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Can a Community Water Lab Restore Trust in Flint?

Nina Misuraca Ignaczak

February 18, 2021 |

Belt Magazine |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Flint, Michigan

A community-based water testing and lead-education pilot program aimed to rebuild confidence and trust among Flint residents, who are skeptical of state-affiliated testing. Trained students collected water samples that were tested by University of Michigan labs. Educational materials provided with results included how to install, maintain, and use filters. While most samples didn't show issues, households with dangerous lead levels were given bottled water, filters, and other services. Once the pilot ended, the Mckenzie Patrice-Croom Water Lab secured funding to continue free community-based water testing.

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Integration Starts in the Village

Teresa Di Mauro Heydar Isayev

February 18, 2021 |

Transitions Online |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Georgia

Ethnic Azeri students face disproportionate barriers in achieving university education compared to Georgians. One of those reasons is due to language barriers. Isolated from Georgian society, it's not uncommon for Azeri communities to not speak Georgian fluently. The center has now expanded into a network of multiple centers. One center serves as many as 160 children. It’s working. Some of the centers had a 100% success rate in helping Azeri students enter college.

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How Newark Water Coalition Is Bringing the City Clean Water Without Plastic Waste

Emily Nonko

February 18, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Newark, New Jersey

Since it was reported that Newark’s lead levels in the city’s drinking water were higher than federal standards, the Newark Water Coalition installed a Water Box. This is a portable filtration system that removes contaminants to provide 10 gallons of clean water each minute. The organization worked with another nonprofit that implemented a Water Box in Flint, Michigan, to secure funding to install three others in the city.

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A College Program for Disadvantaged Teens Could Shake Up Elite Admissions

Erica Green

February 18, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

About “1,500 (High School) students from 75 of the nation’s poorest schools in 35 cities,” are enrolling in college courses in elite universities like Harvard and Columbia through an initiative started by a nonprofit—and succeeding. The aim of the program is to prepare underprivileged students for the rigors of college education, and give them a confidence boost before they enter college. They complete the same coursework as the college students and get a grade. “All of these schools talk this game, ‘We want diversity, but we can’t find these kids,’ and this proves they can build a pipeline."

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‘Crime-Free' Housing Ordinances, Explained

Deborah N. Archer

February 17, 2021 |

The Appeal |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Starting in the early 1990s, thousands of American towns and cities passed "crime-free housing" ordinances that purport to reduce crime in rental housing. The laws encourage or require landlords to evict tenants based on calls to police, or the criminal records of tenants or their houseguests. The laws' lack of due process has turned them into a tool promoting segregation and retaliation against people of color. Frequently enacted in places that have begun to diversify racially, they give police too much power to declare certain residences a nuisance. Legal challenges have begun to curb some abuses.

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How some frustrated COVID-19 vaccine hunters are trying to fix a broken system

Danny Westneat

February 17, 2021 |

The Seattle Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

Retired software engineers in Washington have joined together and created a website that aggregates all available COVID vaccine appointments by using "screen scrapers." Although the site doesn't allow the visitor to book an appointment, it has routinely averaged "10,000 visits a day from anxious shot hunters."

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If You Can't Get To Your Vaccine Appointment, These Cities Will Drive You

Taylor Moore

February 17, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Austin, Texas

Some cities across the U.S. are offering "free or cheap transportation to vaccine distribution sites" as a means of increasing access for those who don't have access to a vehicle, are unable to drive, or don't live near a vaccination site or public transportation network. In Austin, the city converted their already-existing bus and commuter rail system, which was experiencing a decline in use during the pandemic, to a curb-to-curb service.

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The Creative Repurposing of Plywood From Boarded-up Stores

Linda Poon

February 17, 2021 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Paul, Minnesota

In the months after businesses covered their storefronts with plywood as cities erupted in social-justice protests, environmental and other community groups in many cities organized recycling campaigns to reuse the plywood rather than see it end up in landfills. Twin Cities Plywood Rescue in Minnesota, the heart of the protests, collected 642 sheets of plywood and donated it to nonprofits for use in building construction. Other cities' collections have ended up as voter registration booths, outdoor-dining furniture, and animal enclosures.

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Gun violence crisis: With revenge & retaliation on the rise, how police are responding

Kimberly King

February 17, 2021 |

WLOS-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Buffalo, New York

Asheville, North Carolina, police hope to model a violence-intervention program on one in Buffalo, New York, in which police use "custom notifications" to identify people prone to violence. Those notified are given a choice between arrest or assistance in redirecting their lives, with help from social services providers. Buffalo's program is credited with a 24% decline in gun violence in 2019, before the pandemic put it on hold and shootings rose again.

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District-led parent mentor program promotes path to college for English learners

Zaidee Stavely Betty Márquez Rosales

February 17, 2021 |

EdSource |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Whittier, California

Padres Promotores del Camino al Éxito Universitario (Parent Mentors for the Road to College Success) is a three-month program at Whittier Union High School District that taps into the collective knowledge of parents of English learners and provides them with a medium to share that knowledge and/or mentor other parents. There is also a curriculum for parents that are part of the program, which includes "classes on managing stress during the pandemic," information about the district's special education program, and other related information. Parents now help lead, inform, and present at district meetings.

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