THE RESPONSE FREE!
Weekly email with three solutions stories illustrating responses that work, pivoting off the latest news moments.
SolutionsU connects you to solutions stories about responses to the world’s challenges.
Featured
Read featured
stories & collections
Students convince Medford to install ‘3-D' crosswalks at elementary schools
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/04/22/students-convince-medford-install-crosswalks-elementary-schools/LolOjXXkyKBxBsB8vNJCNM/story.html
Matt Rocheleau
The Boston Globe
22 April 2019
Text / Under 800 Words
In an effort to promote safe driving, a local artist painted a three-dimensional crosswalk near an elementary school. The idea came from school-aged children, noticing the intersection needed improvements, who brought it to City Hall officials. This initiative is part of a larger trend in using optical illusions to bolster traffic safety around the world.
More Benches, Special Goggles: Taking Steps to Assist Older Travelers
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/business/elder-travel-airports-hotels.html
Julie Weed
The New York Times
22 April 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
As the number of people over 60 years old continues to rise, airports and hotels around the country are implementing features and senior-friendly design into their spaces. Some of the changes are simple – new benches, brighter lights, or luggage assistance – but some are much more complex, like installing systems that transmit airport announcements directly to a travelers’ hearing device.
Local group offering rehabbed homes to families on Cleveland's East Side
https://www.news5cleveland.com/a-better-land/local-group-offering-families-second-chances
Frank Wiley
WEWS-TV (ABC News 5 Cleveland)
15 April 2019
Broadcast TV News / Under 5 Minutes
Systemic issues like redlining, re-entry after incarceration, and addiction have left many people in search of affordable and sustainable housing options. Cleveland’s Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries is rehabbing homes and offering them to individuals who are in need of a second chance.
In African Villages, These Phones Become Ultrasound Scanners
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/health/medical-scans-butterfly-iq.html
Donald G. McNeil Jr.
The New York Times
15 April 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
In rural parts of Africa, where access to quality medical attention is hard to come by, a hand-held portable ultrasound scanner is revolutionizing care. Although primarily being used to diagnose cases of pneumonia, doctors in these isolated areas are finding that the device has other uses, such as organ scanning which leads to proactive medical attention for many community members.
Can Community Investment Trusts Help Slow Down Gentrification?
https://psmag.com/economics/can-community-investment-trusts-help-slow-down-gentrification
Brendan Seibel
Pacific Standard
15 April 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
In East Portland, Oregon, a new Community Investment Trust is working to ensure that low-income residents have the opportunity to build equity by investing in their real estate. The program is limited to four zip codes with a maximum contribution of $100 to ensure that the investments stay open only to the members of the community it's intended to serve. More than 95% of investors have kept their money in the trust, but the model might be difficult to scale nationally without effective partnerships.
Changes Coming To Housing Program For Former Inmates
https://www.mtpr.org/post/changes-coming-housing-program-former-inmates
Edward O'Brien
Montana Public Radio
15 April 2019
Multi-Media / 5-15 Minutes
The Montana State Government designated funding toward a Supporting Housing pilot program that aims to help offenders experience a smooth re-entry into society after they get out of prison. Though the state is looking to adjust funding methods and dispersal to create a more impactful program, formerly incarcerated members of the program already see progress in their own lives.
Active shooter drills are scaring kids and may not protect them. Some schools are taking a new approach.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/active-shooter-drills-are-scaring-kids-may-not-protect-them-n992941
Elizabeth Chuck
NBC News
14 April 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Lockdown and active shooter drills have become commonplace in schools across the country. What is supposed to be a protective measure for children has been showing an increase in anxiety and trauma. With no standard measures on how to best equip schools in the face of a shooting, many districts are trying new methods, like age-appropriate language, training just teachers, sensory support, or having guidance counselors present, to lessen the fear and still be prepared.
LeBron James Opened a School That Was Considered an Experiment. It's Showing Promise.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/education/lebron-james-school-ohio.html
Erica Green
The New York Times
12 April 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
One year after LeBron James' I Promise School opened its doors, its students, picked for being some of the worst performing in Akron, Ohio, have shown significant improvement on district assessments. I Promise is funded like other public schools, but also benefits from an additional $600,000 from the James' foundation for more teaching staff, after-school programs, and a family resource center with G.E.D. preparation and career counseling. Teachers say these add-ons have been the key to the school's early success.
How Norway designed a more humane prison
https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/4/12/18301911/norway-humane-prison
Gina Barton
Christophe Haubursin
Vox
12 April 2019
Video / Under 5 Minutes
Halden Prison in Norway has re-designed itself so that the look and feel of prison life isn’t an added punishment to restricted freedom. Designers took into consideration the role campus design plays in promoting or disrupting guard-inmate relations and created a campus that promotes community rather than violence and isolation. Also included was landscaping, more natural light, and the use of softer materials, like glass and wood, instead of metal and brick.
Citizen engagement is helping Costa Rica fight climate change
https://apolitical.co/solution_article/how-citizen-engagement-helps-costa-rica-fight-climate-change
Amelia Axelsen
Apolitical
11 April 2019
Text / Under 800 Words
With its pledge to become the first zero-emission country in the world by 2050, Costa Rica's ambitious climate goals cannot be achieved by the government alone. That's why Costa Rica Limpia (Clean Costa Rica) is sparking citizen engagement to help in the fight. Grassroots efforts by the organization has already helped to create new charging infrastructure for electric cars, and citizen review bodies are local communities access important climate data.
The world is full of people and institutions working to advance change. Yet, these emerging ideas can be difficult to find...until now.
SolutionsU® identifies, vets, and tags high-quality solutions journalism stories in one searchable database - the Solutions Story Tracker.
SolutionsU® features stories produced by 1,400+ journalists from 700+ news outlets, featuring 148+ countries, and growing every day. The stories cover a wide variety of people, communities, and institutions working to advance change around the globe.
Solutions stories illustrate the real struggles in social change, going beyond inspiration to provide evidence and insights about how social change really works.
SolutionsU® is a project of the Solutions Journalism Network: a nonprofit organization that seeks to rebalance the news, providing readers with critical reporting on society's problems and stories that explain how individuals, institutions, and communities are responding.
“SolutionsU® has unlimited potential: for students developing project ideas, in providing leads for field research on solving intractable social problems, and for helping educators with well-vetted and organized teaching content and materials.”
Robert Lyon, Assistant Professor
NYU Stern School of Business
“My students are definitely more engaged and more inspired. They connect these stories to their own lives and many of them express interest in wanting to be more involved, perhaps by volunteering or donating to organizations that are featured in the articles.”
Judit Torok, Founding Director of Pratt's Center for Teaching and Learning
“When [my students] learned that a community already exists that they can be a part of, and that they can learn from, that made all the difference. Solutions journalism stories can help deliver this powerful message.”
Marcy O'Neil, Assistant Professor
Michigan State University
“A great tool to prime the moral imagination. It enhances the ability to imagine the world that does not yet exist.”
David Bornstein, Co-Founder
Solutions Journalism Network
“SolutionsU® is a lifeline for professors and students seeking to move beyond a problem mindset and understand how people are solving the thorny problems we face. Students leave inspired, realizing that they can make a difference.”
Jay Friedlander, Sharpe-McNally Chair of Green and Socially Responsible Business
College of the Atlantic
