Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • From LA jail, two inmates pioneer care for mentally ill peers

    At the Los Angeles County Jail, two men incarcerated on pending murder charges created a homegrown approach to improving the care and conditions of confinement for people with serious mental illness. Their approach is simple: showing love and care for people whose illness makes them feel like outcasts. By helping fellow incarcerated men attend counseling and other programs, and by tending to their personal needs, the initiative has contributed to a significant drop in people harming themselves. Fewer restraints are needed, and the pods where the program operates are notably cleaner and calmer than before.

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  • To Curb Domestic Violence, City Enlists ‘Sisters of the Well'

    In Mongolia's capital city, more than 600 people who staff the kiosks where most residents get their drinking water have been trained to spot signs of domestic abuse. The Smart Triangle program aims to overcome low rates of reporting such crimes to the police in this patriarchal society by shifting the reporting burden to people well situated to observe a neighborhood's daily life. Other sorts of responses show stronger effects than bystander interventions like this. But the short training curriculum is not costly to produce and has helped some women.

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  • On Parole, Staying Free Means Staying Clean and Sober

    People in two New Jersey counties who were at risk of abusing opioids while on parole were given extra support services, and an immediate trip to rehab instead of back to prison when they slipped up. The pilot program is New Jersey's version of Swift, Certain and Fair, a federally funded program to help people succeed while on parole. In some of the 30 states with SCF programs, copying the original and successful Hawaii model didn't work. But New Jersey's approach to helping people succeed instead of laying traps to send them back to prison was deemed a success with a small, focused pilot program.

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  • Philly Under Fire Episode 6: The Golden Hour

    In Philadelphia, public agencies and funding serve homicide victims' families. But grassroots groups target the enormous gaps in services for the survivors of gun violence, people whose unaddressed needs – medical, financial, and especially emotional – can fuel cycles of retaliatory violence. Because trauma and anger increase the risks for future violence, groups like The ECO Foundation and Northwest Victim Services provide both immediate responses, starting bedside in hospitals, all the way to long-term care and counseling, plus preventive counseling and services to make for healthier communities.

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  • Bringing Midwifery Back to Black Mothers

    Black midwifery has deep cultural roots, especially in the South as a remnant of the medical profession's neglect of Black women. Though the tradition largely died out, and nurse-midwives have become more professionalized, the latter-day profession is largely white. Choices, the Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, is training Black midwives and returning the practice to its communal roots to give Black mothers better care than they get from mainstream obstetrics and to combat the high maternal-mortality rate in the U.S.

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  • Philly should look to this Oakland program to protect its AAPI community

    In response to a string of hate crimes across the country that has left the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community on edge, a volunteer-led group is standing in solidarity through more than just words. Compassion in Oakland is providing chaperone services to Asian elders. The volunteer-led group is helping the Asian-American community feel safer by accompanying people on their errands and doing street patrols to show solidarity and support.

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  • Talk, trust and transportation helps in getting out the vaccine

    Building trust, engaging in personal conversations, and providing services that reduce barriers to getting vaccinated have helped increase the COVID-19 vaccination rates in some Cleveland neighborhoods. Posting information in local businesses and apartment building allows people to access information in private. Community health workers also meet people where they are in order to build relationships and gain their trust. Many community groups and health workers offer services that reduce common barriers to getting vaccinated, like transportation, child care, and wage replacement for taking time off.

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  • Is new California police deadly force law making a difference?

    More than a year after taking effect, California's law restricting when police can use deadly force has had some effects on police accountability and training, but a number of flaws illustrate how long and difficult the process of change will be. The Act to Save Lives, which limits the use of deadly force to cases when it is needed to defend a life, has been cited by prosecutors in two homicide prosecutions. A number of police departments have followed the law's training dictates. But many others have been slow to roll out the training, and the state is not requiring officers to take it to stay certified.

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  • How Jos Neighbourhood Watch Makes Christians, Muslims Their Brother's Keeper

    Following years of religious-based violence throughout Plateau State, Christians and Muslims in the Dutse Uku area of Jos formed a neighborhood watch program to intervene before one killing turns into many. Elders on both sides of the divided community agreed to take responsibility for violence in their area and to help the other side seek justice. Places of worship are guarded by members of the opposite faith, in a show of solidarity that has not completely erased fears and suspicions, but has bred a calmer atmosphere. People now mingle freely at the marketplace and business has improved.

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  • Would better policing reduce gun violence in Philly like it has in Camden?

    For a city like Philadelphia, with rising violence and a lack of community trust in the police, Camden and Newark serve as examples of the positive changes that come about when outside forces impose the kinds of reforms that the community seeks. After significant makeovers, both cities' police departments have earned greater trust by being more effective and less brutal. Crime is down and police use less force, including not a single police shooting in Newark in 2020. The lesson in both cities: community involvement in crime reduction is key, but better policing also must be a part of the response.

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