A nonprofit in India is training victims of sexual assault and trafficking to work as lawyers and seek justice for themselves or others. The program offers both counseling and rehabilitation services and formal legal education.

Amidst the coronavirus outbreak, North Carolina's health centers are relying on old methods to reach and educate uninsured and medically vulnerable patients, many of whom don't have access to the internet. Staff are posting fliers in commonly-trafficked locations, hanging signs at health centers, taking out television ads, and asking community leaders to relay hygiene guidelines by word of mouth.

Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises of India (FTTI) is a research and conservation group protecting the 29 species of turtles and tortoises in the country. For founders Anuja Mital and Sneha Dharwadkar, the project is extra important as many of these species are endangered, and they play a crucial role in maintaining balance in river and lake ecosystems. The project has also allowed them to serve as role models for the importance of female researchers feeling comfortable doing important fieldwork.

To help those struggling with opioid addictions, an apprentice program in Kentucky uses art and music taught by local artisans to provide participants with a path forward. After learning various skills as part of the program, a local instrument company also considers the new apprentices for hire as part of a “recovery-friendly” employment movement.

The passage of the 2018 Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act was meant to hold accountable the online platforms where sex trafficking and sex work took place, but a year into its existence, it has shown negative, unintended consequences. The legislation has effectively shown an impact in moving sex trafficking offline, but experts now say it has moved onto the street, making it harder to track and catch.

Tracking controlled substances can be difficult for hospitals, which often results in drugs being diverted from where they are supposed to go. To tackle this problem, technology companies are stepping in by creating software that utilizes a machine-learning algorithm that "can identify risky prescription and dispensation patterns among healthcare staff."

Planned Parenthood and other organizations are developing new ways to deliver sex education to students. While creators recognize their tools aren't comprehensive solutions, they see chatbots, videos, and other sources as supplements to the current school curricula.

In Northern Quebec, scientists, government officials and researchers have seen the positive environmental effects that stem from giving indigenous groups their land rights back. Because many of these indigenous communities have closely observed and lived within the native forests, they know how to properly care for and coexist with the forest rather than cut it down; the result is a drastic decrease in deforestation as well as the restoration of indigenous land rights.

The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center spent months deeply listening to their community before opening a new location in Shaker Square. The new location was decided upon as a direct response to the stated needs of the African-American community, who often face unique challenges in reporting and being treated for sexual assault. The center is funded by Ohio’s Victims of Crime Act program, and besides offering standard sexual assault services like counseling and case management, it also does community outreach beyond sexual violence.

Carmen Carcelen lives in northern Ecuador with her husband, eight children, and hundreds of Venezuelan migrants who are fleeing poverty, violence, and hyperinflation at home. Carcelen has been providing food and shelter (and even foot rubs) to over 8,500 migrants for two years now. Carcelen says that she is spurred to action by her Christian faith, but welcomes any donations because it is currently financed on her husband's small income.

Learning the art of hip-hop provides youth with an alternative to the violence and despair that characterize disadvantaged neighborhoods. In Medellin, Colombia, a program called 4 Elementos teaches kids dance, Dj’ing, rap, and graffiti in a structured way, providing a creative outlet. Hosted in the high school of one the cities most troubled neighborhoods, the program began as an initiative of the Colombian hip-hop group, Crew Peligrosos. Having already reached thousands of kids, the program is looking to expand across Colombia with support from the ABC Foundation.

Hotel workers and members of the union, Unite Here, successfully lobbied for a law that makes it mandatory for hotels in Chicago to provide a safety device, known as a panic button, to workers. The ordinance also includes a retaliation clause which forbids employers from firing women after reporting sexual abuse. ‘This is incredible.' Because like, we all had the same feeling like we've started something.”

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology has hired Syrian and Iraqi refugees living in Philadelphia to be docents for exhibitions of Syrian and Iraqi antiquities. The docents are able to share their memories of the cities relevant to these objects and answer with authority questions about the region or the objects place in a western museum.

Voluntourism, or the practice of western volunteers paying to do service in developing countries, seems like a moral, do-good activity. However, the practice has been proven to have consequences, including reducing the need for local labor and stunting development of children in orphanages. There has recently been progress in discouraging volunteers from working in orphanages - the volunteer efforts in institutions never benefit the children - but true progress might involve staying at home.

In Nepal a team of people monitor border crossings to rescue young women being trafficked into brothels in India. The women are tricked into believing there are jobs waiting for them rather than brutal lives of sexual servitude. The volunteer interceptors work with the organization Love Justice, which says it makes about 90 successful interventions every month, to reconnect the young women to their families or to other organizations.

A lack of sulfur caps has lead to negative health impacts for those living along ship channels. After Emissions Control Areas proved successful internationally, however, this protocol is now being expanded to impact more regions that suffer from pollution created by the global shipping fleet.

In order to tackle opioid addiction, the state of Virginia found a way to make drug treatment accessible to people with medicaid by boosting “reimbursement rates to addiction treatment providers.” Historically, drug treatment hasn’t been covered by health insurance. Virginia is changing that. Already, “the percent of Medicaid members with an opioid use disorder who received treatment went up by 29 percent from April to December 2017 compared to the same period the previous year.”

After 15 years of collecting dung and DNA from elephants, conservation biologist Samuel Wasser and his team were able to create a map documenting nearly all of the African elephant populations. With this in place, the information can be used to help law enforcement identify poaching hotspots and arrest ivory traffickers. Now this same process is being applied to other endangered species.

In Apac prisons, inmates hold the keys. “By committing a crime, prisoners break the social pact,” says Ana Paula Pellegrino of Igarape Institute. “An Apac prison restores this by allowing inmates to work for the community.” Inmates contribute to local projects, follow a routine of work and study, and are addressed by name rather than number. The rehabilitation-focused approach is completely different from what happens in Brazil's mainstream prisons, a fact that motivates inmates to honor the rules.

Conservation groups and land trusts that typically serve rural areas have begun integrating their missions and services in urban communities to battle environmental inequity and blight. In cities like Cleveland and Seattle, these land trusts address racial and economic disparities in the fight to preserve land, making sure to orient their renewal efforts in a way that positively impacts minority communities.

For many in El Salvador, finding religion can mean finding a way out of violent gang life. The country has become one of the most violent in the world following the civil war in the 1980s that drove refugees to the U.S., where their children formed gangs and then brought them back home when they were deported. Pentecostalist churches founded by former gang members have often stepped in where civil institutions have failed, offering a sense of belonging and sometimes jobs to those who want to leave gang life, but their longterm success in rehabilitation remains unclear.

The advancement of technology has created the capability to consider solutions never before possible. Conservation X Labs, a startup based in Washington, D.C., has committed their focused on marrying the worlds of conservation and technology, to combat mounting concerns of international poaching and deforestation. While the scaling of the technology is stagnated largely due to the expense of technology, progress has been made and devices are actively being piloted.

After the fall of an oppressive and isolating regime, Portugal found itself utterly unprepared to deal with the rapid distribution of narcotics in the 1980s, creating a crisis that left 1 in every 10 people struggling with addiction. The country took a radical approach to rectifying opioid use through a huge cultural shift in the way it viewed and treated addicts - prioritizing support services and pioneering programs like needle-exchange and substitution therapy, and eventually decriminalizing hard drugs so that users could more easily get help, and drug rates have since plummeted.

