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Rapid rehousing strategy helps protect domestic violence victims during a pandemic

Conor Morris

September 21, 2020 |

FreshWater Cleveland |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Cleveland, Ohio

A housing program known as REACH Rapid Rehousing program is providing relief for domestic violence survivors who are left without shelter and financial aid. Rent, utilities, and security deposits are provided for up to nine months. The program proved to be a lifeline, especially during COVID-19 lockdowns.

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Can't Pay Your Rent? ‘Lawtech' Is Here to Help.

Kriston Capps

September 18, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Soon after the federal government imposed a second moratorium on evictions, SixFifty, a tech firm, released Hello Landlord, a mobile app for tenants to generate a legally compliant form letter invoking the law with their landlords to block a threatened eviction. In the first nine days after its release, the app was used by more than 200 people. The free service is an example of what's called lawtech: technology giving access to legal information to individuals and small businesses. Hello Landlord asks 19 questions that serve to automate what a tenant's lawyer might do – if only the tenant could afford one.

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Learning pods can make educational inequities worse. Here's a better way to create one

Laney Valian

September 18, 2020 |

KXAN-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Austin, Texas

As a result of the pandemic, some families find themselves turning to learning pods, a sort of alternative school where students can be looked over and mentored while they attend remote classes. Working parents find themselves turning to pods as a solution. At their worse, they can exacerbate social inequities. Affluent families can pay for expensive pods with private tutors. In Austin, one pod is trying to be more accessible. “Some of them pay me, and some of them we’re more on a work-trade,” Perkins said. “We all help each other.”

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Detroiters are Fighting for the Right to Water

Nina Misuraca Ignaczak

September 18, 2020 |

Belt Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Throughout the United States, people living below the federal poverty level often struggle to pay for utilities, but in Philadelphia, the Tiered Assistance Program (TAP) aims to alleviate that burden by basing water utility rates on income. In the four years since the program launched, more than 15,000 residents have participated and 96% of those participants have avoided water shutoffs.

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How Formerly Incarcerated Firefighters Are Getting the Jobs and Pay They Deserve

Ray Levy Uyeda

September 17, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

The Fire and Forestry Recruitment Program serves as an intermediary between formerly incarcerated people trained as firefighters and the agencies they seek work from once they have been released from prison. California has long used incarcerated firefighters in its wildfire-fighting work, paying them poverty wages and then usually denying them the jobs they're trained for outside prison. FFRP has helped more than 100 such people find jobs, using training, certifications, and job-searching help. Its services are in high demand as a lower prison population coincides with record wildfires.

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Latinx 'promotores' lead the way for environmental action

Jeremy Cox

September 15, 2020 |

Bay Journal |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Langley Park, Maryland

A leadership program in the Chesapeake Bay region gives members of the Latinx community to become change makers in the environmental movement. Since 2016, Chispa Maryland has produced more than 100 graduates from its “promotores” program, where they learn the basics of climate justice, advocacy, and community organizing. While the work is difficult and the COVID-19 pandemic has affected operations, the promotores have seen some success in organizing community gardens and lobbying the county to purchase electric school buses.

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Policing the Police 2020

Jelani Cobb

September 15, 2020 |

PBS Frontline |

Documentary |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Newark, New Jersey

Revisiting Newark police reform six years after an earlier documentary, and after federal intervention, signs of progress provide hope in a year of unrest over police misconduct nationwide. Policies and training were overhauled, civilian oversight was imposed, albeit with limitations. Public trust edged up, and the police claim an increase in use-of-force incidents is due to better compliance with reporting requirements. Violence is down, with more use of community-based prevention instead of just policing. But the root causes of racial disparities remain, unable to be solved just by improving policing.

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West Side Groups Step Up To Give Essential Workers' Kids A Safe Space To Take Virtual Classes

Pascal Sabino

September 09, 2020 |

Block Club Chicago |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

In Chicago's West Side, "virtual learning havens" are helping students to access in-person resources for their education during the Covid pandemic. These programs – provided by groups such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Clubs – offer an adult-supervised setting for students to interact with their peers and access the technology needed to complete their schoolwork.

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Telemedicine and Montana's digital divide

Amanda Eggert

September 03, 2020 |

Montana Free Press |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Orlando, Florida

What started as a small group of young adults wanting to help their aging parents navigate telehealth during the coronavirus pandemic, is now a multi-state program that provides devices to seniors and low-income people as a way to close the digital divide. The group has grown to over 300 volunteers and partners with local health care providers, who in turn help their patients set up their new devices provided by the organization.

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Harris County's bail reforms let more people out of jail before trial without raising risk of reoffending

Jolie McCullough

September 03, 2020 |

The Texas Tribune |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

Releasing tens of thousands more misdemeanor defendants from jail without requiring cash bail had no measurable effect on crime rates in Texas' most populous county. To settle a lawsuit that claimed cash bail unconstitutionally discriminated against people on the basis of wealth, Harris County established a set of reforms abolishing cash bail in most misdemeanor cases. Court-appointed researchers monitoring compliance with the settlement found re-offending rates remained stable while racial disparities in who gets released improved. Not tested yet was compliance with court appointments.

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