Billy Penn
14 December 2020
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
The House of Umoja in West Philadelphia, created in the late 1960s in response to high rates of gang violence, succeeded in helping thousands of young men through a residential treatment program, mediating disputes peacefully, and brokering a gang truce credited with lowering Philadelphia violence in the 1970s. The program was based on Afrocentric customs and family structure (its name means unity in Swahili). The grandson of the founders is now trying to revive the home as part of the city's multiple anti-violence initiatives.
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.
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.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/colombias-data-driven-fight-against-crime
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
20 November 2014
Text / 1500-3000 Words
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.
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.
https://ensia.com/articles/traditional-rice-resilience
Shreya Dasgupta
Ensia
9 February 2015
Text / 800-1500 Words
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.
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.
http://www.pulitzer.org/files/2012/public_service/assault09.pdf
Kristen A. Graham
The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network)
1 April 2011
Text / 800-1500 Words
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.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/us-usa-immigration-nicaragua-idUSKBN0GS0AM20140828
Ivan Castro
Reuters
28 August 2014
Text / 800-1500 Words
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.
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.
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.
Our issue area taxonomy was adapted from the PCS Taxonomy with definitions by the Foundation Center, which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International License.
Photos are licensed under Attribution Non Commercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license / Desaturated from original, and are credited to the following photographers:
Fondriest Environmental, David De Wit / Community Eye Health, Linda Steil / Herald Post, John Amis / UGA College of Ag & Environmental Sciences – OCCS, Andy B, Peter Garnhum, Thomas Hawk, 7ty9, Isriya Paireepairit, David Berger, UnLtd The Foundation For Social Entrepreneurs, Michael Dunne, Burak Kebapci, and Forrest Berkshire / U.S. Army Cadet Command public affairs
Photos are licensed under Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license, and are credited to the following photographers:
Ra'ed Qutena, 段 文慶, Fabio Campo, City Clock Magazine, Justin Norman, scarlatti2004, Gary Simmons, Kathryn McCallum, and Nearsoft Inc
Photos are licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license / Desaturated from original, and are credited to the following photographers:
Burak Kebapci and SCY.
Photos are licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) and are credited to the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Conference attendee listening to speaker, Jenifer Daniels / Colorstock getcolorstock.com.
Photo Credit: Kevork Djansezian via Getty Images
Photo Credit: Sonia Narang