Grassroots movements for urban renewal in the Lowell neighborhood of Fresno, California has given power back to the people in the urban planning of their own community. With the help of social media, community members have created a forum between themselves and their city, resulting in 95% less blight and a reduction in crime throughout Fresno.

In California, homeless populations oftentimes face much greater health issues which financially impacts the state's public health care system. To address barriers to obtaining housing, with a sub-goal of bettering people's health, Los Angeles County has implemented a housing for the homeless pilot project that makes housing a part of a health care plan.

For two hours every Thursday, a support group for transgender Latina women called Transgéneros Unidas is held in Long Beach, California. Run by an organization called Bienestar, several cities in CA host these meetings for the women to discuss issues in their communities, health risks as transwomen, and past trauma. Group members view the group as an essential part of their support system and are greatly comforted by the community.

In many countries, sex work is illegal which means that those working in the industry have very few rights when it comes to sexual abuse. Amsterdam is one of the few places where this line of work is legal, however, and because of this, workers not only have rights, but are able to also advocate for better practices.

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.

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.

A new trend is transforming old motels into new affordable housing units. NewLife Homes, a real estate group, first turned the Sundowner motel in Albuquerque into apartment units reserved for low-income people, formerly homeless people, or people with special needs. This trend has spread to California, and many of these residential buildings have added supportive staff and community engagement efforts, as well.

Rwanda is approaching an ambitious goal - to be orphanage-free - and it's doing so by working to place children in orphanages with extended family and relatives, foster care, or re-integrating into society with the help of youth mentors. The program is based off of Home and Hopes for Children's finding in Romania and strategies are being shared with other countries in Africa, including Ghana and Uganda.

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.

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.

Colombia’s 2016 peace accord has a chapter on gender and sections specifically responsive to women’s needs, such as an affirmation of women’s right to own land and the establishment of a special unit to investigate conflict-related sexual violence. These provisions, a result of trailblazing inclusion of women and LGBTQ groups in the peace process, break new ground in recognizing the gendered impacts of armed conflict.

Although Iceland has ranked the most gender equal nation in the world by The Word Economic Forum, there is still a gender pay gap. A new law might change that. Iceland has become the first, and only country to punish companies that pay women less than men.

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.

Everyone knows how to stop the epidemic of teen pregnancies in Tanzania, where one out of every four babies is born to a woman under the age of 18. It is one thing that politicians, teachers, sisters, priests, imams, police officers and activists all agree on. And its success has been proven by plummeting teen pregnancy rates everywhere it has been implemented.

Philadelphia's criminal justice system is overwhelmed. New York is allowing judges to release low-risk defendants accused of non-violent crimes with the goal of saving money, reducing prison overcrowding, and cutting down on prison violence.

Areas of High Point, North Carolina have suffered from crime, poverty, and neglect, until the city began implementing Operation Ceasefire, a policing program that uses data collecting, community support against crime. High Point is now leading the country in its success of Operation Ceasefire, boasting dramatic reductions in violent crimes, domestic abuse, robberies, and drug-related offenses.

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.”

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.

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.

While the entire nation struggles to combat blight and rundown housing, the city of Mobile, Alabama put together a task force and managed to slow the spread of blight in the town and even change the state constitution. Now, the city is able to purchase blighted houses, make necessary repairs, and combat racial inequality while doing it.

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.

In the aftermath of multiple sexual assault incidents, Baylor University has moved toward turning what was once a culture of avoidance into a culture of accountability. The university has increased the staff, funding, and resources devoted to its Title IX office, including a new website for students to report incidents. Furthermore, the university promotes ongoing education and awareness among both its students and athletes with programs that promote healthy relationships.

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.

A community in Portland, Oregon piloted a sustainable housing initiative that looks a lot like a micro-scale of the touted Green New Deal. While the Cully neighborhood's local sustainability nonprofit, Verde, already trains and employees locals in the field of sustainable landscaping, the organization has bigger goals: building green affordable housing.

In Ethiopia, Ellita Products and its sister organization Ellita Women at Risk (EWAR), are working to end generational poverty and prostitution through comprehensive rehabilitation programs and skills training. To reduce reliance on donations, Ellita Products employs many who have been through EWAR's programming to produce clothing, jewelry, and more for wholesale retail. So far, EWAR has reached about 1,000 and 90% of those have not returned to prostitution to make ends meet.

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.

