Behind LA's dramatic decline in gang violence

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/24/gang-violence-decline_n_6656840.html?cps=gravity_2659_7317138142693194709

Ann Brenoff

The Huffington Post

24 February 2015

Text / 800-1500 Words

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.

Social Media Transforms the Way Chicago Fights Gang Violence

http://www.governing.com/topics/urban/gov-social-media-transforms-chicago-policing.html

John Buntin

Governing

1 October 2013

Text / Over 3000 Words

Chicago is curbing homicides through an anti-violence initiative that uses social networks to rank people’s likelihood of killing and being killed. Police then do home visits and have personal conversations with people of high risk to inform them of consequences of future crimes.

Colombia's Data-Driven Fight Against Crime

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/colombias-data-driven-fight-against-crime

Tina Rosenberg

The New York Times

20 November 2014

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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.

Education in Indian Country: Obstacles and Opportunity

http://www.edweek.org/ew/projects/2013/native-american-education/running-in-place.html

Lesli A. Maxwell

Megan Garner

Swikar Patel

Education Week

4 December 2013

Text / Over 3000 Words

Native American student graduation rates are much lower than that of any other demographic. The Red Cloud school teaches students on a reservation in South Dakota about the Lakota history to empower the kids and encourage resilience.

Can grains of the past help us weather storms of the future?

https://ensia.com/articles/traditional-rice-resilience

Shreya Dasgupta

Ensia

9 February 2015

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After a devastating cyclone changed the nature of local soil, NGOs preserved Indian rice crops by reintroducing traditional rice varieties that can be cultivated even in salt-ridden earth. Although some first met this idea with skepticism, many farmers have now adopted the practice after witnessing the success of the crops.

How one of America's most dangerous cities reduced gun violence

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/3/12/a-confused-war-reducing-gun-violence-part-1.html

Rachel Waldholz

Mariel Carr

Al Jazeera

12 March 2015

Video / 5-15 Minutes

Richmond, California ranked among the highest homicide rates in the country. The city created the Office of Neighborhood Safety to engage the community in the effort to curb gun violence and prevent homicides. ONS works directly with the young people who are at risk and have succeeded in reducing the homicide rate.

A Fla. District Leads in Violence Prevention

http://www.pulitzer.org/files/2012/public_service/assault09.pdf

Kristen A. Graham

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network)

1 April 2011

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Palm Beach County, Florida has many of the same social problems that Philadelphia has, including “gangs, drugs, and poverty.” However, their school system has managed to keep students safe by employing “safe-school case managers” who build relationships with students, and they offer a youth court that is a system run by students who peer-review cases of unrest. The initiatives in this county has prevented school violence from happening without metal detectors and just two police officers.

Migration outlier: How Nicaragua escaped neighbors' deadly spiral

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/us-usa-immigration-nicaragua-idUSKBN0GS0AM20140828

Ivan Castro

Reuters

28 August 2014

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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.

Battling America's other PTSD crisis

http://news.yahoo.com/battling-america-s-other-ptsd-crisis-194336514.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma

Tina Rosenberg

Yahoo! News

6 March 2015

Text / Over 3000 Words

A program in Philadelphia is pioneering new ways to treat the urban wounded. By seeing it as PTSD, and not pointing fingers, the city is using mental health tools to decrease violence and heal communities.

Interrupting violence in Brooklyn

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/interrupting-violence-brooklyn

Elissa Curtis

Trymaine Lee

MSNBC

8 April 2014

Text / Under 800 Words

In Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, an organization called Save Our Streets Crown Heights (S.O.S.) is taking steps to disrupt violence. The organization is modeled after Chicago's violence interrupters, which employ people from the neighborhood to connect with those most at-risk and disrupt conflicts and retalitory violence.