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Reducing Gun Violence

Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

September 20, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

Oakland’s Ceasefire initiative takes a collaborative, comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence. City officials, community advocates, residents, and law enforcement work together by prioritizing data analysis, multi-stakeholder gatherings, personalized social services, specialized police training, and weekly reviews of shootings and meeting with victims. While this approach has shown success, it was hard to get started and required the community to organize around demands to stop gun violence. As Philly grapples with similar issues, it looks to Oakland as a model for grassroots change.

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A Greener Afterlife

Courtney Duchene

September 11, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia’s West Laurel Hill Cemetery has gone green. While the burial business may be notoriously filled with chemicals, this cemetery has introduced 50 different sustainability initiatives, including banning machinery use, only allowing biodegradable caskets – or no caskets at all – and keeping the grounds flourishing with native plants instead of manicured lawns. The efforts also include community engagement to bring residents into the environmental shift as part of a larger, cultural trend toward sustainability.

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Citizens of the Week Gaye Harley and Jamie Powell

Jessica Press

August 12, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Wilmington, Delaware

In Wilmington, Delaware, Gaye Harley repurposes her hospital's operating room wraps, the oversize sheets of synthetic material used to package instruments, into portable maps for the homeless. Instead of disposing of the materials, she has urged the hospital to recycle them into nearly 100 mats and counting. They have also used the mats to make tote bags, which they distribute with donated socks, also to the homeless.

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Social Media for...Good?

Jessica Press

July 08, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

After providing emotional support to peers who were struggling with suicidal thoughts, a college student in Philadelphia created a Twitter group "to prevent suicide and raise awareness for mental health." Although not a replacement for professional help, the Buddy Project has provided support for 230,000 people worldwide and raised $36,000 for mental health and recovery centers.

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Campus Thrift Stores

Nick Fiorellini

July 03, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Annadale-on-Hudson, New York

Recycling and repurposing second hand items helps to reduce a community’s carbon footprint. At Bard College in New York, the FreeUse Store collects second hand items from students and redistributes them free of charge to members of the community. Run by the university’s Office of Sustainably, the program provides a model for using campus bins to recycle textiles and other items to reduce landfill use.

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Food it Forward

Jason Wilson

July 01, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

In the United States, millions of people lack reliable access to food while hundreds of thousands of pounds of leftover food is thrown away. Fooding Forward is one of several non-profits in Philadelphia working directly against in order to donate food waste to "groups who can get that food to people in need."

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Less Driving

Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

June 27, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: France, Paris

Philadelphia, like many US cities, struggles with traffic congestion and the environmental and financial costs of sitting in traffic; however, in looking at the way Paris has adopted pedestrian-friendly streets, Philly could get an upgrade. Paris uses clearly separated bike lanes, revitalized metro lines and cleanliness to encourage residents to get out of their cars and onto their feet (or bikes, or even skateboards).

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Reducing Poverty—Together

Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

June 11, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada, Waterloo, Ontario

Canada has used a comprehensive approach to lift more than 200,000 families out of poverty in a span of seven years. While the approach has had obvious success, scaling it to other countries presents its own challenges, although some in the United States are ready to give the initiatives a try.

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A Hub for Justice

Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

June 05, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Multi-Media |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The city of Philadelphia has been experimenting and iterating on the development of a Juvenile Justice Hub – a program that would transform interactions between the city’s youth and the police. The Hub is in the testing phase, as it is part of a Bloomberg Philanthropies competition for $1 million in grant funding. If received, the city would be able to officially deploy the ideas it has been testing, like training police in trauma and providing more social services for kids who are picked up by police.

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Plastic with a Purpose

Jill Harkins

June 03, 2019 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A new social enterprise called rePurpose asks consumers to estimate their plastic usage and pay to offset it. Then, the organization funds worker cooperatives in India that provide more stable employment and pay for workers in the recycling industry. Still in its early stages, rePurpose hopes to collaborate with businesses, schools, and individuals to offset their plastic usage.

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