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

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  • The Surprising Lives of Germany's 'Basic Income' Raffle Winners

    Marjolein Koster Ties Gijzel

    August 10, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Multi-Media |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Germany

    A randomly selected group of lucky Germans are reaping the benefits of a guaranteed monthly income. An organization raffles off a year’s worth of guaranteed monthly income, allowing recipients to experience less stress, connect with their friends and family, and focus on work that interests them.

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  • Beirut Is Greening the Aftermath of Disaster

    Laure Delacloche

    August 03, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Lebanon, Beirut

    In 2020, a devastating explosion in Beirut that came from a warehouse released 800,000 and one million tons of construction and demolition waste and 20,000 tons of shattered glass into the city. The waste was being thrown into landfills. However, landfills are notoriously bad for the environment. Out of that rubble an idea was created; disposing waste sustainably. Rubble Mountains was created specifically to do this. They've been able to restore four quarries, use materials to create public amenities, and diverting up to 50 tons of demolition waste from landfills.

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  • From a Prison Garden Sprouts Real Growth

    Hannah Wallace

    July 27, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Oregon

    Lettuce Grow teaches gardening skills to 200 incarcerated people per year in 16 Oregon prisons and juvenile detention centers. The teaching includes college-level courses and hands-on gardening on prison grounds, which then yields hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables for prison kitchens. Graduates of the program commit many fewer crimes than the average ex-prisoner and have found work after prison at nurseries and in other horticultural pursuits.

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  • This Seattle Affordable Housing Project Is a Transit Rider's Dream

    Josh Cohen

    July 23, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Affordable housing a stone’s throw from accessible public transportation is the dream. It’s now becoming a reality for some lucky residents in Seattle.

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  • This Is the First Ecosystem With Its Own Insurance Policy

    Oliver Gordon

    July 20, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Mexico

    In Mexico, the Mesoamerican Reef, a 100-mile long coral reef system, the second largest in the word, is insured. The insurance policy is the result of a collaboration between the local government, hotel owners, an international NGO, and an insurance company who saw the value of protecting the reef. After Hurricane Delta, the insurance first kicked in, the insurance paid out $850,000. The money was used to uproot 2,152 coral colonies and close to 14,000 coral fragments. The model could be an example of future moves to insure the environment.

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  • Hey Siri, Learn to Speak Kinyarwanda

    Tolu Olasoji

    July 13, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Rwanda

    Common Voice is an open-source initiative to capture more languages for voice-recognition software. Users “donate” their voices by recording themselves reading text out loud. They can also validate the accuracy of already donated voices. The platform has over 9,000 hours of voice data for 90 languages contributed by more than 166,000 people. The group runs creative campaigns to encourage native speakers to contribute, like “Digital Umuganda” in Rwanda, which is a play on a national holiday when people engage in community service. The campaign gathered over 1,700 hours of Kinyarwanda language from 840 people.

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  • Keeping People Out of Jail Keeps People Out of Jail

    David Byrne

    July 12, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

    When prosecutors in Boston and Baltimore stopped prosecuting certain non-violent, minor offenses, crime of all sorts, from minor to violent, went down. Getting prosecuted and jailed can in itself increase the probability that people will get in more trouble. When their mistakes are not compounded by an arrest record that limits their job and housing prospects, they are apt to stay out of trouble. The prosecutors and research found that simply excluding cases of non-violent, minor drug possession, disorderly conduct, shoplifting from the system does not encourage more crime; probably the opposite.

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  • How Bogotá's Waste Pickers Reinvented Their Jobs for a Modern City

    Peter Yeung

    July 05, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Colombia

    In Colombia, there are about 50,000 waste pickers, they collect and sort through trash to findrecyclabless to make a living. Their livelihood was threatened in the 1990s after Colombia adopted neoliberal policies that privatized trash collection. However, in 2016 the government officially recognized wastepickers as recycling service providers under a decree. That same year, the government introduced a "second payment," that supplement the income of waste pickers. Coupled, these two policies have improved the livelihood of wastepickers.

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  • Get There Fast or Safe? A Crowdsourced Map Gives You the Option

    Chandni Doulatramani

    June 29, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: India, Gurgaon

    In 71 cities around the world, users of the My Safetipin mobile app can decide whether to visit a particular neighborhood or plan a travel route based on how safe others deem those places. While the 100,000 or so users, more than half in India, constitute too small a user base to make the mapping app truly universal, its crowdsourced data already have prompted the Delhi and Bogota governments to improve street lighting on streets deemed unsafe because they are not well lit. The app's primary goal is to make the streets safer for women.

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  • Clearing a Path from Prison to the Bar Exam

    Allen Arthur

    June 21, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    The Formerly Incarcerated Law Students Advocacy Association at City University of New York's law school mentors people whose criminal records serve as a barrier to pursuing a law career. FILSAA is part of a movement to nurture law-practice dreams and make them a reality by knocking down those barriers, including restrictive use of states' "character and fitness" requirements to become licensed to practice. Before that step, mentors can help people prepare for the LSAT and succeed in law school. Advocates say that lawyers with lived experience can serve clients better by earning their trust more readily.

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