Local Governments Vie for Fired Federal Workers

Creative reuse centers like Smart Art and Craft Supplies tackle waste reduction by redistributing donated art materials, simultaneously providing meaningful employment and inclusion opportunities for adults with disabilities.

Local organizations such as Mujeres Rurales Argentinas and the provincial Ministry of Agriculture's Gender Cabinet are empowering rural women through artisanal tea production. By offering training programs structured around women's caregiving schedules, creating spaces for gender-inclusive collaboration, and advocating for policy changes, these groups have helped increase women's leadership roles in tea production, as more than half of artisan producers are now women.

Floare de Cires addresses the employment barriers people with disabilities face by training them in culinary and hospitality skills that help them integrate into the workforce and build a sense of independence.

Project PRESS, which stands for Preparing Responsive and Effective School Social Workers, addresses the social worker shortage in schools by motivating social work students to pursue careers as school social workers providing them with the proper training to do so. It’s a year-long program that focuses on staffing historically Black and low-income areas, and has placed 22 social workers in schools in its first year.

Power the Polls is a national campaign that coordinates with companies and organizations across the political spectrum to reach out to potential election volunteers. The campaign then shares the volunteer's information directly with local election officials, with the goal of bolstering the pool of available poll workers.

Through the San Antonio Mayor's Youth Engagement Council, students network with municipal officials, conduct research, and complete community-based projects to help them develop policy proposals around issues such as the climate crisis. Participants have organized workshops and collected food and hygiene donations to support vulnerable residents and say serving on the council has provided them a venue to work on issues that are important to them.

Brothers Empowered to Teach provides a paid fellowship to train Black men to be teachers. The organization focuses on the development of the whole person, from character building and life skills to teaching experience. They have placed over 170 people in classrooms since its inception, providing visibility and representation for young children to see people who look like them in careers they may not have thought possible for themselves.

Since 2016, complaints filed against Oakland police officers have triggered parallel investigations by both the department's internal affairs unit and the city's Civilian Police Review Agency. When an outcome is disputed, the final decision is made by the Civilian Police Commission, a system that has resulted in the city sustaining complaints against officers at a rate more than double the state average between 2018 and 2020.

The Equitable Communities Initiative brought together representatives from a range of nonprofits serving people of color to make recommendations for investments that support communities of color. Each panelist brought distinct work and life experiences that informed their recommendations for 18 kinds of investments. The city has approved the $30 million budget to address long-standing disparities in the areas of business, education, health, and housing. The model relied on advocates with on-the-ground knowledge of community needs to take the lead, while city staffers provided logistic and technical support.

From collecting plastic to transforming it into infrastructure, communities all over the world are implementing solutions to tackle the growing amount of plastic waste. In Malawi, women are separating garbage from plastic and creating new products like fire briquettes, doormats, and organic compost that they can sell to others. A town in Tasmania turned their plastic waste into a road made of recycled asphalt that is expected to last 15 percent longer than regular asphalt. And Zimbabwe is employing youth to recycle plastic into eco-friendly construction materials.