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

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  • How the Pandemic Defeated America

    The U.S. has recorded a worldwide record number of COVID-19 cases after missteps and overall lack of action from the federal government limited the nation's response, but in some areas of the country where local institutions and communities enacted their own safety measures, lessons have emerged despite the national failure. Additionally, early surveys have indicated that the majority of Americans are still practing social distancing and support mask-wearing, even without the federal guidance.

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  • Prison Voicemail: Messages from behind bars

    Prison Voicemail is a smartphone app that lets incarcerated people in the UK stay connected to their families, improving their mental outlook while imprisoned and their chances of success once they're released. The fee-based app closes gaps left by ordinary pay phones and other means of communication by letting people communicate through recorded messages, rather than when they both happen to be available. Sound clips of families talking in this podcast drive home the profound personal impact of children and parents sharing the routine news of their lives across the barrier of prison walls.

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  • 0%-interest loan program puts economic power in hands of Detroit homeowners

    Homeowners in Detroit can now access home improvement capital to fix up their historic homes, many of which date back to the early 1900s. The aid is in the form of a zero-interest loan which is paid back over 10 years. The program helps homeowners fix their homes, making them safer while removing blight from the community.

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  • Using Telemedicine to Treat Opioid Addiction

    The coronavirus pandemic has largely led to the expansion and adoption of telemedicine, which has helped those seeking treatment for addictions more easily access care. Although advocates of medication-assisted treatment have been working to eliminate barriers to virtual care for years, the pandemic has accelerated these efforts and the outcome has been successful. According to the associate executive director of Prevention Point Philadelphia, “It’s a reduction of the hassle, wait times, anxiety and fear of withdrawal in a waiting room."

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  • It Takes a Village: How Coalition Work is Transforming Lives in Detroit - NationSwell

    A coalition of organizations in the Detroit region had “a goal of re-engaging the region’s 690,000 adults who had completed some college but hadn’t gotten a degree.” One of the programs they created was the Wayne State Warrior Way Back program, which allows students with school debt to re-enroll and “learn” off their debt at a rate of $500 for each semester completed.”

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  • How Europe's Greenest Capital Is Saving City Trees

    Cities around the world are using apps and interactive platforms to encourage resident volunteers to care for their urban forests. For example, in Berlin, Gieß den Kiez (Water the Neighborhood) is an app that allows users to watch their local trees and water them in times of need. When the app launched, there were 1,000 unique users and over 7,000 individual tree waterings in the first six weeks. However, the cost of planting and maintaining trees can be expensive and where the trees are located in cities and who benefits from them is not always equitable.

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  • How Mexico City's poorest neighbourhood is battling climate change

    The people in a neighborhood in Mexico City are coming up with innovative solutions to handle climate-related disasters like flood. They use an early warning system that uses a radio signal and WhatsApp to warn residents of environmental dangers. However, the app does not always work. And a mobile classroom offers simulations about how government decisions are made when deciding danger levels of disasters. While thousands of residents had been trained, the classroom is usually only in the neighborhood for a day. Yet, these solutions based on education and communication could be applied to other communities.

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  • How Hawaii's New Voting System Could Help Disabled Voters

    Voters with disabilities in Hawaii have more options for voting than in most other states. Electronic ballots in particular, which can be paired with assistive technology, allow voters more freedom and independence. Any voter with a disability can request a ballot be emailed to them as an HTML file. Voters must sign a privacy waiver and ballots have to be printed and signed. Hawaii is one of the few states that allows voters to scan their signed ballots and return them by email, as well as by mail or dropped in an official ballot box. More voter outreach is needed to make people aware of this option.

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  • 19th Amendment: The six-week 'brawl' that won women the vote

    Three generations of activists marched, protested, lobbied, and campaigned for more than seven decades to win the right to vote for American women. In 1920, national and local activists worked to convince Tennessee legislators to support the 19th amendment and become the 36th and final state needed to ratify it. Local suffragists were the most visible forces, lobbying their representatives to support the amendment, while national activists built alliances, identified legislators known to take bribes, and exerted political pressure at all levels of government, including among presidential candidates.

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  • The growing global movement to end outdoor advertising

    There are 29 Resistance to Advertising Aggression (RAP) groups working in France to ban outdoor advertising such as billboards. The groups worked with the mayor in the city of Grenoble to cancel a contract for 326 outdoor ads. While not all contracts can be changed, RAPs are particularly focused on stopping digital signs because the energy required to run them is harmful to the environment. Groups in the United Kingdom, São Paulo, New Delhi, and Tehran have won campaigns to remove billboards and other outdoor ads, which research shows reinforce sexist and capitalist ideologies.

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