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

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  • How St. Louis Took a Proactive Approach to E-Scooter Regulation

    A failed bikeshare program left St. Louis prepared for the onlsaught of e-scooters that has been sweeping the nation and left the city ahead of the curve with scooter regulation. The city installed a permit system that easily transferred from the bikeshare program structure - which never launched due to lack of grant money - to scooter usage. The permit system allows any changes to regulations to go through administration, rather than a lengthy legislative process, and ensures scooters are available all over the city rather than just in the wealthier, more developed pockets.

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  • Finding Home: When Eviction Looms, Landlords Have Lawyers. Now More Tenants Do, Too.

    In North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County, they’ve allocated funding for tenants to have access to free legal aid, provided by Legal Aid of North Carolina, in their eviction cases. With eviction often being the start of a downward spiral, having legal representation can help people prevent or delay their evictions. Beyond funding some legal aid, the courthouse also provides residents with information about evictions and their specialty eviction court.

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  • They were evicted and had to take their homes with them. But they also won something in return.

    When the mobile park they lived in was sold and evictions were imminent, residents of Oakhaven banded together to demand relocation packages and other rights. While they were eventually forced out, they succeeded in winning more money than they were originally promised, and they credit this to their ability to organize and petition.

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  • In South Africa, a Call to Punish Rapists

    In Diepsloot, South Africa, a small office called Lawyers Against Abuse offers legal support for sexual assault cases in a violent city that traditionally does little to address the issue. The organization offers lawyers, victim advocates, legal counseling, and therapy as they go through the process. Since 2015, they have helped more than 800 women and secured 28 convictions.

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  • ‘If You're Like Me, You Can't Sit By. This Is America.'

    Connecting children with volunteer lawyers can greatly assist immigration cases. Nonprofits like the Safe Passage Project and Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) work to provide children, often separated from their families, with legal defense. Without a lawyer, many children face immigration hearings alone, adding great trauma to a complicated process. A majority of unrepresented children are deported. Nonprofit legal groups across the US are working to create a safety net of legal counsel.

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  • ‘It's Like an Automatic Deportation if You Don't Have a Lawyer'

    With the help of legal counsel, immigrants facing deportation are more likely to win their cases and keep their families together. The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project is one of several organizations in New York that provides lawyers free of charge to detained immigrants. The program is also a part of the broader Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) network, which includes 18 cities that have set up legal defense funds for immigrants.

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  • 4.5 Million Young People Nationwide Are Not Working or in School. How Cities Are Working to Get Them Back on Track — & Avoid the School-to-Prison Pipeline

    There is a certain population of youth aged 16-24 that are neither in school nor working because of some derailment (oftentimes burdensome responsibilities) along the way. A national organization called Nxt Level helps people get back on track with their goals through a specialized team that helps an individual with things like getting a GED, mental health or legal resources, job training, and food programs. They even work with local businesses to give the kids a chance and hire them upon their completion of the program. Nxt Level now has centers in Baltimore, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and more.

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  • In Nigeria's overcrowded prisons, Catholic group frees inmates through free legal services

    Thousands of people incarcerated in Nigeria’s rapidly growing prison system, many of them awaiting trial without lawyers, receive free legal, health, and educational services from an NGO that for decades has paid twice-weekly visits to prisons around the country. Serving the prisoners’ general welfare, the Catholic Institute for Development, Justice, and Peace seeks the release of defendants on bail, advocates for better health care, and delivers aid packages to people held in the overcrowded lockups.

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  • A Unique Military Program Helps Sexual Assault Survivors. But Not All of Them.

    Members of the military who are survivors of sexual assault have access to special victims’ counsels to help guide and protect them throughout the legal process. The efforts are still young, and with that comes issues of ill-trained or over-worked legal representation – a criticism that has been made known by advocates. Furthermore, while the existence of such assistance is extremely beneficial to military personnel, the same sort of protection and support isn’t available to civilians who are alleging violent crimes against military members.

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  • Detroit Bail Project aims to disrupt the process of cash bail and incarceration

    The Bail Project is posting bond for men and women who cannot afford to pay and haven’t been convicted of a crime. Based in Detroit, the nonprofit has locations across the country and uses a revolving fund to bail out individuals, meaning once the bond is recovered, the funding is then available for another person. Its Detroit location has bailed out nearly 200 individuals in an effort to end mass incarceration and prove that holding people – most of whom are people of color or experiencing poverty – does not diminish recidivism.

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