Project SAFE, based in New York, is providing justice-oriented programs and courts around the country with a lesson in intersectionality. Citing the unique realities that Black women face, the project partners with others on multiple initiatives, including: trauma-based training, policy research, podcasts, and overall knowledge dissemination. Across all initiatives is the underlying goal of bringing more understanding and knowledge to those who play a direct role in the incarceration of Black women.

A community court program in Newark, New Jersey provides alternative sentencing options for low-level offenders rather than jail or release that include getting help for mental health issues and addiction. It's part of a multi-state effort by the Center for Court Innovation to address that high rates of incarceration in the U.S. by addressing the criminalization of behaviors that are usually driven by other underlying factors such poverty, addiction and homelessness.

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.

“Two million people with mental illness are booked into jails every year.” Mental health courts, would take into accounts a person’s illness, rather than solely focusing on the crime.

In the past six years, backlogs of untested rape kits have been discovered across the country. Under the leadership of county prosecutor Kym Worthy, Detroit saw the nation's most ambitious—and effective—response to its backlog.

Jackson PD's Community Improvement division has been charged with destroying dangerous, dilapidated houses in low income neighborhoods, even though many are state-owned. In a resources-strapped city, where blight contributes to a vicious cycle of crime and poverty, the police take down the abandoned houses—an unusual role, but one that actually tackles the root causes of crime in an arguably more effective way than low-level fishing for arrests.

North America is suffering an epidemic of illicit heroin use and fatal overdoses of legal painkillers which fill up courts, jails and hospitals. In Vancouver, Crosstown Clinic is a heroin maintenance clinic that is keeping addicts out of jail and emergency rooms by injecting them the active ingredient in heroin 3 times a day.

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.

Cincinnati is making efforts to close the achievement gap between poor children and more advantaged students by fighting the effects of poverty. Lower Price Hill’s Oyler School is part of a growing national movement to help poor children succeed by meeting their basic health, social, and nutritional needs at school.

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.

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 Colorado, four communities are piloting a program that offers low-level drug or prostitution offenders an alternative to prison. This program, known as Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, matches the offender with a case manager who in turn connects them with treatment and training resources.

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.

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.

Most states and cities don’t permits mothers who give birth in prison to stay with their children. However, scattered across the country are programs like ReMerge, a program in Oklahoma City that allows mother and children to stay together, and avoid prison time. Programs like these are working, and yield lower recidivism rates.

In Cuba, most access to internet is extremely limited. "The Weekly Package," solves this problem--carried by individuals who travel around on foot each week, it is a single, black market hard drive from which customers may download the content of their choice - telenovelas, news, movies, and more.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kabubbu Development Project is a reproductive health NGO in Wakiso district of Uganda that is teaching middle and high school girls to make reusable sanitary pads. Lack of pads can mean the difference between going to school or not. The school found that when some young women had no money they turned to prostitution to afford hygiene products and go to school.

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.”

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.

For Redina, and others suffering from addiction, it is hard to break the cycle. 'Women Working for a Change' is a program that tries to change addicts' thinking in order to prevent a relapse.

Currently poverty is assessed on a household basis, however individuals within the same house can experience poverty differently. The Individual Deprivation Measure will be the first gender-sensitive tool that will be able to help better inform policy and understandings of poverty.

“Female offenders are the largest-growing prison population.” Key to making sure women don’t return to prison are effective reentry programs like FREE, a program for female offenders. However, FREE isn’t like other programs. It focuses on exploring the root causes that lead woman to commit crimes through a method called “cognitive shifting.”

New initiatives have been implemented to address Wikipedia’s gender gap: both the discrepancy of who is editing the site and the discrepancy of who is covered by the site. Activities include classes to teach girls how to edit and “wiki-thons” where editors develop articles on Wikipedia about women.

Hundreds of immigrants in Houston often have no access to any social aid. One community, East Aldine, exemplifies this. It lacks sewers, water, or trash collection. But, with the help of one nonprofit residents are bypassing the city, and getting the help they need.

Police officers in Scotland consider good relations more powerful than a gun or other weapon, an approach that was on full display during a recent night in Glasgow.

In Copenhagen's fixing room, drug addicts are able to take intravenous drugs through the supervision of nurses. The room provides a clean environment with sterile needles that can be disposed of. Since it opened, there were 36,000 injections, accounting for 350 syringes being used a day, and 1,000 regular attendees. “The philosophy is that we can't change people, people can change themselves and we can be there when they want to change."

