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Texas's High School Voter Registration Law Fails to Live Up to Ideals

James Russell

July 02, 2020 |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Texas

A Texas law requiring high school principals to register eligible student voters has failed because it is unequally carried out, not enforceable or tracked, and other obstacles to vote prevent students from casting ballots. While the law was an impressive attempt to increase the civic participation of young people, many high schools have not participated. A 2019 report shows that only 38% of schools with at least 20 seniors requested voter registration forms. A confounding obstacle is a 2013 voter ID law that requires voters to show one of seven forms of photo identification, but student IDs are not eligible

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Trenton's Urban Gardens Foster Food Sovereignty and Civic Engagement

Brianna Baker

July 01, 2020 |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Trenton, New Jersey

Isles, Inc. provides plants, seeds, and support to over 70 community gardens in Trenton, 20 of which belong to schools. In a city where many residents experience food insecurity, Isles also maps food-assets and food deserts, runs a training garden to teach new growers the basics of at-home gardening, and hosts a free summer camp to get young people interested in agriculture and nature. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Isles has distributed over 100 pounds of seeds, 1,000 pounds of fertilizer, and thousands of seedlings to its garden network members and shifted many instructional workshops online.

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In Austin, ConnectATX Makes COVID-19 Resources Easy to Find

Celeste Hamilton Dennis

June 01, 2020 |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Austin, Texas

ConnectATX provides a directory of myriad resources available to residents in Austin, Texas. The services include food aid, rent relief, mental health, childcare, and transportation. ConnectATX has representatives who screen callers depending upon need and connect them with all the appropriate available resources on their website. As the pandemic continues, ConnectATX has kept their directory updated with the latest information on food banks, testing sites, and guidelines for financial aid benefits.

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Why San Francisco's Librarians Make Great Contact Tracers

Emily Nonko

May 28, 2020 |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Librarians’ skills have proved critical to San Francisco’s pandemic response, in roles ranging from translating to communicating public-health announcements, but especially contact tracing. The city’s largest-ever activation of disaster service workers meant sending librarians to the front lines. The dozens chosen for contact tracing work use a combination of research and people skills, striving to build trust with people reached by phone. Says one librarian, “You have to be agile and willing to lean in. It aligns well with my skills as a librarian."

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This Nonprofit Helps Small Business Aid Go Where it Usually Doesn't

Oscar Perry Abello

May 21, 2020 |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

An American nonprofit called the Community Reinvestment Fund expands access to small business loans by partnering with almost two dozen groups across the country to set up and scale up their community development lending. Founded in 1988, the group essentially takes on the risk of a SBA license so that others could benefit from their license. They created an online platform called Spark that redesigned the user interface of the existing loan processor platform to better facilitate the exchange of money. They have now supported loans for 1,000 communities across 49 states.

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Amid COVID-19, SNAP Rolls Out Online Ordering

Cinnamon Janzer

May 21, 2020 |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

More than a dozen states are participating in a SNAP program, allowing people experiencing economic hardship to purchase food online from retailers. While only certain online retailers allow for food stamp purchases and SNAP users can’t pay for delivery fees with their benefits, more states are piloting the program, which could prove useful for people quarantining from the novel coronavirus.

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How Detroit Gets People Around During a Pandemic

Emily Nonko

May 20, 2020 |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Detroit, Michigan

The city of Detroit’s government spearheaded new partnerships at the start of the coronavirus pandemic to provide transit options for people living in city shelters and residents who don’t have cars to access COVID-19 testing. These partnerships among government departments allowed for transporting those experiencing homelessness to designated emergency shelters and hospitals to prevent the spread of the virus among shelter residents. Government officials anticipated as many as 450 shelter residents would contract the virus, but so far, only 154 people have tested positive with no deaths reported.

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New York City Pilots Mobile Methadone Program to Help Treat Addiction

Roshan Abraham

May 20, 2020 |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

New York City is piloting a methadone distribution system for residents struggling with opioid addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially intended to avoid unnecessary visits to medical centers, the model is now championed by policy experts as a permanent solution for reaching more patients. “It’s amazing, unprecedented, ground-breaking, and will be something that we’ll continue to fight to make sure that it stays in place after COVID has passed,” one proponent said.

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Why This New Jersey Forager Thinks Weeds Are the Future of Food

Brianna Baker

May 19, 2020 |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New Jersey

Meadows + More is a farm in New Jersey that specializes in edible wild plants and its owner, Tama Matsuoka Wong, seeks to educate people about the important role wild plants could play in future food systems if disasters and climate change were to eradicate plant species. She tends over 200 varieties of wild plants that she sells to top chefs and restaurants and to home cooks. While the community of wild plant enthusiasts is small, her business has received renewed interest during the COVID-19 pandemic as people looked for alternatives to grocery stores.

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Helping Tenants and Landlords Resolve Issues — Before Going to Court

Jared Brey

May 19, 2020 |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The city of Philadelphia piloted a mediation program that showed how landlord-tenant disputes could be resolved short of an eviction lawsuit. Though the program only lasted two months and heard just a handful of cases, it demonstrated that landlords will participate voluntarily in a system that can equalize a power imbalance and resolve disputes in ways that prove less damaging to both parties. Demand for the mediation program could ramp up if an expected wave of evictions hits because of the pandemic's effects on the economy.

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