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

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  • ‘What difference would that make?'

    April 30, 2021 |

    The Chicago Reader |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

    A participatory budgeting pilot in ten Chicago Public Schools empowers students to influence change by deciding how small grants, typically $1,000 to $2,000, should be spent for school improvement. Students brainstorm ideas, construct persuasive proposals, and vote on which to implement, providing valuable lessons in civic participation. The proposals revealed student needs that staff hadn’t previously considered. Ultimately, grants supported gender-neutral bathrooms, locker room shower curtains, a peer mentoring program, and spaces for students to reflect and decompress when feeling overwhelmed.

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  • Why Participatory Planning Fails (and How to Fix It)

    April 28, 2021 |

    Next City |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    Participatory planning, or meetings conducted to gather input from communities, have proven to be ineffective. It turns out community engagement doesn’t always result in highlighting issues and improving the quality of life for those who are voicing their concerns. “Research shows that participatory planning addresses the needs of the older, whiter, and wealthier residents.”

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  • Can “democracy dollars” keep real dollars out of politics?

    April 28, 2021 |

    MIT Technology Review |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Democracy Vouchers, a tax-payer-funded program that sends four $25 certificates to residents to donate to local candidates, made Seattle the national leader by increasing the percent of the electorate donating to local campaigns to nearly 8%. They also allow more non-establishment candidates, who lack connections to wealthy donors, to run for office. Four of the nine 2019 city council candidates used vouchers to help fund their campaigns and the vouchers are being expanded to the city’s mayoral races. A national pilot program was also approved to try vouchers for congressional candidates in three states.

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  • Meet the influencers who are fighting the spread of online conspiracy theories

    April 28, 2021 |

    Mashable |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    Social media influencers are using “pre-bunking” -- the practice of exposing people to misinformation and offering expert-backed explanations of why it isn’t true before they see the misinformation in the wild – as a tool to fight its spread and increase media literacy. Hundreds of thousands of people follow accounts on TikTok and Instagram run by influencers whose goals are not to change the minds of staunch conspiracy theorists, but rather to provide tools for those who are either on the fence or want to learn to communicate with people in their lives who subscribe to false information.

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  • Building blocks: B.C. city takes aim at homelessness with two temporary modular housing projects

    April 27, 2021 |

    Capital Current |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Canada, Richmond, British Columbia

    Temporary modular housing is alleviating homelessness in Richmond, Canada. Stacked units are quicker and cheaper to construct and the temporary housing comes with wraparound services such as meals, support groups, and health care to help people experiencing homelessness get back on their feet. The first modular housing project resulted in a public outcry that the city successfully used as a lesson in engaging the community the second time around.

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  • When communities try to hold police accountable, law enforcement fights back

    April 27, 2021 |

    The Washington Post |

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    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Albuquerque, New Mexico

    A favorite remedy for systemic police misconduct is a civilian oversight agency. More than 160 cities and counties have such agencies, some at the insistence of the U.S. Justice Department. But, as Albuquerque and multiple other cities have shown, a common set of factors often undermine the effectiveness of such agencies. These factors start with structural defects, limiting the agencies' independent investigatory and disciplinary powers, and extend to strenuous opposition from police unions and their political allies.

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  • Indigenous Women Politicians Defy Odds – and Tradition

    April 22, 2021 |

    Global Press Journal |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Mexico, Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca

    The Mexican Constitution began in 2016 to require all municipalities in the country to elect or nominate at least one woman for local office. But, in Zapotec Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, where "customary law" held sway, male-dominated tradition marginalized or excluded female officeholders. Espiral por la Vida (Spiral for Life) stepped in to train women in the art of politics and governing. While the culture didn't change overnight, all Oaxaca municipalities had complied with the law, female officeholders felt better prepared, and some men had turned more accepting.

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  • Could a Citizens' Assembly Help Fix Your Democracy?

    April 19, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: France

    France is among a growing number of countries piloting "citizens assemblies," in which a randomly-selected sample of citizens is tasked with reviewing and recommending potential responses to a pressing societal issue. The country's assembly on climate change resulted in more than 100 proposals for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, but because they were nonbinding, only about 40 percent of the recommendations were forwarded to parliament.

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  • The invisible shield: how activists and lawmakers are breaking down qualified immunity, Part 3

    April 15, 2021 |

    New York Amsterdam News |

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    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Colorado

    The protests against police abuses in 2020 prodded numerous legislatures to challenge the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, which protects police officers from being sued for violating people's civil rights. Colorado's law, the first to pass, was a direct response to the protests, as was New York City's law. While one Colorado lawsuit has already been filed, the full effects of these laws and others in the pipeline won't be known for some time. Proponents say these changes won't transform police culture, but they are necessary precursors to making deeper changes.

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  • The Mexican women who kicked out the cartels

    April 15, 2021 |

    The Guardian |

    Video |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: Mexico, Cherán, Michoacan

    Ten years after the women of Cherán, an indigenous town in Michoacán, took up arms to lead an uprising against criminal cartels, their town is an "oasis" of low crime in a region otherwise beset with violence. The town declared itself autonomous and women now belong to the community police force that patrols the town and its surroundings. The cartels' illegal logging and extortion of businesses had corrupted local politicians and threatened a way of life. The town's men did nothing about it, so the women led the uprising that established order and kept the crime at bay.

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