TVO
3 February 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Facing closure and financial ruin, the Toronto Roncesvalles United Church found a new source of income: their own physical space. The church began renting or donating rooms for flea markets, yoga classes, shiatsu, children's theater, and more. The church says that they are "redefining how [they] do God," and that their mission is about serving the people in the community rather than remaining exclusively secular. As a result, the church topped $200,000 for the first time in its history in 2019.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/a-better-way-to-talk-about-faith
David Bornstein
The New York Times
12 June 2012
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) brings together college students from different faiths so that they develop respect and appreciation for each other and different traditions. IFYC also cultivates interfaith leaders and organizes campus-based campaigns called Better Together. Some students have received push back from their faith communities, but students and faculty have reported the campaigns for interfaith engagement leads to positive outcomes of increasing tolerance on campuses. The organization has trained students who have run campaigns on 106 campuses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/opinion/sunday/david-l-kirp-what-do-the-poor-need-try-asking-them.html
David L. Kirp
The New York Times
8 August 2015
Text / 800-1500 Words
Neighborhood Centers, a Houston anti-poverty program has a simple philosophy: “The people are the asset, the source of potential solutions, not the problem.” The non-profit has scaled nationally, employing its bottom-up approach to disburse funds in poor communities.
http://www.tinyspark.org/podcasts/curing-violence-like-an-infectious-disease
Amy Costello
Tiny Spark
30 July 2015
Podcast / 5-15 Minutes
Neighborhoods in Chicago suffer from gang violence and gun-related deaths. A church leader and a physician trained in infectious diseases created Cure Violence, a program that sends teams of local residents to meet with gang leaders as a means of producing positive behavioral change by re-setting social norms. Their approach has reduced violence between 40% and 70%.
http://www.psmag.com/the-end-of-gangs-edb059b5f770?gi=e7d7f23f0b8e
Sam Quinones
Pacific Standard
29 December 2014
Text / Over 3000 Words
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.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/06/where_are_the_parents_often_standing_right_over_their_kids_pathways_to_peace.html
Lynn Ischay
Cleveland.com (The Plain Dealer)
9 June 2016
Multi-Media / 800-1500 Words
Juvenile offenders can feel as though they have no chances for a good future. Volunteers of America’s Face Forward 2 program helps young people in Cleveland to complete their education and to find employment. With this program, juvenile offenders believe they can succeed.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Queensbridge-Houses-One-Year-Without-Shootings-412726453.html
Roseanne Colletti
WNBC-TV
3 February 2017
Broadcast TV News / Under 3 Minutes
The Queensbridge Houses, one of the nation's largest public housing projects, is celebrating more than one year without a shooting in what Mayor de Blasio called "a year of golden silence." Security measures such as the implementing of lights and cameras, combined with the creation of the 696 Queensbridge, a team of ex-convicts who patrol the area, has greatly reduced violence in the area.
https://www.citylab.com/crime/2017/06/why-boston-is-paying-ex-gang-members-to-go-to-college/529026
Andrew Zaleski
CityLab
2 June 2017
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Dorchester, the Boston neighborhood with the highest poverty levels, struggles to keep kids in school from engaging with gangs and crime. But College Bound Dorchester (CBD) is fast rewriting the solution to high drop out and recidivism rates, paying ex-offenders a weekly stipend to enroll in and complete a diploma program and proceed to (and through) college. With "core influencers" -- ex-gang members who have "left behind their troubled pasts" -- as role models in the community, CBD emulates similar programs in Chicago and Baltimore, and studies show the initiative is working.
http://citiscope.org/story/2017/myanmars-slums-women-pool-savings-get-relief-crushing-loans
Connor MacDonald
Citiscope
30 March 2017
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Years of misrule and a subsequent dearth of hard currency, along with crippling bank-fostered debt cycles and exorbitant home mortgage interest rates, have created immense suffering for Myanmar's poor. But with the guidance of a local NGO, Women for the World, a pilot project helped women in some of Yangon's poorest neighborhoods capitalize on their cultural "head-of-household" status; by forming and managing community savings cooperatives, the women have instilled trust through local control and, above all, enabled members to secure land, build homes, buy food, and even generate profit through loans to families' business enterprises.
https://www.newsdeeply.com/womenandgirls/articles/2016/12/06/salvadoran-community-women-take-lead
Christine Bolaños
News Deeply
6 December 2016
Text / 800-1500 Words
Women in El Salvador have long faced the extreme challenges of having fewer economic and social rights than men, making it difficult to survive when tragedy - such as an earthquake - strikes. The Romero community, which comprises of 90% women, is providing protection and community for women where they help each other survive.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/jan/14/grocery-cooperatives-help-keep-small-towns-alive
Nafeesa Syeed
The Spokesman-Review
14 January 2007
Text / Under 800 Words
Anita, Iowa faced many of the same challenges as other small towns when the last local grocer closed amid competition with large chains like Costco and Walmart. But when its residents realized the value of a local "mom-and-pop" food purveyor to the town's economy, they created the Anita Grocery Cooperative and a board to oversee it. The Coop marks a testament to collective action, resilience, and sustainable, locally-sourced solutions.
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