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

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  • Turkey Bets on Green Card

    A program in Turkey allows residents to recycle its waste, and in return, receive points that can be used to pay for goods or be withdrawn as cash from an ATM. When the Green Neighbor Card program launched in 2016, the first month saw residents turning in over 8,700 kilograms of waste. By 2020, it has grown to 200,000 kilograms a month. Some say the program has some flaws, but residents have earned 5.3 million liras since the program began.

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  • Maryland Town Turns Flood Zone into a Tourist Attraction

    When algae overgrowth began to plague the Carroll Creek flood control project, a group of volunteers cultivated 1,000 floating canopies of plants to block the sunlight that algae need to grow, allowing the community to maintain the effective underground concrete conduits that move storm water. 250 volunteers maintain the plants throughout the year and the creek, previously made unusable by the algae, now draws tourists to see various attractions.

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  • The Biggest Crop in Prison Gardens: Hope

    A gardening program for correctional facilities is introducing incarcerees to vocational gardening and landscaping, but also provides much more than a chance to get their hands dirty. Insight Garden Program provided a “safe space” for introspection and growth, reduced anxiety and depression, and then eventually helped formerly incarcerated people adjust to life after prison with services that include housing.

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  • Can green spaces help curb Philly's gun violence problem?

    Philadelphia's LandCare program has cleaned and greened 12,000 vacant lots, removing trash and other signs of blight. A study showed that the program led to a large drop in violent crime in the cleaned-up areas. A U Penn researcher who led that study and a community leader whose Philly Peace Parks in west and north Philadelphia have developed a more welcoming, healthy environment talk about the emotional impact such programs have on residents when they see that their neighbors care about the neighborhood. Says organizer Pili X, "It does something to the heart and soul of people."

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  • Could Greater Investment in Greening Help Reduce Gun Violence?

    The city lot where Sanctuary Farm now grows vegetables that it distributes free to the community once was strewn with trash and drug paraphernalia, hardly a hospitable place for the neighborhood kids who played in it. Now it's a lush garden and safe hangout for kids who help with the gardening, do art projects, or just play. It's similar to a broader Philadelphia program that "cleaned and greened" thousands of lots and made a measurable decline in violence. Sanctuary's impact on crime isn't known for sure, but some neighbors say the farm is a positive influence.

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  • Digital Debris: How an App Is Changing the Trajectory of Athens' Litter Abatement

    Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful uses the Marine Debris Tracker app to motivate locals to reduce and clean up litter. The app collects information from locals about the type and location of litter they see to inform what abatement efforts are needed there.

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  • Sanitation Solutions: How hidden cameras became Philly's fiercest weapon in the war on dumping

    Philadelphia has 300 surveillance cameras and, increasingly, sees them as central to its strategy of holding individuals accountable for illegal dumping. This has led to empty lots remaining garbage free, and setting examples of those who are caught and prosecuted.

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  • This Experiential Learning Farm Helps Youth Build a Better World

    Low-income communities of color have less access to nature, they experience "nature deprivation" at a rate three times higher than white people. Regular access to the outdoors improves respiratory health, physical fitness, cognitive functioning, and psychological well-being. The Freetown Farm was conceived as a place where all people can experience nature. Its exposing young people of all backgrounds to nature. Through its year-long internship program learned how to plant food, among other things.

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  • California's Yurok Tribe grows solutions in soil of crises

    The Yurok Tribe, located in Northern California, depends on fishing to sustain a living. However, a severe drought, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a crumbling highway severely affected the tribe. So, leaders are turning towards new ways of making an income: a community garden.

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  • From a Prison Garden Sprouts Real Growth

    Lettuce Grow teaches gardening skills to 200 incarcerated people per year in 16 Oregon prisons and juvenile detention centers. The teaching includes college-level courses and hands-on gardening on prison grounds, which then yields hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables for prison kitchens. Graduates of the program commit many fewer crimes than the average ex-prisoner and have found work after prison at nurseries and in other horticultural pursuits.

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