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.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/sep/09/psychiatrist-helping-mentally-ill-people-left-to-wander-india-streets?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Anne Pinto-Rodrigues
The Guardian
9 September 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
In India, many of the homeless population suffer from undiagnosed mental illnesses, but a local psychiatrist is addressing the problem by treating their illnesses and reuniting them with their families. The psychiatrist, who started a foundation with his wife to tackle this issue, houses and treats the patients at a residential treatment centre before connecting them with a social worker who in turn reunites them with their loved ones.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/lgbtq-asylum-seekers-marginalization-four-organizations-help-resource-guide?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Ari Honarvar
Teen Vogue
5 September 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
LGBTQ asylum seekers face a unique set of problems coming to the United States, often from places where gender expression and sexuality are strictly regulated. Four organizations across the US, Mexico, and Canada are filling this unique niche. For example, AsylumConnect created an app of resources on how to apply for asylum and a catalogue of LGBTQ-friendly services and organizations in the US for them to learn about. All four aim to validate LGBTQ asylum seekers and keep them safe.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/can-calbright-reinvent-online-community-college/562147?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Wayne D'Orio
Education Dive
3 September 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
With $100 million in funds from California's state legislature, a group is launching an online community college targeted at adult learners. The college is unique for its focus on skill-based learning in lieu of traditional degree-based learning and its mobile learning options that allow students to digest 30-minute modules on-the-go. "Calbright's long-term success depends in large part on how willing employers are to validate potential employees' skills-based learning."
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/sep/02/drive-thru-brothels-why-cities-are-building-sexual-infrastructure?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Nate Berg
The Guardian
2 September 2019
Multi-Media / 800-1500 Words
Attitudes towards the legalization of sex work are changing around the world, and now some cities have even started considering public spaces for sex work while developing urban infrastructure plans. From Cologne, Germany (where there are "sex drive-throughs" that are equipped with safety features, facilities for rest, and toilets for the workers) to Amsterdam (where they are developing new rules for window-based sex work), governments are now increasingly inviting sex workers and their representatives to the negotiating table.
https://hechingerreport.org/college-dreams-often-melt-away-in-summer-months-near-peer-counseling-is-helping-keep-them-alive?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Sarah Gonser
The Hechinger Report
30 August 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
A "near-peer" mentoring program offers a promising model for similar initiatives working to prevent "summer melt" for low-income students in the summer between their graduation from high school and arrival at college. College-age mentors provide in-person coaching and respond to texts about financial aid and other concerns.
https://hechingerreport.org/using-virtual-reality-to-help-students-with-disabilities?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Tara Garcia Mathewson
The Hechinger Report
29 August 2019
Text / Under 800 Words
In the Danvers, Massachusetts, school district, virtual reality technology allows students with disabilities to walk through the hallways of their middle school before the first day of classes or take field trips at their own pace as part of life skills classes. The district's technology director believes this a key "low-stakes opportunity to practice critical life skills."
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/8/20/20806651/plastic-bag-ban-straw-ban-tax?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Matthew Zeitlin
Vox
27 August 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
Across the world, countries are reckoning with its astounding single-use plastic bag waste by instituting legislation that taxes or all-out bans them. Research has shown that taxing the bags has been a more effective strategy with less unintended consequences, as banning often leads to a sharp increase in thicker plastics or paper bags. In places that have instituted the tax, they’ve seen a 40 percent decrease in usage, and arguably more importantly, a cultural shift away from single-use plastics.
https://www.searchlightnm.org/this-land-is-their-land?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
April Reese
Searchlight New Mexico
27 August 2019
Multi-Media / 1500-3000 Words
The Outdoor Equity Fund in New Mexico introduces troubled youth across the state to exploration in nature as a sort of informal therapy and mental retreat. The Fund - a first of it's kind across the nation - distributes resources and funding to local outdoor and youth-centered nonprofits to spread the impact of their missions across the state.
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/cu-anschutz-unveils-out-of-home-gun-storage-map-to-help-improve-safety-prevent-suicide?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Stephanie Butzer
Denver7
26 August 2019
Multi-Media / Under 800 Words
For individuals wanting to store their guns outside of their homes, they can now find a space using the Colorado Gun Storage Map. The interactive tool was developed in collaboration between the Colorado School of Public Health, the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the Colorado Safety Coalition, with the goal of helping those in crisis situations find spaces like law enforcement agencies and special storage facilities to store their firearms.
https://www.marinij.com/2019/08/24/west-marin-tenants-benefit-from-second-unit-program?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Richard Halstead
Marin Independent Journal
24 August 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
A program run by the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin uses government vouchers to encourage landlords to create additional affordable housing units with extra rooms in their home. The program, which primarily focuses on "junior accessory dwelling units" that offer small but low-price rooms units to individuals, has created 22 affordable units over the last three years.
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