In Nueces County, Texas, military-style boot camp was the norm for troubled juveniles, who were forced to complete drills that simulate ROTC with instructors. The newly named Robert N. Barnes Region Juvenile Facility began replacing this antiquated method with therapeutic support and yoga relaxation techniques focus on the psycho-social health of troubled juveniles. The facility serves as a model of what boot camps could become.

Building resilience and self-care into daily life promotes long-term wellbeing. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Catalyst Initiative works to support the emotional and mental wellbeing of underserved groups by promoting culturally relevant approaches to self-care. Catalyst funds organizations that serve Indigenous communities, communities of color, as well as other programs that encourage people to practice mindfulness and self-care as a way to heal from trauma and stress associated with economic, personal, or social issues.

In the Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Bangladesh, Rohingya women are overcoming the societal restraints that bound them at home in Myanmar and becoming leaders and change-makers in their community. Despite resistance from the men, hundreds of women in the camp banded together to form a group called Shanti Mohila. This allowed them to push for more peace and justice and issues like domestic violence, and they even received support from Legal Action Worldwide to prosecute crimes against the Rohingya people.

The United States has continuously put resources towards fighting the war on drugs, but a recent research collaborative that resulted in a comprehensive model has shown that there is a lot to be learned from the failures of these efforts. Although still in the early stages, the model is being turned into a virtual lab that will serve to test newer strategies to determine realistically adoptable solutions.

Denver has formed a law enforcement collaborative, called the Regional Anti Violence Enforcement Network (RAVEN), to bring together eleven agencies to solve gun crimes in the surrounding cities and counties. RAVEN was borne out of Denver’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center – an earlier collaboration – and uses the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network to share information, technology and resources, and identify regional patterns of crimes rather than local, isolated events.

Truckers Against Trafficking are making an impact in reducing sex trafficking in the US by educating truckers, their companies, and the law enforcement that intersect with commercial drivers on how to spot sex trafficking and how to respond. To date, this 10-year-old organization has trained more than 700,000 truckers, and does further outreach with initiatives like "Man to Man" (which trains truckers to talk to other men about the issue) and "The Freedom Drivers Project" (a mobile museum about sex trafficking that goes to events like trucker conventions).

The use of solitary confinement, or administrative segregation, in prisons is facing pushback across the country. In Alabama, a federal judge tasked the Department of Corrections to investigate how other states are reforming their use of solitary confinement – especially for those with mental health concerns. Recognizing that isolation often leads to increased bad behavior, states such as North Dakota and Colorado have placed stronger limitations on the use and deployment of administrative segregation.

Albuquerque Police Department knows that not all community members are apt to trust in officers, so the department created a new interdisciplinary team specifically focused on working with those people. Although this is not a quick fix, the police have reported an increase in information reporting that has lead to the arrests of wanted suspects.

The illegal wildlife trade is consistently a big problem across Africa. To help tackle the issue of poachers, a company called Retarius uses counter-terrorist operations experience by training and mentoring locals involved in the prevention fight. The program is still growing and takes place in Malawi, Cameroon, Benin, and Zambia. In Malawi specifically, the training has resulted in 114 arrests made and 1000 kgs of ivory seized in 2018.

A calendar featuring goats wearing warm clothing has raised thousands of dollars for local organizations in Varanasi, India. The creative gimmick draws on the power of large numbers of small donations, similar to the ice bucket challenge supporting ALS research.

In Montreal, the city's multi-million dollar plan to combat homelessness includes a concerted effort to center homeless people as citizens first and foremost, deserving of social inclusion and community. To do this, Montreal has offered programs and workshops connecting the homeless to art, parks, and civic events -- but concerns about discrimination and criminalization remain.

Two young adults from Changshu, China are behind a growing movement to bring attention to and educate students and teachers on the silent subject of child sexual abuse in China. In addition to tackling the big picture, such as China's outdated abuse laws, activists are investing in local measures, hosting documentary screenings and teacher trainings.

As Seattle tries to implement bike lanes effectively, it can look to Vancouver as a success story. Vancouver’s bike lanes are physically separated from roads, making riders safer and increasing the number of people who commute by bike by 60% since 2013. After several tests and then responding to both positive and negative public feedback, Vancouver has miles of bike lanes connecting many parts of the city.

MICRO, a new New York City-based non-profit, has developed niche-emphasizing, science-focused “museums” around the city. Through these installations, MICRO brings art and environmental knowledge to people outside of a formal museum setting as well as shining a light on often overlooked topics. In order to bring niche-emphasizing, science-focused museums into being, a non-profit named MICRO has begun creating small exhibitions in public places for New York City residents to discover.

The Akilah Institute, the first all-female college in Rwanda, is empowering women to be financially independent through training in entrepreneurship, the hospitality industry and information technology.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Virunga National Park is facing a crisis of deforestation amid the backdrop of the war-torn country. In this same region, power plants stand as a semblance of hope, offering the prospect of both jobs and electricity. It hasn't been an easy journey, and many obstacles are on the horizon, but much has already been learned from trial and error.

Oklahoma’s Mabel Bassett Correctional Center is seeing its first graduating class of women coders. A nonprofit called The Last Mile offers training programs for incarcerated individuals with the goal of equipping them with timely job skills upon re-entry. Those that are a part of the program participate in 40 hours of class per week for a year, learning coding programs like CSS, HTML, and Bootstrap.

Throughout the province of Guanacaste, teen pregnancy is among one of the difficulties facing the region, but collaborative efforts in La Cruz are working to reverse the trend. From expanding access to birth control to holding educational workshops, the local communities have already seen a decrease in reported teen pregnancies despite pushback from those that prefer abstinence only approaches.

After successful reports from countries around the world about the positive effects of congestion pricing, New York City looks to charge drivers in the most congested areas of the city in order to reduce traffic and environmental impact. The revenue from congestion pricing, which acts as a barrier for drivers in crowded city limits, is funneled back into the city's public transportation budget.

Following a mass shooting in Aurora, IL, lawmakers are introducing legislation that could make it harder for guns to be obtained by those who shouldn’t have them. The legislation proposes requiring fingerprints prior to obtaining a concealed carry license – allowing agencies to conduct more accurate and thorough background checks.

Online buyers of sex now have a great chance of running into the NYPD's latest initiative to combat trafficking amongst prostitution: a chatbot called Freedom Signal. Originated by an organization called Seattle Against Slavery, this bot collects solicitors' phone numbers and warns them of arrest, as well as using strategically-placed ads and text conversations with real trafficking survivors. The bot is 1,200% more productive than a full-time staff, 10 times more effective than on-the-street outreach, is currently being used in 13 cities, and makes buyers 50-80% less likely to be caught a second time.

A new community center and greenspace are reviving a West Atlanta neighborhood by providing a safe space for children to play. Developers have also received suggestions from community members to expand the greenspace with new additions such as bird habitats, basketball courts, soccer fields, park lights, fountains, and a fully equipped playground.

Some South African ranchers who raise rhinos legally are advocating for a block-chain currency "Rhino Coin." They argue that secure stockpiles of rhino horn could generate much needed funding for wild populations. But the plan is fiercely opposed by many conservation groups, and its success depends on whether or not a global ban on trading horn ends.

