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  • Seattle Is Using Psychology to Help People Avoid City Fines and Fees

    March 10, 2021 |

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    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    By redesigning the notices it mails to people who owe the city money for pet licenses or traffic and parking fines, Seattle's Innovation and Performance project greatly improved payment rates. The effort, based on behavioral economics concepts making payment seem easier and more in tune with social norms, has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars more into city coffers while sparing residents the hassles and greater costs of not paying fees and fines when they're due.

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  • This Ride-Hailing Platform Wants to be Better for Everyone, Starting with Drivers

    March 09, 2021 |

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    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    An equitable alternative to Uber and Lyft is giving drivers ownership of a ride-hailing platform with many perks that aren’t available to workers in the gig economy. The Drivers Cooperative is providing drivers with lower interest vehicle loans, better insurance rates, and a pilot program to test their own ride-hailing app.

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  • Using Tech, California Counties Have Cleared 140,000 Marijuana-Related Convictions

    March 05, 2021 |

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    Response Location: United States, California

    After California legalized marijuana, it offered people a way to erase their marijuana-related criminal records. But few tried, in part because the process was difficult. Code for America's Clear My Record initiative automated the process by creating lists of cases eligible for expungement and notifying counties that they could easily take the next step. As a result, 140,000 convictions have been reduced or dismissed, relieving those people of the burden of a criminal record when applying for a job. CFA is working to expand the program nationwide.

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  • How NYC Is Stopping Textile Waste With Low-Tech Donation Bins

    February 24, 2021 |

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    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    RefashionNYC provides bins for commercial and residential buildings with more than 10 units, though the Department of Sanitation, to recycle clothes and textiles. When full, the contents are sorted by Housing Works, who either sells donations in their thrift shops, sends them to other nonprofit second-hand stores, or exports them to overseas markets. Clothing that is too damaged to be donated is sold to companies that reprocess them as rags or seat padding. 1,300 bins have been installed and over 12,200 tons of clothing and textiles have been diverted from landfills.

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  • How Vermont's Energy Efficiency Utility Is Helping Businesses Sweat the Small Stuff

    February 23, 2021 |

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    Response Location: United States, Bennington, Vermont

    To make their restaurant more energy efficient and to cut its carbon footprint, The Publyk House utilized the services of Efficiency Vermont, a publicly funded energy efficiency utility. As part of their Deep Energy Retrofit program, the utility helped install insulation, LED lighting, and high-efficiency appliances at the restaurant, allowing them to save 50 percent on energy in two years. Since the start of the program, 10 businesses have been able to cut their energy consumption in half.

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

    February 18, 2021 |

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

    February 17, 2021 |

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    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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  • Durham, NC Just Finished Erasing $2.7 Million In Traffic Debt

    February 17, 2021 |

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    Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

    The DEAR program (Durham Expunction and Restoration) put 11,084 drivers back on the road legally and waived $2.7 million in fines in a purge of old cases that had revoked driving privileges for unpaid fines and fees. The two-year amnesty program, part of a national movement, took aim at the often racially disparate enforcement of state laws that burden the formerly incarcerated and others with unaffordable monetary penalties. Deprived of the right to drive, people either miss out on work and educational opportunities, or risk more traffic tickets, arrests, and fines.

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  • The Bakery That's Owned by an Idea

    February 16, 2021 |

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    Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

    Firebrand Artisan Breads hires people with high barriers to employment, such as people experiencing homelessness or who were formerly incarcerated. The higher-than-minimum-wage starting salary, paid time off, and insurance benefits provide sustainable and secure employment to people whose life circumstances make it harder to get a job. In order to raise capital while maintaining their employment model, the owner worked with lawyers to become a perpetual purpose trust, an alternative ownership model that allows the company to sell shares to private investors while ensuring their principles remain in place.

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  • For People Who Experience Homelessness, Art Catalyzes Economic Mobility and Rewrites the Narrative

    February 15, 2021 |

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    Response Location: United States, Austin, Texas

    Arts From The Streets gives artists living with homelessness a path to economic mobility and housing stability by offering ways to make and sell their art. An annual show can bring in $100,000 in sales, 95% of which goes to the artists. The organization provides studio space, online marketing, and other sales channels. It's one of three programs or communities serving artists who are houseless profiled in this story. The others are MudGirls, an Atlantic City ceramic arts studio, and the thriving arts culture in Los Angeles' Skid Row neighborhood, which focuses on personal growth more than income.

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