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.

Various courts in California are lowering repeat offenses among men who are charged with prostitution by educating them about the negative effects of prostitution.

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.

100% Mamans, an association in Morocco that aids single mothers, has created a radio show called "Mères en Ligne" that is hosted and run by unwed mothers. The show, which at this point can only live online because Morocco prohibits community radio to broadcast on air, allows women to tell their stories and advocate for their rights despite the heavy stigma. Since the show launched in May of 2017, it has already received 2,500,000 visitors and counting.

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).

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.

Five Keys Charter School was the first in the U.S. to open in a jail. Now, the school operates a bus, or traveling classroom, that parks in San Francisco's most under-resourced communities to offer residents, many offenders, a second or third or seventh flexible chance at earning a high school diploma. Journalist Elizabeth Weil writes, "The school was created with the understanding that incarceration is part of life for their students." The director of the Bard Prison Initiative adds that Five Keys uses the infrastructure of jail “to do positive good rather than just mitigate harm.”

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.

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.

Grassroots efforts can create dialogue and foster acceptance for the trans community. In Mumbai, the Dancing Queens, led by trans women, not only perform for audiences, they also work to facilitate discussions and promote awareness of LGBT rights in India. The dance group’s members consist of activists who have been working to change social attitudes in India.

Albuquerque is a regional center for homelessness, with the number of those without homes increasing due to diminished services and resources. However, the city is taking a holistic approach to solving homeless, implementing "Housing First" policies, a van program that finds panhandlers and offers them work for the day, and other comprehensive services.

Illicit activity is rampant in the rundown motel rooms dotting Costa Mesa’s Harbor and Newport boulevards. Officials think they finally have a plan to make some of those motels disappear: Property zoning.

There are many things to consider when it comes to the quality of life and psychological needs of people living with disabilities, but one need rarely remembered is their sexuality. A Czech organization called Freya trains people to be sexual assistants who work with people with a range of abilities to learn how to become more comfortable with their own bodies and sexuality and physical tactics to help them do so. The service offers them a chance to experience basic human pleasures, and many testify to how much it has shaped their self-esteem and psychological health.

Places like Utica, New York are working to convince refugees and new immigrants to move to their cities to stimulate the local economy and counteract population decline over the decades. Through more comprehensive services, a welcoming atmosphere, and word-of-mouth, refugees are arriving and making these cities home.

Despite hesitance and not complete buy-in, European countries are seeing signs of success from implementing drug consumption rooms. While the United States has been hesitant to adopt this tactic as a solution for fear of normalization of drug use, countries with these facilities are reporting less “injection-related litter in public spaces,” increased public awareness, less stigma, and fewer overdoses.

Turning land owned by transit agencies into transit-oriented housing developments creates opportunities for affordable housing. Instead of building another parking garage in Oakland, California, community leaders and The Unity Council nonprofit petitioned for the construction of a multi-use development that combines affordable housing units, retail spaces, and even social services. The Fruitvale Village serves as a model for future affording housing developments on BART land, or on land owned by public transit agencies in other cities.

CompStat seemed like a miracle of technology and data when it was rolled out in New York City in the 1990s. Crime dropped as police leadership demanded precincts report every crime and what they were doing about it at weekly meetings where they were pressured to conform to this new system. But this also resulted in police distorting actual crime data to avoid reporting crimes in their districts and the push for increased police activity resulted in cops targeting minorities for minor offenses.

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.

Supervised injection sites in Canada have prevented hundreds of heroin overdose deaths. Now, New York City is looking to follow Canada's lead with a city-wide initiative to establish safe injection sites. While the Trump Administration is not in support of such sites, experts believe that it is unlikely that the federal government would interfere with a site if a city is in support of it.

Bail reform is a difficult process largely out of the hands of municipalities. Charitable bail funds allow individuals who can't afford bail to be free until their trial, in the hopes of changing the bail system from the inside.

ReadyReturn is the only program in the United States that provides taxpayers with completed tax returns. It’s simple, easy, and has a 99% user satisfaction rate. Who’s not happy? Intuit, H&R Block, and other tax preparers who have fought the California program every step of the way.

In New Orleans, the organization Woman With A Vision has been advocating for and supporting woman of color who have been involved with the justice system. They have worked to decriminalize sex work and created their own diversion program after realizing the racial bias of the district attorney's program - 80 women have completed the program so far, with more to come.

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.