In Hazard, Kentucky, the future of coal remains uncertain. However, efforts by KVEC, or the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, led to funding from the Department of Education. This grant is helping train students across eastern Kentucky in robotics, computer science, drone technology, and more. The goal is to build a qualified technical workforce, and hopefully some students will remain in the region to contribute to its economic development. Though this is just an initial investment, leaders are optimistic about the long term positive effects of this educational transformation.

The group Truckers Against Trafficking launched in 2009 to enlist the help of truck drivers to spot and report cases of human trafficking, which was common at many truck stops. The group trains truckers through video tutorials using experts on trafficking to offer tips on how to spot people being coerced into prostitution. Eight states now require the training and parts of the program are used in nearly 40 states, while truckers have helped identify more than 1,000 trafficking victims.

Treating women who are coerced into human trafficking as victims provides opportunities for recovery. Alongside the passage of legislation against human trafficking in Ohio, Franklin County courts have implemented a recovery program. Changing Actions to Change Habits (CATCH), provides victims of human trafficking with support in the form of housing, food, and treatment for addiction and trauma. In exchange for participation in the program, women can have their records expunged.

Small and large cities around the United States have their own ways of deterring gun violence, from heavier police presences, to community engagement efforts, to public health approaches. An ongoing and similar challenge for these cities is pinpointing where the most effective change is coming from. In cities like Chattanooga, Savannah, and Philadelphia, each one has seen some impact from their work, but without ongoing evaluations, proving and thus sustaining the successful programming is challenging.

Around the country, a dozen states have passed “red flag” gun laws. These laws allow officials to temporarily take away legally owned guns from individuals who are deemed either at-risk of suicide, or a danger to others. Colorado is the most recent state to introduce a similar law to legislation, and if passed would allow law enforcement to initially seize guns for 14 days while a judge hears the case.

Many herders are adapting to climate change by adopting farming. In the wake of severe droughts in recent years, herding communities in Ethiopia have expressed increasing interest in farming as a way to secure additional income. The non-profit organization, Farm Africa, helps herders to make the transition into farming by educating and assisting them with technical matters, such as irrigation, as well as aiding with financing and finding markets.

Gender-based impact investing, or supporting women's economic empowerment through investing in women-owned businesses, is not only the domain of the private sector. Given the scale of government business activities, there are myriad ways the public sector can engage in "gender-smart investing," from supporting women in growth accelerators and incubators to prioritizing women-led businesses in procurement processes.

A conservation researcher from the Creative Conservation Alliance in Bangladesh has formed a partnership with the Mro people by training them to be parabiologists. They have learned to document and save threatened species. The Chittagong Hill Tracts has some of the greatest biodiversity in Bangladesh, and this work has led to the discovery and preservation of some species previously thought to be extinct.

In New York, non-profits like Eat Offbeat, Emma's Torch, United Tastes of America, and more are working to connect American-born citizens with refugees from other countries, using food as a way to spark conversation while also providing employment and job training opportunities. So far, these organizations have helped welcome refugees while also creating cultural awareness.

My Red Light is a brothel in Amsterdam run by sex workers. While sex work is legal in the country, exploitation and human trafficking is still pervasive. However, My Red Light tries to counter this by only hiring “people who have been thoroughly vetted to ensure they are not being trafficked, pimped or exploited.”

When Emily Kennedy was a teenager traveling in Eastern Europe she saw street kids she learned were trafficked by the Russian mob and decided to tackle human trafficking in her college work. The company she launched, Marinus Analytics, created a software application that has been used by authorities to rescue hundreds of victims in the U.S. and Canada and is expanding. The data it gathers has also debunked assumptions about how and where trafficking takes place.

Truck stops are a hotspot for human trafficking. In Arkansas, where trucking is one of the state’s largest industries, truck drivers are being trained to spot human trafficking. If they see anything suspicious, they can report to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 911, or local law enforcement.

Gunshot victims are often treated at hospitals only to be sent back into the community, where 1/3 will end up back in the hospital again. With a new emphasis on prevention and addressing the underlying issues, Ohio is now using federal assistance to create a Trauma Recovery Network that helps with crisis intervention, counseling, and even providing safe emergency housing for gunshot victims.

Facial recognition technology is now being used to crack down on illegal poaching of chimpanzees, an endangered species. By adapting algorithms for human recognition into a prototype, researchers are hoping to find and protect chimpanzees and other animals that are being illegally traded.

Attitudes towards the legalization of sex work are changing around the world, and now some cities have even started considering public spaces for sex work while developing urban infrastructure plans. From Cologne, Germany (where there are "sex drive-throughs" that are equipped with safety features, facilities for rest, and toilets for the workers) to Amsterdam (where they are developing new rules for window-based sex work), governments are now increasingly inviting sex workers and their representatives to the negotiating table.

A series of churches in Phoenix, Arizona are stepping up to help migrant families released by ICE by providing them up with a place to stay temporarily, medical care, donated supplies, and the beginnings of a plan to find a place to stay. So far volunteers have estimated that they have helped over 60,000 migrants with no end in sight.

Police departments across the United States are implementing strategies and reforms in response to the growing number of unsolved criminal cases. With cold cases often linked to declined trust in police and the undermining of wellbeing in, typically urban, neighborhoods, these reforms are seeking to reverse course.

An Israeli Facebook group serves as a women's network for current or former prostitutes seeking help and support. The Hebrew-language group, called Lo Omdot Mineged, provides help in many forms, ranging from crowdsourcing money for groceries to building alliances with women struggling to find work outside of prostitution.

Theater bridges cultural divides and helps migrants cope with trauma. The Liquid Company, founded in 2013 in Catania, Italy, offers migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who have crossed the Mediterranean a therapeutic outlet to heal and manage their emotions. The multicultural group uses the stage and creative forms of expression to share their stories of struggle, ranging from human trafficking and shipwreck to feelings of displacement and isolation. By giving young migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers a voice, the Liquid Company empowers them to create their own narrative.

In San Francisco, a law that offers amnesty to sex workers who report violent crimes to police is designed to save lives and reduce crime overall in the city. It comes as the city’s police department faces a massive police sex scandal over officers abusing an underaged sex worker, something advocates say is all too common and leaves crimes women might report uninvestigated. Advocates applaud the new law, say it doesn’t go far enough and they worry new federal laws could undermine it.

Inmates who enroll in higher education programs during their sentence are 43 percent less likely to return to prison than their peers who don't, according to a study by the RAND Corporation. A consortium of Massachusetts colleges and state law enforcement agencies are taking action in light of this finding - 13 colleges will offer bachelor's degree programs to offenders either when they are in prison or once they have left.

A project in the Bronx led by two formerly incarcerated women is testing whether transitional living/supportive housing meant specifically for women can help protect against recidivism. The Hope House currently provides homes for 5 women, emphasizing the need for community, not just fulfillment of basic necessities.

AnnieCannons, is a nonprofit that teaches sex traffic survivors computer software skills so they can be employed as developers. It also emphasizes networking and tries to secure job placement. “I’ve never been happier ... having a steady paycheck for the first time since I was like 16 and just like actual real financial security where I know I’m going to get paid every two weeks, and I can start to like just settle into my life, finally.”

Differing laws, policing, and management across borders has made it difficult to combat the huge industry that is Wildlife Crime, but a new approach in Canada is showing the way for some common ground. By collaborating with local sellers, a micro-chip can be attached to pelts to track their movement and discern whether the pelt is being sold illegally or not -- even across borders.

