Customizing and tailoring solutions to meet a person or a community’s needs. In developing solutions, changemakers employ human-centered design, meeting people where they are at, employing behavioral economics, and identifying cases of positive deviance. Sometimes they even employ humor, exemplifying a technique that takes into account existing and natural behavior.
Providing services without the requirement of previous behavior change or that fit the way people behave.
Using behavioral economics nudgesUsing strategies that acknowledge and take advantage of natural human behavior.
Using humorDefusing tension, winning friends and engaging people with humor. Can be used to cut fear.
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https://www.boulderweekly.com/news/everyones-a-victim?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Angela K. Evans
Boulder Weekly
10 January 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Having your identity stolen, especially a social security number, is frightening and can have far reaching consequences for everyone involved; while some of the people who commit identity theft have malicious intents, some are undocumented people who are seeking work to make a living. A new program in Boulder, Colorado is using restorative justice practices to help mediate between and humanize the two parties and, hopefully, minimize long-term consequences for those in a tight spot.
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/01/fare-calculator-dutch-transit-enforcement-rail-bus-tickets/579715?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Feargus O'Sullivan
CityLab
8 January 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
Dutch public transportations are trying some innovative techniques to cut down on fare-evaders, emphasizing that consequences for those evading fares should not just impose fines but convince them to become ticket buyers. Other strategies include barring access to stations themselves without tickets and including a card pre-loaded with 10 rides when a person is penalized for fare-evading.
https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/ideas-we-should-steal-the-real-possibilities-for-change?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Malcolm Burnley
The Philadelphia Citizen
28 December 2018
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Philadelphia could benefit from Connecticut’s Child FIRST program. The company sends therapists to family homes to help them address their mental health situations using Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). Child FIRST gets federal funding and has been recognized as "evidence based" treatment by the Department of Health and Human Services.
https://hechingerreport.org/home-visiting-in-high-school-trying-an-intervention-for-toddlers-on-teenagers?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Peggy Barmore
The Hechinger Report
23 December 2018
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A West Virginia town is using a federal grant to expand a preschool teacher home visiting program to high school students. "We’re coming to build a relationship with you because we know that you’re an expert on how your child learns, and we as educators can learn a lot from you," says the executive director of the program.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/for-those-experiencing-homelessness-the-bin-honors-their-belongings?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Rikha Sharma Rani
Next City
21 December 2018
Mixed Media / 800-1500 Words
In Los Angeles, The Bin gives homeless people a chance to store their valuables. “If I didn’t have this bin, I’d have to get rid of most of my stuff. These bins are really great to have.” Across the nation, other cities are unfolding efforts to help the homeless population.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/12/21/how-one-county-became-a-lab-for-california-s-prison-reform?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Abbie Vansickle
Manuel Villa
The Marshall Project
21 December 2018
Mixed Media / 1500-3000 Words
After San Joaquin County adopted a slew of criminal justice reforms, crime dropped by 20 percent and hit a decades-old low. One of the things that was implemented were speciality courts saimed at decreasing arrest time and helping “former prisoners find jobs, housing and treatment for mental health and addiction problems.” Other measures include ending cash bail and racial bias training. ““Crime has always been issue No. 1, but the narrative in this city is one about being a second chance city.”
https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/its-not-just-about-housing?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Roxanne Patel Shepelavy
The Philadelphia Citizen
20 December 2018
Text / 800-1500 Words
While any attempted solution to homelessness is admirable, it’s the ideas that include community that may be the most successful. This is the concept supported by Stephanie Sena, a professor at Villanova who has dedicated her life to bringing “best practices” of homeless communities to Philadelphia. Still in the early stages, this community model would attempt to beat homelessness by bringing people together - not only giving a roof and a bed. Ideally, the community aspect would make the solution sustainable.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/upshot/set-it-and-forget-it-how-better-contraception-could-be-a-secret-to-reducing-poverty.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Margot Sanger-Katz
The New York Times
18 December 2018
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Delaware has a new statewide program to ask women of childbearing age if they are planning on getting pregnant in the next year during a primary care visit and to discuss birth control options if the answer is no. The goal of these discussions is to decrease the amount of unintended pregnancies and as a result increase women’s body autonomy and decrease medical spending.
https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-electric-forest-acid-and-bath-salt-testers?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Shelby Pope
Pacific Standard
17 December 2018
Text / 1500-3000 Words
The Bunk Police sell kits that test the content of drugs—such as LSD and MDA—providing an effective way for people to ensure they are not taking potentially harmful synthetics. While studies show that these kits provide useful harm reduction, there are often difficult legal hurdles to the distribution of these kits online and in person.
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/12/kid-friendly-policy-tirana-urban-planning/578164?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Feargus O'Sullivan
CityLab
17 December 2018
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Making adults change their habits and viewpoints is hard. Helping children change is easier. That’s the basic principle around which the recent recreational development of Tirana, Albania is based. By making green spaces more pedestrian and kid-friendly, government leaders and urban planners are starting to see benefits, starting with the youth. In turn, they hope children will be able to positively help their parents change, seeing the value of green and car-free development.
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