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

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 222 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • Rooftop beehives in Philly help nurture bees—and maintain our food supply

    Bees and other pollinator populations have been rapidly declining, threatening food production nationwide, but urban beekeeping is helping to fight against this trajectory. In Philadelphia, rooftop beekeeping has become the norm for one section of the city, where the honey harvested goes directly to the businesses in the area.

    Read More

  • Our Zoo is Greener Than Your Zoo

    The Philadelphia Zoo has created an in-house, vertical garden – housed in a shipping container provided by the nonprofit, CropBox – to grow food for the animals. So far, it has shown to be a more sustainable way of feeding the animals, producing 275 lbs of greens per month and using 70-90% less water than traditional farming. The garden is just one of the zoo’s newest sustainability initiatives, which include increasing energy efficiency, using solar-powered vehicles, and creating more trails and spaces for the animals.

    Read More

  • Let's nix Columbus Day and make Election Day a paid holiday instead

    Sandusky, Ohio, recently got rid of Columbus Day in favor of a holiday on Election Day, following the lead of several countries around the world such as South Africa, Germany, and India. Sandusky's swapping of Columbus Day for Election Day is largely symbolic, but symbols can be powerful, especially for small towns.

    Read More

  • Bridges to Wealth tackles Philly's wealth gap through smart investment training

    A University of Pennsylvania professor's observation of the wealth disparity in West Philadelphia led to the creation of Bridges to Wealth: a program that teaches financial literacy to marginalized communities who have historically been shut out of building wealth. College students in the program teach financial literacy to high school students alongside computer technology and technical skills. Bridges to Wealth has grown to offer personal finance and investing advice to adults as well as young students.

    Read More

  • Reducing Gun Violence

    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.

    Read More

  • A Greener Afterlife

    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.

    Read More

  • Citizens of the Week Gaye Harley and Jamie Powell

    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.

    Read More

  • Social Media for...Good?

    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.

    Read More

  • Campus Thrift Stores

    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.

    Read More

  • Food it Forward

    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."

    Read More