For many children who would otherwise be placed in foster care, staying with relatives is a better option. However, kinship foster families do not always qualify for the same financial assistance as traditional foster homes. Pittsburgh-based non-profit A Second Chance helps get kinship foster families licensed and financially prepared to care for children.

In 1995 El Monte, a US sweatshop in California that housed workers without paying them, was raided. “The El Monte raid changed the garment industry.” After the raid, former president Bill Clinton created a sweatshop taskforce. “The El Monte raid was a very important point in the history of labor standards in this country.”

Time served in prison often means the end of opportunity and hope for the incarcerated, but a special restaurant run from within the San Diego women's prison in Cartagena is working to change that. The women are trained by professional and even celebrity chefs to prepare gourmet dishes - or they can work in the garden or as waitresses - ensuring they have dignity and opportunity on the other side.

Grassroots organization can generate change in carbon emissions practices at the community level. In Phoenix, the Chispa nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social justice, is working to get schools to apply to Arizona’s Lower-Emissions Bus program, funded by money paid to the state in the aftermath of Volkswagen’s emissions scandal. By mobilizing volunteers to canvass neighborhoods and attend school board meetings, the group has succeeded in getting at least one school district to purchase an electric bus and implement a pilot program.

Residents of Rivera Hernandez, Honduras are trying to improve their community in a district that’s under gang control. One such effort is a vocational school to train children and adults in electricity and solar energy. The city – subject to extreme poverty – has also received aid from the United States to fund community policing and day camps for a small number of children, although some of that money has bolstered corruption in the region.

Fatal overdoses in Dayton, Ohio have fallen 50% in the past year. The city's success is a combination of multiple factors, including cooperation between health workers and police agencies, widespread availability of Nalaxone, Medicaid expansion, and more; however, whether these changes can be replicated and stay successful in the long-term is yet to be proven.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s Barrio Moravia was an illegal dumping site where displaced Colombians fleeing violence made informal settlements. Now a community center, organizations, and a public garden with more than 50,000 species have helped transform the neighborhood. “It's a barrio that the same people we see here constructed,” she said. “It's a neighborhood I love with all of my heart, one that I have fought to transform.”

Illegal logging and land clearing are destroying much of the Amazon forest which is impacting the livelihood of the indigenous people living there. The Guajajara tribe is taking an active stand against these activities by joining forces to stand guard against intruders.

Reverend Welch moved to Montgomery in 1985 and sparked a decades-long fight to revitalize the neighborhood surrounding his church in an affordable and inclusive manner. Since then, the Greater Washington Park neighborhood has been transformed. Families are moving back, and people who previously couldn’t own a home now have the chance to achieve that milestone. Though there’s still work to be done, the neighborhood achieved what many others can’t: rebuilding without displacement.

After the introduction of No Child Left Behind, Atlanta was held up as a success story for the approach - that is until a group of teachers were exposed for illegally raising scores. Now, the city again grapples with big questions - "can good teaching be taught?" and can that teaching make the difference for students experiencing trauma, racism, and other major barriers. Peyton Forest Elementary has seen moderate gains by expanding the role of principals in the classroom, both to benefit students and to serve as effective models for new and old teachers.

In Ashland, Oregon exists the one of a kind U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory. Handling both federal and international trade crimes, the lab uses a combination of forensic tactics to identify species killed by alleged poachers and smugglers.

A cooperative in Italy has repurposed land once owned by the Mafia to produce pasta and organic vegetables, and its employees are using this land to reclaim their lives. Beyond the Dreams’ provides meaningful work for former prisoners, mental patients, and addicts, who cultivate these agricultural products. The revitalization of the ruined land and employment opportunities deliver symbolic blows to organized crime.

In Philadelphia immigrants are driving population growth in the Northeast region of the city, in neighborhoods traditionally occupied by mostly white, Irish-Catholic, senior citizens. The “number of immigrants increased from 26,942 in 2000 to 48,623 in 2015, a leap of 80 percent.” However, city leaders, nonprofits, and schools are pulling in resources to help the growing immigrant population, many of whom are refugees.

Germany has identified a problem with refugees hearing lies about migrating to Germany, often from traffickers who just want to make money. 'Rumours about Germany' is a website for migrants to get the truth about Germany.

The mural at Eighth and Callowhill in Philadelphia was created by two formerly incarcerated artists. The work is part of a larger exhibition that brings attention to U.S. criminal justice reform through the artwork of currently and formerly incarcerated individuals.

Miami is home to a special type of child welfare program called CHANCE (Citrus Helping Adolescents Negatively Impacted by Commercial Exploitation) that is designed specifically for youth in foster care that have been trafficked. CHANCE has an intensive curriculum that educates foster parents and clinicians about child sex trafficking and child trauma, and families are only allowed to take in one child at a time so that they are prepared for the child's unique health needs. Studies done on the program have found that the youth have significant improvement in many emotional and mental categories.

Many people associate post-traumatic stress disorder as a diagnosis exclusively reserved for military or emergency responders, and this limited definition can lead to misdiagnoses for everyday civilians. Training more therapists in cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure therapy, however, expands treatment options for this population.

Human trafficking has become an increasingly prevalent problem, especially in states such as Florida that host a large tourist population. To better serve the victims, Miami-Dade County has created a trauma-focused court that directs adolescents to support services rather than prostitution charges.

In Montana, officials are taking legislative steps to address the disproportionate number of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Among the bills being introduced is “Hanna’s Act,” which would give the Department of Justice the power to assist with missing persons cases. Also included is expanded access, both to national crime databases and to social services, provided by the Office of Indian Services to more than 50 tribal communities.

In Austin, Texas, the city is piloting a new system to prevent injuries and fatalities from flooding in a region known as Flash Flood Alley. The vast majority of flash flood deaths occur on the road, so the city is beginning to post images of rising water through a network of cameras meant to deter driving in those conditions.

In Montana, an elementary school is changing the dynamics around bullying and suicide through the Say Something Assembly program, which helps create an environment for students to feel safe and empowered to speak up. Montana has the highest rate of suicide in the country and the assemblies are designed to help youth understand it's OK to be struggling and to seek help. School officials also offer a companion program of support from trusted adults who can continue engaging and helping students.

Across the globe, governments are spending money on research that could allow artificial intelligence, or AI, to expedite and improve the screening and security processes at passport control. As international travel continues to increase, various companies are developing technology that will identify potentially dangerous passengers or those involved in criminal behavior through data collection and lie detection. The development of such technology has opponents voicing concerns over racial bias, human rights, and privacy.

Lane County, Oregon is one of many of the state’s counties working to create a survivor-focused network of responses to sex trafficking. The Lane County Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Multidisciplinary Team is seeking to strengthen existing organizations, like the Department of Human Services, Planned Parenthood, and mental health providers, by connecting them – creating a more efficient, effective response to a uniquely challenging issue.

In India, survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation are joining together to form support groups that aim to change community perspectives around prevention and rehabilitation efforts for young women. Not only has this created more awareness around the topic, but has also allowed those involved to gain a sense of agency and independence.

From War to Peace, a project through the Lutheran World Federation, is helping ex-combatants and their families in Colombia lead a new, peaceful life. Many of these families are now living in an experimental community of former combatants as together, they work to overcome trauma and reintegrate into society with support from the Lutheran Church. More than religious motives, the group hopes to promote peace.

