Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 2410 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • Community Ambassadors Are the Link to Toronto's Unvaccinated Populations

    Toronto’s Vaccine Engagement Teams Grant has awarded $5.5 million to community organizations in 140 neighborhoods to hire and train local ambassadors for vaccine outreach. Because the ambassadors share a lived experience with the communities, they can effectively identify the barriers people face. The on-the-ground effort includes sharing information, advocating for community needs, and helping people access services. The outreach focuses on people often overlooked by government services, such as unhoused people and people who do not speak English or have precarious immigration status.

    Read More

  • Black Women Come Up Short On Funds And Food In COVID-19 Pandemic

    Village Minds was started by Natia Simone as a Facebook page to connect people in need of food and assistance, due to COVID-19 and grocery store closures after the protests following the murder of George Floyd. However, a broader issue of food insecurity led her to expand into a formal organization that has made more than 3,650 grocery deliveries. A partnership with a local produce store helps fill bags with fresh food and a food pantry provides other staples. With the help of friends and family, Simone uses a rented U-Haul to deliver the groceries to seniors throughout Chicago.

    Read More

  • The Group Turning Religious Leaders into LGBTQ Rights Crusaders

    Persons Marginalized and Aggrieved in Kenya works with religious leaders over the course of many years to build empathy and understanding towards the LGBTQ community. Faith leaders are often not immediately aware of the goal, but PEMA’s continuous and carefully orchestrated engagement allows them to gradually build relationships, hear personal stories from real people, and learn to preach tolerance. PEMA has worked with 619 religious leaders, 246 of which are currently active, and runs a Training of Trainers program where “converted” religious leaders train their colleagues to increase LGBTQ acceptance.

    Read More

  • How Native Americans launched successful coronavirus vaccination drives: ‘A story of resilience'

    Comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination strategies helped some Native American Nations achieve high vaccination rates. Tribal sovereignty gave Nations the flexibility to create their own methods of distributing the vaccine and allowed officials to distribute doses to hard-to-reach areas – even by dog sled in Alaska. They could prioritize who to vaccinate and diversify how vaccines were offered – from private appointments to mass-vaccination events – to ensure broad accessibility. Medical professionals, tribal leaders, and Native youth used social media to share information and encourage people to get vaccinated.

    Read More

  • The Clubhouse Room Where Israelis and Palestinians Are Actually Talking

    “Meet Palestinians and Israelis” is an online chat room on the Clubhouse app that encourages honest and vulnerable conversations that aim to humanize one another. Eighteen moderators, mostly young Israelis and Palestinians, ensure that the audio-only conversations don’t relitigate history or compare suffering, but instead share personal stories and ask questions to understand different perspectives. The moderators work in shifts to maintain the discussions and answer questions, with the non-Palestinian and non-Israeli moderators acting as third-party neutrals, settling down conversations when needed.

    Read More

  • How Social Media Fact-Checking Limits, But Can't Eliminate, Online Disinformation

    Social media companies are using artificial intelligence to help identify misinformation. Once identified, human fact checkers will verify the posts. Facebook uses 60 partnered fact-checking organizations as well as SimSearchNet++ image-recognition system that can identify image manipulation and slight changes to misinformation. Hundreds of millions of posts are flagged every year and those that are identified as “false” or “altered” are labeled with warnings and distribution is reduced.

    Read More

  • The other SNL: New York City's athletic approach to curbing rising gun violence

    Saturday Night Lights is run by the DA’s office and aims to reduce gun violence by providing organized sports for school-aged kids on weekend nights, when crime often goes up. Active in 20 locations across the city, SNL has served over 20,000 kids in 10 years. Partners must open on Saturday nights, for at least 46 weeks per year, and provide high quality coaching. There is no formal sign-up process or eligibility requirements apart from age and participants can join on any given night. As a response to surging crime rates in 2020, the mayor’s office has committed $5 million a year to expand to 100 locations.

    Read More

  • Here's how people in the Delta are working to overcome COVID-19 vaccine transportation barriers

    Transit operations have been repurposed to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines among underserved communities in the Delta. A fleet of transit buses that were sitting unused at Mississippi Valley State University now provide rides to and from vaccine sites. Community activists, local transportation agencies, and philanthropic groups have worked together to arrange similar no-cost vaccination transportation for people who need it. The Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi made an initial contribution to support the efforts, though limited advertising has also limited the reach of the programs.

    Read More

  • People Are Using an Ancient Method of Writing Arabic to Combat AI Censors

    To get around algorithms that have flagged and removed Palestinian content, users on platforms like Facebook and Instagram are using an old version of Arabic, dating back at least a thousand years, that doesn’t have diacritical points (dots above or below letters). Converting Arabic into a dotless form in social media posts makes it much more challenging for AI machines to identify because they use a binary code to identify each letter.

    Read More

  • A Classroom Clinic: Bringing Malaria Diagnosis and Treatment to Schools in Malawi

    The Learner Treatment Kits Initiative trained primary school teachers in 58 schools to use rapid diagnostic tests to identify and treat children with uncomplicated malaria infections. In addition to the tests, the kits have antimalarial medicines and medications to treat minor medical issues like headaches or small cuts. When a child tests positive for malaria they are given antimalaria medicine for three days. Caregivers are advised to take children with more severe cases to district health facilities. From 2019-2020 teachers administered 7,900 tests, with 6,101 cases being positive.

    Read More