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

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  • Street medic crew forms out of BLM protests in metro Phoenix

    As protests spread across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, some protesters saw the need for street medics to tend to injured protestors. They formed Desert Action Medical Network and remained on the sidelines to administer medical attention at over 80 protests in Phoenix. The medics packed backpacks full of supplies to treat wounds from tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray projectiles, and treated protestors when violence broke out. “Somehow medicine just became the best use of our skills for this movement.”

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  • Police Use Painful Dog Bites To Make People Obey

    Police often use dogs as a form of "pain compliance," non-lethal tactics that get a criminal suspect under control without having to resort to potentially lethal means. But this use of dogs can inflict pain and injury far out of proportion to the threat posed, even to the point that the detained person cannot comply with officers' demands. A lack of national standards or consensus about how to use dogs responsibly and safely, and the existence of many other tools and tactics that can be used instead, make the existence of hundreds of dog-bite cases a study in a failed de-escalation strategy.

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  • How one Texas non-profit is helping foster children learn and stay safe during the pandemic

    The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way foster care works. The SAFE Alliance, a merger of Austin Children’s Shelter and SafePlace, had to change the way they do things to ensure the safety of children and teens. “In late February we decided we needed to create a COVID-response team, so the executive team got together and created what we call a COVID coordinator.” Apart from implementing safety protocols, they also found ways to avoid staff burnout, and restructured their teen parent and early childhood programs.

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  • Distrito Escolar usa tecnología para ayudar a familias que hablan español

    Las escuelas públicas de Springdale, en Arkansas (Estados Unidos), han invertido mucho en mejoras en las comunicaciones para ayudar al 47% de los estudiantes hispanos y al 13% de los estudiantes de origegn marshalés del distrito, muchos de los cuales están aprendiendo inglés como segundo idioma. El distrito ha contratado a miembros del personal bilingües para crear contenido en varios idiomas y transmitirlo en una variedad de plataformas, además de haber aumentado un 20% su presupuesto de comunicación.

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  • Homicides dropped after Philly gangs signed a 1974 peace pact. What can we learn from the org that brokered the truce?

    The House of Umoja in West Philadelphia, created in the late 1960s in response to high rates of gang violence, succeeded in helping thousands of young men through a residential treatment program, mediating disputes peacefully, and brokering a gang truce credited with lowering Philadelphia violence in the 1970s. The program was based on Afrocentric customs and family structure (its name means unity in Swahili). The grandson of the founders is now trying to revive the home as part of the city's multiple anti-violence initiatives.

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  • National organization repurposes summer camps, combating ‘summer slide' in reading and math

    As summer programs across the country shut down to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School summer program in Austin tried was forced to quickly pivot to virtual learning. They had to make large technological purchases, hire a help desk staff, reached out to volunteers, and had to figure out how to get students to log on.

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  • ‘Backpacks full of boulders': How one district is addressing the trauma undocumented children bring to school

    Prince George's County in Maryland ranks fourth in the country for the number of unaccompanied students with sponsors. Often, these students have experienced a lot of trauma by the time they arrive at school. School officials are using their budget to spend it on resources to help educators and undocumented students succeed academically by hiring trauma specialists, bilingual liaisons, and teacher aides. “The most important reason is it is morally, really spiritually, inappropriate to mistreat the children who come from these families and not give them equal opportunity.”

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  • ‘The Poetry Project': How young refugees in Germany are bridging the cultural gap with their voices

    The Poetry Project provides a platform for young refugees to create poetry, share their stories, and learn about German culture. The initiative started with weekly meetings for 7 young refugees to workshop poetry about the refugee experience, including leaving loved ones, why they left, and how they feel in their new home country. Their live performances have won prizes and their audiences respond emotionally. The group’s success allowed it to expand to more participants and reach a wider audience. The experience helped some participants integrate more smoothly into German society, where they have thrived.

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  • Writing the next chapter in literary diversity

    Kindred is a program to diversify Pima County libraries' staff, events, and collections. They run programs centered around Black history, culture, and experiences, including Black story time and talks featuring prominent local people of color. Topics include Black history, female entrepreneurship, and quilt codes for the Underground Railroad. A grant allowed them to distribute 200 copies of Octavia E. Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” with a guide for discussion. Pima County built on Kindred’s work by launching new collections featuring materials written by and for LGBTQ+, Indigenous, and Latino patrons.

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  • Incarcerated Women Are Punished for Their Trauma With Solitary Confinement

    Like other prisons, Minnesota's Shakopee Correctional Facility says it uses solitary confinement as punishment for violence or other misbehavior by incarcerated people, to provide safety, or to isolate people with mental illness. But interviews with 51 women who were sent to solitary, in this story by a fellow incarcerated woman, show how common the punishment is for trivial offenses. Innocent touching is deemed inappropriate sexual activity, or women act out over the trauma they have suffered. Then they are confined in conditions that only make their emotional state worse.

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