Cheetah cubs are routinely smuggled through Somaliland on their way to being illegally trafficked in United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia. Although small and resource-deprived, Somaliland is taking a stand against this practice through increased regulations and punishments.

Free Through Recovery is North Dakota addiction services program that aims to help drug users end their dependencies and reduce prison recidivism. The rural town uses peer support and mentoring to fill the gaps in mental health services. Wyoming is grappling with overfull prisons and a growing population of drug users; they are considering replicating the program.

A digital tool called Restore Your Vote launched in the summer of 2018 to help ex-convicts understand their voting restoration status after re-integrating into society. The initiative, which has been piloted in Alabama, aims to reduce disenfranchisement in ex-convict communities by targeting unclear language, misinformation, and lack of access to education.

Truckers are ideally placed to spot and report sex trafficking. “They’ve been trained to be vigilant and they’re on the city streets, pulling into areas and being put up in hotels where this happens,” says Kylla Lanier, deputy director for Truckers Against Trafficking.

Responding to the rise in selfies taken with wild animals, Instagram now sends a user clicking on hashtags associated with these photos to information about animal welfare. Animal welfare joins suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders as topics where Instagram has put this mechanism into place.

At the Akilah Institute, the first all-women's college in Rwanda, students focus on entrepreneurship, hospitality industry, and information technology careers. The school, designed to accurately reflect the realities and needs of the private sector, recruits students from rural and urban areas, provides some financial aid, and works to dispel pervasive ideas about gender roles.

Plastic bag litter is a serious problem across Africa and around the world, choking waterways, killing livestock and wildlife when ingested, and causing environmental damage. Rwanda is one of the few nations in the world to completely ban single-use plastic bags, but they take enforcement of the ban to a sometimes controversial extreme, with punishments that can even include jail time. The measures do appear to be working, however, where the clean streets and countrysides of Rwanda stand in stark contrast to the heavily-littered land of neighboring countries.

Oklahoma currently locks up more women than any other state in the country, incarcerating females at more than double the national rate, and harshly deals out ever-longer sentences to prisoners, disproportionately targeting poor women and those of color. Tulsa is the one exception, thanks to a charitably-funded, intensive programs like The Education and Employment Ministry and Women in Recovery, which combine shorter prison terms with rehabilitative treatment and supportive probation, including drug addiction recovery, employment assistance, and life skills classes.

Largely unbeknownst to the public eye, Cleveland has been battling human trafficking in various forms for many years. Recently, the city has become a leader in trying to eradicate this longstanding problem. Thanks to a small group of activists and nonprofits, using billboards and gift bags as well as other creative methods, these groups are raising awareness, conducting strip club outreach, and creating a victim support network to help make human trafficking an issue of the past.

Social and economic factors are increasingly being linked to health circumstances and outcomes. This article highlights the city of Richmond, California, which has responded to this correlation, integrating issues of health into all levels of policy.

Many young Latina women live their lives in fear of gang violence. The Montgomery County Street Outreach Network rescues girls in danger and offers services to them in order to help them change their chances of success.

Japan has one of the lowest death by gun rates in the world, 6 to 33599. How? The country has established strict policies for buying and maintaining guns. The police force has installed restrictions regarding the use of guns so that other non-life threatening methods are used.

Across Ohio, legislators, organizations, and activists have improved prevention and response measures to sexual assault. The state has seen the opening of 14 new rape crisis centers, statewide legislation, increased support for survivors and their families, and the establishment of on-campus programs. Each initiative offers different services, but all seek to shift the culture and provide a more well-rounded approach to sexual assault for Ohio residents.

Access Ventures, a community development organization founded in a Louisville neighborhood, uses a comprehensive investment approach that encourages funds to be dispersed in all issue areas. Instead of creating one "affordable housing fund" or "homeless services fund," the group interweaves investment strategies, making sure to look at the bigger community picture when laying out an investment plan.

Untold RVA, a project developed by ‘tactical urbanist’ Free Egunfemi, intervenes in public space to foreground the history of slavery and the lives of the enslaved in Richmond. While work is being done to dismantle Richmond’s commemorations of the Confederacy, Egunfemi and other activists are working to ensure the people survived unimaginably oppression are not forgotten.

Equip is a business in Lebanon that is trying to prevent further abuse of domestic workers, by helping them communicate better with their employers. “Their business model relies on employers paying for the company’s services, which range from $10 to $550, and include English lessons, first-aid training, legal translation, and conflict mediation.”

Justin Ponton was a drug user in a town with a high incidence of opioid addiction. After he got clean he dedicated his life to helping others do the same—he runs a recovery home that doesn't turn anyone away for lack of funds.

In efforts to diminish violent crime, police agencies are revisiting a model law enforcement strategy of the 1970s, "community policing," as an alternative to the more recent "broken windows" style of the late nineties. Research substantiates its effectiveness, too, in building citizens' trust of law enforcement, helping a community's ability to solve its own problems, and, in turn, decreasing crime rates. Despite redefined priorities in the wake of 9/11 and post-recession budget cuts, community policing is again on the rise and bringing positive results, too.

In Colorado, a state law requiring the use of a screening tool is being used to combat sex trafficking at the individual level. The screening tool identifies and offers support and protection to victims of sex trafficking – many of whom are runaways from the foster care system – and has led to multiple prosecutions of sex traffickers.

Countries around the world have been testing the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, as assistive technology to solving crimes. From creating algorithms that can identify victims of sex trafficking online to developing machine learning mechanisms that can identify and distinguish different DNA strands, officials hope that AI can help law enforcement more efficiently and effectively solve complex cases.

In 1993, a new administration in Belo Horizonte, Brazil's fourth largest city, declared food access a fundamental citizen right. The city government partnered with rural farmers to bring fresh food into the city limits, make produce more affordable, and ensure healthy options are distributed to all members of the population, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Day reporting, which serves as an alternative to to jail or prison for many with substance abuse disorders, provides intense, holistic programming to help participants recover. The personal relationships built in the programs are particularly helpful according to participants, although relatively little formal research has been conducted about the approach.

Opera theaters are struggling to sell tickets, but some productions are taking it as an opportunity to reinvent the way viewers experience Opera, bringing rise to a new opera. The University of California San Diego presented two new operas that dealt with gun violence and sex trafficking, while in New York the “The Mile-Long Opera” featured choir singers lined along the 1.45-mile elevated Highland park, while the audience walked freely amongst them. “An estimated fifteen thousand people attended “The Mile Long Opera.”

In Italy's farmland traditionally that has traditionally been known to grow wheat, farmers have recently found that growing non-pharmaceutical hemp yields greater profit. Allowing them to hire more workers and produce more results on their dry lands, many are crediting the crop for saving their business.

The ACLU has unrolled a new operation to counter human rights abuses under the current administration. They’ve hired more lawyers, taken 170 “Trump-related legal actions, and filed 83 lawsuits against the Trump administration. They’re also getting more engaged with electoral races, something they have never done before. “That’s the way we’re going to survive this. Pressure in the courts, pressure from the public.”

Nursery programs inside prisons are not common. The Decatur Correctional Center is one of the few in the country. Eleven years since its inception, “more than 90 women have gone through the Moms and Babies program.”

