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

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  • The Coronavirus Is Blowing Up Our Best Response to the Opioid Crisis

    The coronavirus pandemic has correlated with an increase in overdose deaths in the United States, likely due to people going against one of the "central tenets of safety when using drugs: Never use alone" as well as governments' longstanding stigma against allowing supervised consumption sites. To overcome this, a harm reduction service in Midland, Michigan is connecting volunteer operators with "people who have no choice but to use alone" via telephone as a means to offer help if something goes wrong.

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  • Black voter mobilization efforts begin to bear fruit

    HeadCount, a voter mobilization group, held registration drives at concerts and other events and collaborated with celebrities, music industry leaders, and athletes to form March on Ballot Boxes (M.O.B.B.), an informal coalition harnessing the activism of the Black Lives Matters movement. They provided voter registration tools such as text messaging and QR codes, which protesters could print and display on their signs. They also partnered with Atlantic Records to launch ATL Votes, a digital registration campaign aimed at young voters. They registered over ten times as many new voters in 2020 than in 2016.

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  • Virus hunters: Contact tracing slows spread through painstaking investigation

    Contact tracing has helped identify hundreds potential cases of Covid-19 in Teton County, Wyoming. Conducted by the county's health department, the process works much like it does for other communicable diseases, such as measles. According to the data collected from the efforts, 60% of those who have been contacted as being in contact with the coronavirus have tested positive for the virus themselves.

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  • Kentucky town hires social workers instead of more officers - and the results are surprising

    Alexandria, Kentucky's 17-officer police department avoided the expense of hiring more police officers by adding two social workers to assist police in responding to the types of calls that can often turn into repeat calls to 911. By working with people in domestic disturbances, mental health crises, or with substance abuse issues, the social workers connect families to services immediately, rather than awaiting a referral from the police after the crisis has passed. Repeat calls to 911 are down and the city saves up to $50,000 for each position where a social worker substitutes for a police hire.

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  • Why indigenous folklore can save animals' lives

    Conservations in the Philippines are using indigenous beliefs known as “mariit” — which is the belief that nature is inhabited by unseen dwellers and should be respected and taken care of — to protect the country’s endangered species. The Mariit Wildlife and Conservation Park serves as a refuge for at least 62 animals and the Taklong Island Marine Natural Reserve is a breeding ground for fish species caught outside its boundary. Experts caution though that mariit can have a positive impact on the environment, sometimes the beliefs can undermine science-based conservation activities. 

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  • What Vermont and Its History Might Teach the Nation About Handling the Coronavirus

    Vermont has seen very few cases of COVID-19 compared to its neighboring states after implementing early preparedness protocols. While part of the success could be due to the small and homogeneous population of the state, the credit also goes to the governor ceding communications to health care officials and local media suspending comments on coronavirus-related pieces to mitigate the spread of misinformation.

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  • The Defund Movement Aims to Change the Policing and Prosecution of Domestic Violence

    Criminalizing domestic violence was considered a feminist-inspired advance for crime victims, but making arrests and prosecution the main responses to the problem has backfired in many ways. With funding and attention focused on punishment, other services for victims have been neglected. And expecting victims will aid in a prosecution, even jailing them for refusing, can ignore the rational choices many victims make for non-cooperation, based on their desire for safety, financial and housing security, to avoid maltreatment by police, and other reasons that point toward more promising responses.

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  • Meeting the Mental Health Need

    Mental and physical health are often intertwined, so why shouldn't the same be true for their care providers? Cherokee Health Systems in eastern Tennessee pioneered integrated care, putting behavioral health and mental health professionals on the fast-paced front lines of primary medical care, making mental health care more accessible. While the two professions are often housed together, true integration – the practice that has solid evidence of its effectiveness – is still fairly rare. But helping people with dual problems, in one sitting, can make people healthier in mind and body.

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  • Through PIF^2's social impact mobile game platform, users are playing it forward for charity

    The startup PIF^2 is a “social impact mobile game platform” that partners with charities to raise money through ad revenue and in-game purchases. It hosts “game-a-thons” that target a younger demographic who can generate money for a charity by downloading and playing a game. The “game-a-thons” usually last about a week, after which charities receive a check from PIF^2 for up to 50% of the revenue that was generated. The game apps are currently created by independent developers, but the startup hopes to create its own games so that it can donate even more of the revenue proceeds to charity.

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  • As Prisons Cancel Visitation, The Phone Line Becomes A Life Line

    To alleviate the isolating effects of COVID-19 restrictions in prisons barring outside visitors, some prisons have encouraged phone and video contact with family by waiving the fees normally charged for such services. In Utah, the first 10 calls per week are free. Federal prisons have waived the charges entirely. Maintaining healthy family relationships has been shown to relieve prisoners' loneliness and anxiety, which equates to better behavior. And it reduces future lawbreaking by strengthening bonds that help in finding housing and jobs once the prisoners are released.

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