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

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  • How a US strategy is helping gang members in Malmö turn their lives around

    When drug-gang violence reached intolerable levels in Malmö in 2017, Swedish crime prevention officials traveled to New York for tips. There they learned about a gang violence intervention strategy in which gang members are summoned to a meeting with law enforcement, community, and social-services representatives. They are told about the harm they are causing, are offered help in changing their lifestyle, and are warned that they will be prosecuted otherwise. In Malmö since then, hundreds heard that message, dozens accepted the help, and violence dropped significantly year after year.

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  • Can ‘Open Streets' Outlast the Pandemic?

    Many cities created "open streets" during the pandemic, limiting traffic on certain streets to give people a safe outdoor place to relax and play. Which programs outlive the pandemic depends on a host of factors, most especially how community-led the programs are. In Queens' Jackson Heights neighborhood, a densely populated community with many immigrants, closing a major street didn't work when police were at the barricades. But, under the leadership of the community, the daily closure turned into a street party and community-building event that is causing the city to rethink basic urban-planning concepts.

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  • Philly Under Fire Episode 4: A Fresh 24

    Philadelphia's PowerCorpsPHL and a larger program it resembles, Chicago's CRED, spring from one reality: Young men prone to gun violence will readily leave street violence and the underground economy if offered the opportunity for a legitimate job. In Philly, the strategy worked even when the jobs barely pay minimum wage. When pay jumped $3 per hour, the rate at which program participants got arrested dropped from 8% to 3% immediately, versus the city average recidivism rate of about 50%. The programs also provide GED classes, trauma counseling, and other services meant to change lives permanently.

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  • Dependency Court Programs Focus On Babies' Health

    The Safe Babies program model trains judges to oversee foster-care cases with the goal of fixing the problems that led social workers to remove young children from their homes. Operating swiftly, so that babies do not lose precious weeks and months apart from their parents at a critical time, programs like Best For Babies in Pierce County, Washington, put teams of medical and mental health experts on a case. Nationwide, the program used in 30 states makes family reunification much more likely and rapid, with healthier parental attachments and child development.

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  • Officers try to break stigma, offer help to drug users

    Tucson Police Department's Substance Use Resource Team reaches out on the streets to people with substance-use disorder, offering them treatment instead of arrest and jail. The team is an extension of the department's mental health support team and was started in response to the opioid epidemic. Officers talk to people they find on the streets, or follow up on 911 calls for overdoses. Not everyone accepts the offered help, and some end up arrested on warrants. But, at a time of rising overdose deaths, the officers and the peer support specialists who accompany them often can get people into treatment.

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  • Michigan aiming to reduce seclusion and restraints at institutions that care for children

    After the death of a 16-year-old boy who was tackled and restrained by staff at a juvenile justice facility, Michigan children's services officials imposed emergency rules limiting the use of restraints. In the past year, the use of restraints – which include handcuffs, straitjackets, even chemicals and medication – dropped from about 600 cases per month to fewer than half that. The state now is considering permanent rules restricting their use and is requiring more training for staff in preventing physical conflicts. One advocate says Pennsylvania serves as a model for nearly eliminating the problem.

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  • Vegas Stronger Starts by Asking Businesses to Call Them, Not Police

    When Las Vegas' restrictions on encampments pushed unhoused people into a shopping center outside the restricted zone, Vegas Stronger worked with business owners and the police to intervene without the need for arrests and jail. Although only two months old, the nonprofit has helped about 30 people through the network of services it has arranged. Services include housing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and other connections to services people need to stay healthy and off the streets. Police welcome the interventions because they are relieved of handling non-criminal matters.

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  • A Solution to Ending Homelessness Might Be in the Data

    Built for Zero is a data-driven approach to ending homelessness with a proven track record of success. The strategy is scalable and takes into account variables within different communities. It aims to bring homelessness rates down to “functional zero,” which means that the number of people experiencing homelessness is low enough that they can all be housed if they wanted.

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  • The Farmer Trying to Save Italy's Ancient Olive Trees

    An imported strain of bacteria is threatening to destroy olive trees in Italy that produce about 12 percent of the world’s olive oil. An agronomist is working with other scientists to graft trees — taking a different kind of tree that could be resistant to the bacteria and inserting it into the trunk of an older tree. After years of trial and error, they’ve found some success. On one farm, 70 percent of the grafts used have survived. But conspiracy theories and financial difficulties have made it a challenge to have a coordinated response to the problem.

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  • They answer the call when people are in crisis

    Following the death of Daniel Prude in Rochester police custody, the city consulted with the operators of Eugene's CAHOOTS program to craft its own version of a team of unarmed responders to help resolve mental health or substance abuse crises without the use of violence. Rochester's Person In Crisis (PIC) team has averaged about 21 calls per day since January. All calls are made with the police in tandem, unlike CAHOOTS' model. Some violent incidents in Rochester have raised questions about PIC's ability to defuse conflict. But the operators say they have begun to make a positive difference.

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