The Ohio Reformatory for Women is a prison that offers inmates a chance to enroll in Tapestry, an inpatient drug treatment program that tries to delve into the deeper causes women turn to drugs. It also believes in connecting women who are addicts with one another because “on the outside there’s not enough support.” The 18 month program is “about healing mind, body and spirit.”

Schools in 13 states have found a promising and "decidedly unsexy" solution to "ninth-grade shock" - one with a 40 percent decrease in failure rates to its name. In the "Building Assets, Reducing Risks" (BARR) model, teachers, counselors, and social workers meet twice a week to compare notes on students' attendance, behavior, and social life. With many adult figures in the same room and sharing the same Google Doc, the school has found it easier to identify troubling patterns and develop personalized plans for each struggling student.

Immigrants are reviving the local economy in Sutera. Before 2014, the Sicilian town was shrinking fast. All but a few hundred people had moved to look for work in bigger cities. Welcoming asylum seekers from Nigeria, Syria, Sri Lanka and elsewhere has proved to be a popular and effective way to grow commercial opportunities and add new life to the town.

To solve rhinoceros poaching crimes and catch ivory traffickers, researchers in South Africa are finding ways to use genetic fingerprinting and other DNA evidence. These methods that have been the industry standard in the human criminal justice system for decades are not just helping identify criminals. They are also helping identify particularly vulnerable trafficking areas.

There are many refugees who could use the help that willing volunteers offer - access to services, resources, and someone who will listen to their struggles. With Facebook and other social media, those connections have become easier to make. While some try to formalize these volunteer structures, others worry that they may have unintended impacts.

The Seved district of Malmö, Sweden used to be one of the roughest in the nation, with drug crime and gang violence making the neighborhood uninhabitable for many and preventing basic services, such as the post, from functioning. Thanks to a community-wide effort in collaboration with local police, the district has been able to turn things around, booting out crooked landlords, cleaning up streets and buildings, and pressuring the gangs away.

In Africa, millions of people suffer from HIV and the majority of them are women. The dapivirine ring decreases the risk for women to receive HIV. The ring is in the piloting phase but early results show that it reduces the of contracting HIV by up to 75%.

Many minors, especially those who are black or hispanic, are tried and sentenced as adults. A new New Jersey law requires minors to at least begin their sentence in juvenile facilities, but there are still problems.

Risk assessments are supposed to make the criminal justice system better by predicting which defendants are likely to commit new crimes. Defendant scores are given to judges during criminal sentencing in nine states, and there’s a push to mandate their use in federal prisons. But the risk assessments aren’t accurate, only somewhat more reliable than a coin flip. Black defendants are falsely flagged as future criminals at a high rate while white defendants regularly get mislabeled as low risk.

Portugal has gone perhaps the farthest in decriminalizing drug use. It hasn't stopped drug usage, but it has reduced deaths, the spread of H.I.V., drug crime, and imprisonment.

In 2014, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that gang-related crime had dropped by nearly half since 2008. The transformation of LA holds lessons for decreasing violent crime through community policing, a focus on gangs, and the use of CompStat.

While the city of Medellín, Colombia was once known as a gritty, crime-ridden area, inclusive urban planning and partnerships with international corporations have turned the city in to an innovative model for policy makers around the world. The public-private partnerships that fuel the city's growth give some critics pause, but the city itself has created more democratic processes and reduced crime rates since implementing this strategy.

In New York City, restaurants and non-profits are working to "empower and employ" refugees. Although refugee cooking may seem like a short-lived "trend," the grassroots efforts of organizers and advocates are also being supplemented by companies and like-minded businesses.

A publicly available online platform launched by the New York Attorney General fills in big data gaps on guns being used in crimes and trafficked from elsewhere. “We were able to get a snapshot really quickly of where the worst guns are ending up and where they started.” The data can establish groundwork for interstate trafficking cases and also inform policy decisions and New York is happy to share the technology other communities can build their own databases.

The teenage girls of Thennamadevi are leaders in their community. They’re actively fighting against gender discrimination by organizing. They successfully lobbied politicians and brought streetlights, and sanitary napkins to their village. Across the country, similar girls clubs are being implemented, reflecting an international girls power movement.

A class designed by UC Davis researchers is helping parents of sex-trafficked kids and teens learn the skills necessary for successful reunification. The first class of its kind, it focuses on educating parents through trauma and giving them the tools they need to help both themselves and their children.

The town of Three Forks, Montana has managed to grow at a steady, manageable pace, relying on multiple economic drivers to keep the community afloat while other towns nearby have suffered from over-reliance on the coal and railroad industries. Town leaders learned from the downfall of the railroad boom, investing in businesses processing cement, wheat, and more to maintain economic diversification.

Pregnant women at the US-Mexico border are often living in hard conditions and facing obstetric violence at public hospitals or being pushed into c-sections at private clinics. 'Parteras Fronterizas' offers an alternative, it is an organization of two midwives who provide care for pregnant women individually or in groups.

A software helps investigators link crimes in different parts of the country to find patterns that indicate human trafficking. Traffic Jam uses artificial intelligence to comb through reams of public records and data, and even uses facial recognition tools, to find links to larger criminal networks in cases that could have seemed like local prostitution arrests. So far it has helped officials rescue hundreds of victims of human trafficking and could be applied to other crimes as well.

By addressing drug addiction as a medical—rather than criminal—issue, Portugal has been able to reduce drug use as well as deaths caused by drugs. Strategies implemented include decriminalization, increased access to treatment, changes in prescribing patterns related to opioids, and ‘dissuasion’ courts.

In countries like Cambodia, Angola, and Mozambique, rats are saving lives by detecting untriggered land mines. An international nonprofit, Apopo, provides funding a training and works with local organizations to operate at the local level. The rats are light enough that they don’t trigger the explosives and can cover up to 2,000 square feet in just 20 minutes – something that would take a human up to four days to complete.

Local civil society groups are at the forefront of rebuilding Colombia. With decades of armed conflict officially ended, efforts to support a lasting peace focus on inequality and land issues and work to advance sustainable rural development.

America is facing an epidemic of overdose deaths from opioids. Giving users a supervised place and clean needles increases use of treatment and saves lives, though it is a controversial response.

Rail transport is a necessity for many commuters around the world. Japan's transportation industry has found a way to improve this means of transport by implementing subtle behavioral psychology mechanisms. From blue lighting to decrease suicides to departure jingles to reduce passenger anxiety and haste, the nation is succeeding in having a near-perfect methodology for travel despite overcrowded stations.

In various parts of the world, women's voices often aren't heard when it comes to ways to mitigate against climate change, despite their intimate experiences with it. Women in Guatemala are fighting agains this roadblock by joining forces to exchange ideas and then working together to implement change in their communities.

In the rural villages surrounding Mandalay in Myanmar, marionette puppet masters pull the strings to teach children about topics ranging from health and hygiene to human trafficking. In addition to offering memorable lessons to students, the shows offer entrepreneurial women a chance to enter a profession once reserved for males.

Cities near some of Columbia's national forests have seen a dramatic increase in their bird populations and tourism numbers after fighting between the government and guerilla groups quieted down. Many locals are finding economic prosperity by taking advantage of the war-zone turned bird watching phenomenon.

