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Happier Employees, Higher Profits: Covid's Surprising Lesson for Restaurants

Matthew Sedacca

May 19, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Alamos, California

During the COVID-19 pandemic, owners of the French bistro Bell's took a financial risk and began investing more money in their employees to incentivize working, increase employee satisfaction and retention and overall drive more profits. The decision has since paid off and is reimagining the traditional restaurant structure.

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India's 'Open Prisons' Are a Marvel of Trust-Based Incarceration

Kavitha Yarlagadda

May 12, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India, Rajasthan

The Sanganer open prison serves as an important alternative to traditional incarceration in India by remaining open for 12 hours a day and allowing inmates to go out. It is one of 88 open prisons in India that works on a model of reform and helps inmates to keep their connection with work, family, and society. In doing so, it enables the development of trust as well as skills that can help them not just during incarceration but also after release.

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What Is the Future of America's Greenest Town?

Anne Kniggendorf

April 19, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Multi-Media |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Greensburg, Kansas

After a tornado devastated Greensburg, Kansas, the town decided to use the disaster as an opportunity to become more environmentally sustainable. For example, they built a new school out of recycled wood and it was powered with geothermal heat. While the maintenance of these sustainable features can be tricky, this shift to a greener town can be a case study for others looking to make the transition.

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Shifting Winds

Mark Oprea

April 14, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Iowa

A new kind of cash crop is turning Iowa into a renewable energy juggernaut — and preserving a rural way of life. With the help of federal incentives and renewable energy companies, farmers in rural Iowa are setting up turbines on their land to both make a profit, and offset crop losses during growing seasons.

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Can We Build Less Biased Medical Bots?

Tolu Olasoji

April 11, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

Melalogic is an app that provides skin health resources to people with dark skin. The uses crowdsourced imaging data to confront racial bias in diagnostic artificial intelligence. Users can access the Black Skin Resource Center with information on 14 issues that affect people with darker skin. The app also shares health posters that physicians use to share information with their patients and videos with dermatologic tips. In the works is Melalogic 2.0, an immersive telehealth experience.

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In Austria, the Government Pays to Repair Your Stuff

Kaja Šeruga

March 22, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Austria, Vienna

In 2020, Vienna, Austria launched a program to subsidize half the cost of repairs to items such as clothing, electronics, bicycles, and furniture. The initiative supported the repair of more than 35,000 items, saving 850 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and spurring other localities, such as Thüringen, Germany, and Portland, Oregon, to roll out their own repair bonus schemes.

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Democracy Comes to Michigan

David Byrne

March 21, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Michigan

A grassroots campaign ended gerrymandering in Michigan by passing an initiative requiring districts be drawn by citizen-commissions rather than politicians. The all-volunteer campaign went door-to-door collecting enough signatures to get the initiative on the ballot and used creative voter-engagement techniques to sustain the support. Once the ballot initiative passed, 9,300 people applied for the first commission. A third-party firm ultimately selected four Democrats, four Republicans, and five non-partisan people as commissioners, who worked together very well to redraw districts.

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Oregon Is Turning Sewage into an Endless Supply of Green Energy

Britany Robinson

March 17, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Clackamas county, Oregon

A wastewater treatment plant in Oregon not only cleans water that is released into the local river, but it also creates fertilizer that is sent to farmers to use on non-food crops and it produces renewable power from methane. The green energy created at the plant heats five buildings on the site and produces half of the energy the facility uses. This kind of co-generation system is growing in other places in the United States, China, Brazil, and Norway.

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Meet the 'Cultural Mediators' Who Help Refugees in Germany

Peter Yeung

March 11, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Germany, Hamburg

To help migrants in Germany acclimate and find stability in a new culture, Wohnbrücke Hamburg trains volunteers to act as mediators between landlords and refugees in search of housing. Between 2015 and 2021, the organization helped more than 3,000 refugees move out of camps and into homes, while roughly 1,000 volunteers have been trained to guide refugees through the housing process and offer social and cultural support.

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Through Online Platforms, Thousands Open Their Homes to Ukraine's Refugees

Michaela Haas

March 10, 2022 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Ukraine

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, online home-sharing platforms such as Host a Sister provided an avenue for thousands of people around the world to offer temporary housing to refugees leaving the country. Host a Sister in particular is geared at women looking for a safe place to stay, making it a valuable resource for families who have had to flee while men have stayed behind to fight.

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