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The Kitchen Garden Series upends the textiles industry by reviving an old Philly tradition: producing local linen

Courtney Duchene

August 13, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Pottstown, Pennsylvania

A former costume designer and a farmer in Pennsylvania are partnering together to grow flax to produce their own linen. Since the fashion and textiles industries produce a lot of waste, the duo are reviving the crop that was traditionally grown in the area to raise awareness on the importance of a strong local textile supply chain. While harvesting the crop can be labor intensive and they don’t plan on making a profit from it this year, they hope to show that growing flax could be a staple crop in urban agriculture.

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Mental health training for cops is working in Tucson. Can we bring it to Philly?

Jessica Blatt Press

August 10, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

Tuscon police use a combination of training and expanded resources to resolve mental health crises by putting people in the hands of mental health professionals, an approach that in 2019 diverted nearly 4,400 cases away from arrests and jail. All police officers take a required 12-hour mental health first aid class, and most go through another 40-hour crisis intervention training. A specialized team gets more extensive training to handle court-ordered interventions, emphasizing patience and humane treatment. A 24/7 Crisis Response Center serves as an intake desk to decide what help people in crisis need.

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Full-Circle Support

Katherine Rapin

August 06, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Philadelphia Black Giving Circle supports Black-led and Black-serving nonprofits, offering funding that was raised through the Black community. The giving circle has helped to build personal relationships with people of color, strengthen the community, and increase donation amounts to nonprofits tackling issues in the community. The initiative is an effort to model a more equitable form of philanthropy.

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To fix homelessness, let's treat it as a health issue like they do in Denver

Diana Lind

July 20, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia can look to places such as Denver and New Jersey for examples of how to alleviate homelessness by treating it as a health problem. Many people experiencing homelessness struggle with alcohol, opiate and drug addictions as well as mental and physical disabilities. Hospitals are often obligated to treat and keep anyone who may not have a safe place to go after release therefore the healthcare industry has an incentive to mitigate the homelessness crisis by providing wraparound services as well as transitional housing for people who have no where to go after a hospital release.

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What Philly can learn about smarter policing from Volusia County, Florida

Jessica Blatt Press

July 15, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Daytona Beach, Florida

Since he took over the Volusia County, Florida, Sheriff's Office in 2016, Philadelphia police veteran Mike Chitwood changed many of his department's personnel and put the entire 1,000-employee department through de-escalation training. By 2019, the reforms were credited with cutting deputies' use of force in half, all while crime dropped by 40% and arrests by 30%. A core piece of the training, inspired by Scottish police, is the Police Executive Research Forum's ICAT program, which emphasizes critical thinking and communication skills over the threat of deadly force.

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Mosaic Development Partners works to bring people of color into the real estate market

Jessica Blatt Press

July 08, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mosaic Development Partners (MDP) seeks to create wealth for the black community in Philadelphia by providing affordable housing and creating opportunities in neighborhoods that are considered risky investments for typical real estate companies. The black-owned company has created housing as well as retail opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses who historically have a harder time accessing capital and loans. The company is mission-driven but operates on a for-profit model, finding economic solutions for systemic problems that have kept black communities from creating generational wealth.

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RIP Medical Debt helps poor Americans eliminate medical bills

Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

June 30, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York

Two former debt collectors have teamed up to put their experience and expertise to use paying off medical debts for Americans below the poverty line. RIP Medical Debt is a nonprofit that buys debt in bulk at reduced rates from hospitals. Within five years, $2 billion dollars of debt have been eliminated. The nonprofit has also launched projects researching systemic issues within healthcare and how to solve them.

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This is how the Police Advisory Commission should work in Philadelphia

Charles D. Ellison

June 10, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Truly independent citizen review boards can serve as an effective check on police misconduct if they are structured properly, but too many cities are like Philadelphia, where a lack of power and resources means they serve mainly as window dressing. The history of the Philadelphia Police Advisory Commission shows how initial efforts by community groups to establish real oversight fizzled through political gamesmanship and limits on the panel’s power to investigate and discipline. More promising models exist in Phoenix, Denver, and St. Louis.

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Europe offers creative ways to fight domestic violence during Covid-19. Why not bring them to Philadelphia?

Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

June 09, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia’s domestic violence shelters filled during the pandemic, emergency funding ran dry, and officials offered victims little recourse if they were trapped at home with their abusers. These gaps in protection could be remedied by copying what has been done in Spain and France, where pharmacists were enlisted to turn coded language – a request for a particular kind of mask – into a call for help, and pop-up counseling centers at supermarkets and funding for emergency shelter and counseling organizations expanded to keep pace with a spike in incidents.

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Philly police should adopt this ethics program that reformed NOLA force

Larry Platt

June 04, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

Eight years after the New Orleans Police Department served as a model of how not to police, its Ethical Policing Is Courageous (EPIC) program has done more to dismantle the “blue wall of silence” than any other reforms. Citizen complaints and horrific examples of brutality have gone down while citizen satisfaction has risen. Now the training of officers in “peer intervention” is spreading nationwide, empowering street officers schooled in the use of peer pressure to stand up to misconduct without fear of retaliation.

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