Grassroots organizations, Empowered by Light and Empower Generation, are killing two birds with one stone: bringing clean energy to rural Nepal, and creating jobs for Nepalese women in the environmental sector. By helping to install electricity-generating solar panels, which simultaneously prevents illegal animal poaching, women are provided not only with a stable income and a ladder to reliable economic growth, but also with a rich work-life balance, allowing them to become “clean energy entrepreneurs” while continuing to care for their families and tend to their village’s needs.

Hurricane Mitch, deforestation, and flooding, were all factors that led to the decline of mangrove trees in El Salvador. The Mangrove Association, a coalition of 80 communities, is bringing the mangrove population back up.

A pre-charge program in Vermont offers low-level, non-violent drug offending criminals the opportunity to abide by a personalized contract of recovery to avoid criminal charges. Program participants are often required to seek treatment for drug addiction, maintain employment, and engage in behaviors that will improve their quality of life. This program gives addicts a chance to rebuild their lives and frees up resources within the criminal justice system to be used on higher profile crimes.

In New York, hate crimes against Muslims have reached levels not seen since 2001. In response to deep racial divides nationally, the importance of having effective interfaith leaders is more relevant than ever.

In Colombia, violence against women and domestic abuse are some of the highest in the region due to prolonged conflict, distrust in police and justice system, and economic oppression. Women are helping each other survive and report abuse outside of official organizations.

In recent years, advances in technologies such as genetics testing, forensic sciences, and online database management have allowed governments and organizations to tackle poaching and the illegal trade of wildlife at a whole new level. Where before law enforcement generally focused on capturing poachers and traders red-handed - usually resulting in the arrest of players low down on the chain - technology is helping investigators target the ringleaders and instigate preventative, rather than reactionary, measures.

Historically, police interrogations of suspects have been brutal and have involved torture. These strategies have also produced a high rate of false confessions. The HIG method, which encourages conversation in a comfortable environment, has shown to be successful in revealing the truth and incarcerating the convicted with confidence.

In Thailand, the Issara Institute gives freed workers money, instead of services, and a chance to make their own choices. The system disavows paternalistic programs that tie strings to aid.

Research shows that higher rates of gun ownership lead to higher rates of violent crime - countless examples in the continental United States seem to support this. But Hawaii, with some of the highest gun sale numbers in the country, has rock-bottom gun violence rates - universal background checks and the natural ocean barrier that discourages smuggling are just some of the ways they've achieved this.

There are only five northern white rhinos left in existence - all in captivity and unable to breed. Researchers work to identify the most valuable solution to rhino poaching in order to prevent the animal from going extinct.

In the U.S., some people who are convicted as minors can spend their whole lives in prison. German prisons offer a solution: shorter sentences and a focus on reducing crime once people reenter society.

The recent revival of feminism, in tandem with increased awareness about violence and sexual abuse, and combined with the power of social media to organize activist groups, is helping various advocacy groups address the serious issues faced by women and minorities, specifically Latina women, in the Los Angeles area. Organizations from anti-gentrification cycling groups to rape crisis hotline dispatchers are combining resources to combat violence against women, provide more comprehensive legal and human services, help victims get a new start, and change the culture of abuse for good.

Organ donation waiting lists can often hold wait times of months or even years. Thousands of lives could be saved with better ways to reach to the millions of Americans willing to donate an organ.

An Albuquerque program pays panhandlers to clean up city trash—and gets them needed help, pairing city services with a jobs program.

Germany admitted around 1 million refugees in 2015. Different parts of the country have experienced success and failure. In Fischen, housing refugees is still a challenge, but business mentors have found a success in training refugees how to do jobs. The city of Stuttgart ran into a crisis housing refugees. However 3,000 volunteers are helping to control the situation. In the east, Halle housed refugees in the center part of its city, inside a “deluxe hotel.” The refugees are susceptible to hateful rhetoric, but there are demonstrators on both sides of the debate.

Protected species of animals and plants are illegally sold online mainly due to buyers and sellers having no knowledge of laws or the consequences to the ecosystem. Enforcement Gaps Interface (EGI) is a software which uses machine learning to determine if the animal product is illegal or not.

Catalytic Communications provides resources to reporters to help them move beyond stereotypical ideas and present a multifaceted perspective of life in favelas. This is especially important during times like the Olympic Games when thousands of journalists arrive to cover a country they often know very little about. CatComm provides journalists with tools such as a list of underreported subjects and community leaders to contact and has actively informed over 200 articles. CatComm is also developing tools for their model to be created in other cities.

The rights of migrant workers, especially related to legal issues, are often ignored. Lawyers are helping Mexican workers sue abusive employers in US courts.

Human trafficking is a rampant problem throughout the world, but the signs can often be difficult to spot. A collaboration between Catholic churches and police officers to fight the issue together takes shape.

Over the last five years, while other cities in Texas have come under intense scrutiny for truancy policies that subject children as young as 12 to adult criminal charges, and turn their convictions into a revenue stream without having much effect on attendance rates, San Antonio has been in the middle of a bold experiment to find a better way. Working with the city government and school districts, the municipal court in this booming, young, largely Latino metropolis has changed its truancy policies to keep kids out of court.

Crushing poverty and extreme violence - fueled by drug trafficking and police corruption - are behind a mass migration of Central American children to the United States in recent months that has overwhelmed U.S. border resources and driven illegal immigration to the fore in U.S. congressional elections. But the United Nations has praised Nicaragua's security model, which includes social services to help youths in gangs find jobs as well as sport programs like little-league baseball teams.

Girls Court brings an all-hands-on-deck approach to the lives of vulnerable girls, linking them to social service agencies, providing informal Saturday sessions on everything from body image to legal jargon, and offering a team of adults in whom they can develop trust.

Medellin, Colombia has looked to architecture to help combat its high homicide rate and other problems. Over the past few decades there have been massive public architecture development, transit improvements, creation of public spaces that have all contributed to renewing this city.

It's not just poaching that is changing the landscape of the elephant kingdom, it's human's actions in general. In an attempt to understand the geographical needs of elephants, scientists are arming the species with radio collars to track movements in hopes of impacting conversations around land use and development.

The Pathways Community HUB model, born in Mansfield as way to improve pregnancy outcomes, is becoming a national model. Its success is in large part due to its rewarding only caretakers whose patients achieve certain health milestones.

A new law seeks to protect vulnerable guest workers and unwary businesses from unscrupulous recruiters by requiring them to register with the state and meet certain requirements.

Eliminating sweatshops and child labor depends on regulation, not consumers' preferences, as supply chains have become so complex and obscure as to prevent simple labels from being valuable.

In the past, Los Angeles was a dangerous city fraught with gang wars. Lately, though, LA has become a safer city due to six changes enforced by the police cracking down on public violence and gangs.

Colombia has attempted to decrease murder and homicide rates by setting up curfews for teenagers, forcing bars to close earlier in the evening, and creating gun laws to prevent the carrying of weapons. As a result of this epidemiological, data-driven approach, along with other governmental factors, the homicide rate has decreased significantly in most of the cities in which it was implemented.

For decades, migrant workers in Florida have been employed under dreadful conditions, picking produce without breaks under extreme temperatures and women being sexually harassed. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has demanded that growers increase wages, mandate rest breaks, and prohibit sexual harassment. The Coalition has partnered with big food companies, notably McDonald’s, Yum Brands, and Walmart, which have pledged to buy only from growers who follow these standards.

