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Making IDPs dream of moving out of camps possible

Chika Mefor

February 07, 2022 |

Media Career Development Network |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Abuja

The Skilled Women Initiative trains women trains displaced women living in camps on various skills they can use to make money and find jobs, empowering them to one day leave the camps. The initiative has trained about 700 people in skills like textile upcycling, crochet, sewing, and soap making. It also educates those in the program on how to develop a business plan to sell their goods and services and connects them with job referrals outside of the camps.

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Driving change: the all-female garage shifting attitudes in northern Nigeria

Abiodun Jamiu

January 12, 2022 |

The Guardian |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Sokoto, Sokoto State

An all-female mechanic staff is turning heads in Nigeria. Their workshop provides jobs to dozens of women who have limited work opportunities in the region. The female staff also breaks barriers in a society where only men have typically worked as professional mechanics.

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This NGO's Strategy Helps Ex-convicts Avoid Repeating Crime

Ekpali Saint

December 13, 2021 |

Prime Progress |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Benue

In the nine years since its founding, Dream Again Prison and Youth Initiative has helped more than 2,000 incarcerated Nigerians prepare for success in work and life after they leave prison. Using mental health support, vocational training, and financial aid after graduates leave prison, the program works in six prisons in an effort to combat the country's rising recidivism rate. Much of the focus is on helping would-be entrepreneurs start their own businesses rather than rely on existing businesses that may not want to give the formerly incarcerated a second chance.

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How role-playing helps police do their job without firing their guns

Caren Chesler

December 12, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Training courses based on role-playing that supplement classroom teaching have helped some police departments reduce incidents of unnecessary use of lethal force. In response to protests over police shootings, more departments are using a variety of courses that train officers to seek alternatives to shooting when they perceive a threat. The most expensive and intensive course uses live actors. Others use video and virtual reality headsets. The key to effectiveness is the realism of a training that lets officers repeatedly act out the lessons so that they become second nature.

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St. Paul police credit jiu-jitsu training for reducing injuries — and excessive force settlements

Mara H. Gottfried

November 28, 2021 |

Twin Cities Pioneer Press |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Paul, Minnesota

When St. Paul police studied controversial cases in which officers used physical force, they found troubling examples that were products of the training given to officers. So they began training new and veteran officers to use tactics inspired by the Brazilian martial art jiu-jitsu, which prizes teamwork by two officers to use leverage to restrain resistant people rather than using brute force, weapons, or chemicals. In the six years after the training began, St. Paul officers used force far less often, injured far fewer people, and cost the city much less money in settlements payments.

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Police Have a Tool to Take Guns From Potential Shooters, but Many Aren't Using It

Zusha Elinson Dan Frosch

November 15, 2021 |

Wall Street Journal |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Diego, California

Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have added red-flag laws in recent years. Also called extreme risk protection orders, or temporary risk protection orders, the laws give police and the public a way to seek a court order to confiscate the guns of a person deemed dangerous. San Diego County used available grant money from California to train police and prosecutors, and it now has used its state law more than any other county there. But many places in the U.S. use their laws rarely if ever, thanks to lack of interest or training among police and lack of awareness in the public.

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Meet the amazing people rewriting the narrative about LGBTQ youth homelessness

Sam Manzella

November 10, 2021 |

LGBTQ Nation |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

The Ali Forney Center is the largest of several organizations across the country serving LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. It has seventeen sites and serves about 2,000 young people a year, nearly half of whom come from out of state. In addition to setting people up with stable housing, the drop-in center serves daily meals and offers showers and laundry. Advocacy programs and case managers help the youth find permanent jobs, further their education, or put funds aside to secure stable long-term housing. They also offer counseling services, support groups, and temporary employment for many young people.

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Community Rebuilds

Justin Higginbottom

November 01, 2021 |

KZMU Community Radio |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Moab, Utah

Community Rebuilds is a nonprofit that builds affordable and efficient housing – suitable for Moab’s very hot summers and very cold winters - while educating natural builders in the process. Anyone who is interested in construction, regardless of their previous experience, is welcome to intern at their sites to learn about natural building processes. The organization has built 52 strawbale homes since they started, a healthy and natural material that costs about half of what other new construction is per square foot. The program requires homeowners to volunteer about 20 hours a week building homes.

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A ‘shoot to incapacitate' policy puts Georgia police chief and town in the spotlight

Jamie Thompson

October 24, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, LaGrange, Georgia

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.

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Police Say Jiu-jitsu Can Make Them Less Violent During Arrests

Jamiles Lartey

October 22, 2021 |

The Marshall Project |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Marietta, Georgia

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.

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