attending classes and independent studies.
https://www.dw.com/en/in-egypt-online-group-qawem-saving-hundreds-of-women-from-sextortion/a-57950634?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Ihab Zidan
Deutsche Welle (DW)
20 June 2021
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The Egyptian Facebook group Qawem (Arabic for resist) helps victims of sextortion by turning threats around to target the attacker. Sextortion, in which threatened disclosure of a person's nude or other embarrassing photos are used as a tool of extortion, is illegal in Egypt. But women – the typical victims – are often reluctant to report incidents to the police, out of shame or fear. When victims report sextortion attempts to Qawem, volunteers counsel the victims while other volunteers track down the extortionists and threaten to expose them to their family or friends. About 200 cases per week get resolved.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/20/business/media/when-the-local-paper-shrank-these-journalists-started-an-alternative.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Katharine Seelye
The New York Times
20 June 2021
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As traditional local media outlets shrink or disappear, non-profit digital news outlets are popping up to fill the void. The New Bedford Light is one example, formed by journalism veterans and following the playbook of the Institute for Nonprofit News, the outlet provides in-depth investigative journalism. From holding government officials accountable to profiling the local human impact of COVID, the content provides deep dives into issues that matter to the local community. Content is free to readers and instead of advertising, it relies on donations, grants, and sponsorships from local businesses.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/safety-first-drug-education-program-acknowledges-the-failings-of-saying-no?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Roshan Abraham
Next City
17 June 2021
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Studies show that abstinence-based prevention drug programs like D.A.R.E don't work. To provide another option, the Drug Policy Alliance, a non-profit, developed their own curriculum called “Safety First.” The fifteen-lesson curriculum was piloted in five schools under the San Francisco Unified School District. “There’s the reality that people are curious and they try and do things for a number of reasons,” Hall says. “If we can provide teenagers with factual information where they can make the best decision for them where they can make the best decision for them and their body, I think that's fantastic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/nyregion/order-of-protection-domestic-violence-abuse.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Andy Newman
The New York Times
17 June 2021
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Stay-away orders are a tool New York judges can use to protect victims from their abusers even before accusations get scrutinized in court. They grew out of a reform movement that urged police and prosecutors to take domestic violence more seriously. But they have become a form of summary justice, routinely issued upon the filing of a complaint without proper vetting. They have wrecked families and cost people their homes and jobs based on what turn out to be flimsy or false accusations. New York courts and legislators are considering proposals to fix the system.
https://prismreports.org/2021/06/16/how-teens-are-using-online-platforms-to-call-out-racism-in-high-school?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Umme Hoque
Prism
16 June 2021
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All over the country, students are using the internet to call out racism. Young people are publishing open letters, creating Change.org petitions and Google Docs “with lists of racist people in their classes, and using online platforms to organize protests.” In Boston, teens from the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center wrote an open letter asking school officials to address the wave of anti-asian hate crimes. After the letter, officials issued a resolution. Although, in some instances these actions do result in change, sometimes it can result in censorship towards students of color.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/06/16/police-reform-mental-health-counselors-montgomery-maryland?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Rebecca Tan
The Washington Post
16 June 2021
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Montgomery County's longtime crisis response center illustrates the pitfalls of embracing a policing alternative without proper resources or thinking through the implications. The racial-justice protests of 2020 inspired many more cities and counties to explore mobile crisis response teams instead of police, to minimize violence and get people needed help instead of incarceration. While Montgomery County's team often deescalates crises and can either provide care or refer people to needed services, it lacks the staff to respond effectively. And the system of mental health care is too thin for the need.
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.
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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.
Photos are licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) and are credited to the US Army Corps of Engineers.
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Photo Credit: Sonia Narang