Female sex workers in the United States face greater incidents of rape, drug abuse, health risks, and suicide, contributing to a high mortality rate. Incarcerating the number of prostitutes is also costly. Dallas Police Department has initiated the PDI New Life program, which catches prostitutes and brings them to a 45-day temporary shelter to receive social services, health care, counseling, and alternative employment.

In the midst of high rates of drug abuse, Vancouver’s city government has instituted harm reduction programs. These include a safe site for drug users, needle exchanges, changes in policing of drug use, and providing measured doses of drugs to users.

"A social secretary for people who have been deprived of the forms of communication that are now ubiquitous almost everywhere except for prisons," Renea Royster is part of a network of organizations (including Pigeonly, Infolincs, Inmatefone, and Phone Donkey) helping prisoners keep in touch with people on the outside.

Domestic abuse of the staff in the households of the 1% is often overlooked or ignored. But foreign missions in the US that abuse their domestic staff are finally being held accountable.

The cocoa industry’s worst child labor abuses are beginning to be cleaned up. The changes are, in many ways, unprecedented.

Part 1 of a series on solutions to freeing victims of labor trafficking around the globe. Labor trafficking is a deeply entrenched problem, woven into global economies where the victims are often hidden in plain sight. Almost everyone in the US owns some product likely made with slave labor. But there is hope - from grassroots workers’ coalitions to multilateral treaties and geo-data manipulation to new law enforcement initiatives, individuals are finding new ways to counter labor trafficking.

In the Northwestern Territories of Canada, wildlife biologists received unfavorable critiques from indigenous communities for how they were going about with their caribou studies. By forming relationships with the indigenous peoples, they were able to change their approach and learn from the local communities about what was already working.

Covenant House is Philadelphia's only shelter for older adolescents who have run away, been victims of abuse, been sex trafficked or abandoned.

Formed in 2013, the coalition of guest workers is recognized by the Mexican government. It gives transnational workers a platform to demand solutions to issues like recruitment fraud and trafficking.

Hundreds of Indian oil workers were sent to the Gulf Coast after Katrina, but their working conditions were far below any human standard. In an unprecedented response, they brought a lawsuit against the company that hired them - and won.

Two Nepali relatives were trapped in the same home in the United States. One sneaked out after six months. Freeing her mother's cousin would take a little longer, but a Nepali organization was able to rescue her by providing a literal escape route.

In S. King County, Wash., the organization Global to Local identified Seattle's ironic status as being a global-health center but having an increasingly unhealthy populace. Global to Local pointed local citizens to a variety of services, using a "connect the dots" approach to treatment.

Bucking the worldwide trend, Nepal continues its successful fight against poaching, thanks to a multilayered system of information gathering, enforcement, and swift justice.

Ivory poaching has decreased the number of live elephants by one-fifth in the past decade. Although Kenya has ratified laws that make ivory poaching and trafficking punishable, identifying smugglers at border security is still a challenge. Airports in Kenya and Tanzania have employed dogs to sniff out ivory hidden in transit with a high success rate of 18 busts in four months at the Kenya location.

Living without shelter often means forgoing “perks” like indoor plumbing. Here’s how nearly 600,000 Americans get by, and how providing public toilets can improve a city's overall sanitation.

For decades, Missouri had restrictive gun laws, but after relaxing them in 2007, there has been an uptick in gun deaths. Gun control legislation that restricts criminals' access could be the solution.

In the U.S. 200 black men are killed with guns for every 3 people killed in a mass shooting. Little federal attention is given to urban violence programs even though there exists an effective deterrence program implemented in various states.

Modern slavery is still a problem in much of the world. From satellite surveillance of illegal fishing boats to online sleuthing into recruitment practices, technology is helping to solve the issue.

Part 2 of a series on solutions to freeing victims of labor trafficking around the globe. With the help of organizations like Damayan Migrant Workers Association in New York, former victims who have been freed from labor trafficking become advocates for others, demanding changes and becoming part of the solution to a vicious cycle of worker victimization.

Due to patrilineality, sons are highly favored over daughters in many countries, with serious consequence. South Korea, the only country to have returned to normal sex ratios after having a highly abnormal ratio of boys:girls, has lessons for other countries.

Girls in India are sometimes forced into the prospects of child marriage, prostitution, or slave labor; alternatively, families often teach girls to be wives and mothers. To empower girls to make their own choices, Yuwa, an NGO based in India, introduces girls to sports for social development. Yuwa also promotes educational workshops for girls, where girls can discuss women’s rights and their thoughts about their own bodies.

As a state with robust populations of wildlife, Montana has had its share of roadkill. Its Department of Transportation developed animal shelving, a type of wildlife crossing, to enable safe passage for small animals who need to cross the road. The measure, combined with other types of crossings, has reduced animal-vehicle collisions by half.

Marking a departure from other countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America, Jamaica has seen its crime rate fall after many years of lawlessness. A combination of factors helped bring this about, including putting resources toward combatting corruption, fostering community policing and also seeking help from outsiders to strengthen institutions. Progress may be tenuous if drug trafficking is pushed out elsewhere and lands in Jamaica, however many are optimistic permanent change has taken root.

Empower, a sex workers' rights organization with over 50,000 members, has been steadily pushing to improve the working conditions of women in the sex trade in Thailand. In addition to advocating for decriminalization of the trade as the best option, Empower focuses on equipping sex workers with the tools they need to assert their independence, including English classes and HIV prevention. The organization's approach is starkly different than other popular theories, such as brothel raids or the Nordic model of criminalizing the customers.

Promising and innovative solutions to modern-day slavery range from labeling U.S. food products to forming joint police-NGO task forces. Each addresses a different aspect of slavery in the modern world, a pernicious problem that receives relatively little media attention.

Seattle's anti-trafficking program has enabled a high number of prosecutions against human traffickers. The program's task force depends on coordinating a number of actors across agencies and gaining funding from the Justice Department.

Sexual harassment and assault, and almost non-existent job security, are just some of the problems that plague migrant workers in the United States. A decade-long farm worker-led effort to push corporations to demand farmers submit to “clean labor” audits has yielded, for the first time, the introduction of shade tents, mandated water and bathroom breaks.

A Mumbai-based nonprofit is helping daughters of sex workers transition into a school environment. Therapy, meditation, and classes about social justice help to instill confidence in students.

There are increasing costs to business when they fail to respect basic human rights. Many are therefore taking steps to avoid abuses – and are taking a proactive rather than reactive approach.

In different regions of the United States, beavers are considered a predatory pest and have been subjected to lethal trapping by Wildlife Services. However, Methow Valley in Washington has initiated a project that saves beavers by capturing them and taking them to places where they can help revitalize natural resources and the food chain. The Methow Valley Beaver Project has demonstrated that their efforts have provided effective against climate change and reshaping the land.

In Germany child refugee homes are overwhelmed with unaccompanied minors. Adoption is one solution to quickly get these kids into homes, but many kids refuse because their family is far away but alive.

In Anaheim, the police department shifted the way they approach prostitution. Rather than arresting women, they began to target pimps, and send women to social services.”In 2010, Anaheim reported 76 prostitution-related arrests, the fewest of any year in the previous three decades.” Other police department’s have adopted “john schools.” Men who solicit prostitution have their charges dropped in exchange they must go to diversion classes. “A 2008 study found San Francisco’s program had reduced the rate of repeat offenses by 40 percent.”