The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion initiative is being implemented in cities across the U.S. Instead of arresting people accused of low-level drug crimes, the offenders are offered drug treatment, job training, mental health counseling, and other services.

Cities in the U.S. have decreased recidivism through specialized courts for firearm offenders. These efforts, however, have not helped overall gun violence, so university research is suggesting new tactics.

At a Michigan county drug court, intense scrutiny and personalized attention for people in recovery - instead of jail time - is an approach with great promise. This in-depth look at the journey of people in the program shows its possibilities and its limitations.

Seleiman Bishagazi and the Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP) are piloting a program that is on track to stop the practice of female genital mutilation. When a girl undergoes circumcision, her family receives monetary gifts from the community and the woman who performs the cutting is paid as well. This solution focuses on getting women into agriculture so that they have a steady income and don't need to rely on genital mutilation for capital.

A program piloted in Seattle and now replicated in several cities nationwide aims to redirect low-level drug offenders into a case management system that can help them change their lives by connecting them with social services and advocating for their wellbeing. The program is called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD, and police officers can direct people into it if they are suspected of having committed a drug crime.

Adjusting some of the strategies police adopted in New York and Los Angeles can help Chicago reduce it homicide rates which is one of the highest in the country. Some strategies which can be adopted in Chicago are to improve the relationships police have with the community and to increase police presence.

Across the country, new criminal justice campaigns are seeking to redefine how criminal records are both accessed and interpreted. Given that current crime histories fail to denote context and stories of culmination, these new products are seeking to both delay the effect criminal convictions have, as well as reshape how criminal records are recorded.

A pioneering program in Norway seeks to combat sexual violence by helping new immigrants adapt to a society whose sexual norms they may find confusing.

The VA has shifted its approach to ending homelessness among veterans. Now, a place to live--more than drug treatment or mental health counseling--is considered the starting point for helping a soldier who is struggling to cope with life after discharge.

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.

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.

The goal of The Platform, a new entrepreneurship and coworking hub in a struggling area of Tel Aviv, “is to start solving big as well as local urban problems through social-technological entrepreneurship.” The tech accelerator it offers has spurred the development of an app intended to bring neighbors together as well as a special type of motion sensor that helps people with physical disabilities. The coworking space portion provides a gathering and event space for skills training and more. The founders are even hoping other cities will adopt this model.

Territorial conflicts in neighboring countries can spur bloody battles.The discovery of a headless corpse in the Netherlands helped Belgium and its bigger Dutch neighbor resolve a property squabble that began in 1961, showing that land disputes can be settled peacefully.

Alcoholism affects homeless people around the world, a condition that makes them physically and mentally dependent on alcohol to maintain stable functions. The Oaks shelter in Ottawa serves free daily pours to severe alcoholics in order to stabilize their physical and mental states, and to help them control the amount of alcohol they intake. These measures in Ottawa have proven cost effective, humane, and offer specialized aid to those suffering from alcoholism.

At least 25 percent of female veterans were sexually abused in childhood, making it more difficult to reenter civilian life. Volunteers of America runs a holistic housing program for homeless veterans in the U.S.

More women are being incarcerated around the United States and that has spurred more institutions to create prison nurseries, which allow women to be with their newborns. It's not a new idea, but it's finding support among prison advocates as well as budget hawks because research shows nurseries can lower recidivism rates among mothers. The idea of children in prison remains controversial however.

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.

San Francisco's Care Not Cash program began in 2004 in response to the city's homelessness crisis. One facet of the program is an outreach team, whose members regularly visit homeless people on the street to connect them to resources such as housing and drug rehabilitation.

Created to “help some of the world’s most vulnerable children get off the street and into school," More Than Me Foundation exposed its students to widespread sexual abuse by an influential staffer. The charity lacked board members and top leadership with experience running schools and resisted being held accountable for the abuse.

In poor, crime-infected neighborhood with limited opportunities, where interactions with law enforcement are often toxic and punitive, and distrust on both sides is rampant. An integrated strategy is at the core of the model that can change this:"Operation Ceasefire," a form of targeted deterrence. The carrot-stick approach is carefully designed to reach men believed to be on the cusp of committing gun violence, let them know the consequences and help them fulfill their needs, thus finding a way to maybe change their trajectory into something more positive.

The law often traps offenders in a cycle of lawbreaking. LEAD allows for drug users to become committed to a program that helps them through the quitting process instead of throwing them into prison and isolating them from the help they need.