Internet from the moon: Varsity scholar nurtures his concept on inexpensive internet.

https://youtu.be/V38keAmTjKs

David Owino

Africa Development Journal

11 June 2021

Video / 5-15 Minutes

To make internet connectivity accessible and affordable across Africa, Dr. Harold Omondi developed “internet from the moon,” a technology that uses satellite dishes to communicate with transponders placed in the moon several years ago by NASA. The transponders can send and receive information and, since the moon keeps the same side of its surface pointed towards earth, the connection cannot be lost. Still in the piloting phase, the system currently offers free internet at Jomo Kenyatta University, where over 1,200 people login every day, and has another station in South Sudan serving 300-500 people daily.

Inside One Baltimore Group's Effort to Stop Youth Violence Before It Starts

https://www.thetrace.org/2021/06/roca-baltimore-gun-violence-prevention-stop-shootings

J. Brian Charles

The Trace

10 June 2021

Text / 1500-3000 Words

Baltimore's Roca program uses cognitive behavioral therapy, and patience and persistence, to work at changing the thinking of young people at high risk of committing or suffering gun violence. Counselors help their clients examine the trauma in their lives, learn to change their reactions to stress and conflict, and to choose legitimate jobs over the street economy. Unlike violence interruption programs that seek to mediate crises just as they threaten to turn deadly, Roca does its work further upstream, seeking to shape events before they turn critical.

The push to remake policing takes decades, only to begin again

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2021/police-reform-failure

John Sullivan

Robert Klemko

The Washington Post

10 June 2021

Text / Over 3000 Words

Three "historic firsts in policing reforms" show how attempts to root out systemic problems in policing can fail. In all three cases – federal intervention to curb civil rights abuses in Pittsburgh, a computerized early-warning system to spot abusive Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, and rules put in place to reduce racial profiling in New Jersey traffic stops – bureaucratic and leadership failures, plus cultural resistance to change in police ranks, undermined early successes or good intentions. In all three cases, the problems persist decades later.

Art Teachers Are Teaching Girls to Code

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/art-teachers-are-teaching-girls-to-code

Celeste Hamilton Dennis

Next City

10 June 2021

Text / 800-1500 Words

Code/Art trains art teachers in a curriculum that combines art and coding, with the goal of inspiring girls to code. They also offer weekly clubs for elementary and middle school girls, a Future Female Tech Leaders program for high schoolers, and an annual conference to celebrate the girls’ achievements. Teachers who take the training can satisfy continuing education requirements by learning four lessons: an abstract art generator and donut maker game, coding self-portraits using JavaScript, and 3-D modeling. Facilitators are assisted by college-age interns, who are available to help in the classroom.

The helpline for jealous and violent men

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09krx10

Craig Langran

BBC

8 June 2021

Podcast / Over 15 Minutes

Most domestic violence telephone helplines offer help to women who have been abused, and counseling programs for men provide their services in prison, once men have committed serious violence. But Línea Calma tries to prevent domestic violence by offering men psychological counseling by phone. The sessions of 60 to 90 minutes focus on helping men understand their feelings of rage, often linked to jealousy and machismo. In just a few months, the line (which in Spanish means the Calm Line) has taken more than 2,000 calls and some couples attest to its effectiveness in enabling men to react more calmly.

Colorado's Second Chance Center is redefining what success looks like after incarceration

https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/06/04/colorados-second-chance-center-is-redefining-what-success-looks-like-after-incarceration

Moe Clark

Colorado Newsline

4 June 2021

Text / Over 3000 Words

At the Second Chance Center, people emerging from prison get the necessities to survive, like housing, clothing, and food. But they also get deeper learning about how to repair their lives, thanks to an inclusive and empowering message from the staff, most of whom are formerly incarcerated. "They need to be seen," says one counselor. More than 7,000 have gone through the program, which boasts recidivism rates far lower than the state average. Now it's opened in downtown Denver to serve people coming out of the city and county jails.

San Francisco's new homeless street teams make progress, garner praise

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/san-franciscos-new-homeless-street-teams-make-progress-garner-praise

Joshua Sabatini

San Francisco Examiner

4 June 2021

Text / 800-1500 Words

San Francisco's Street Crisis Response Team is a pilot project meant to divert 911 calls for mental health emergencies from police to new teams of mobile counselors. Though it started with only one team and later expanded to four, the project in less than six months took 20% of the eligible calls. More than half the clients were helped on the streets, while most others were hospitalized or connected with shelters. The city is proposing a major expansion of this and related teams aimed at reducing the reliance on police in non-violent situations.

Community Ambassadors Are the Link to Toronto's Unvaccinated Populations

https://thelocal.to/community-ambassadors-are-the-link-to-torontos-unvaccinated-populations

Brannavy Jeyasundaram

The Local

4 June 2021

Text / 800-1500 Words

Toronto’s Vaccine Engagement Teams Grant has awarded $5.5 million to community organizations in 140 neighborhoods to hire and train local ambassadors for vaccine outreach. Because the ambassadors share a lived experience with the communities, they can effectively identify the barriers people face. The on-the-ground effort includes sharing information, advocating for community needs, and helping people access services. The outreach focuses on people often overlooked by government services, such as unhoused people and people who do not speak English or have precarious immigration status.

How a program became a model for life after prison

https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/how-a-program-became-a-model-for-life-after-prison

Alasyn Zimmerman

KOAA-TV

3 June 2021

Broadcast TV News / 3-5 Minutes

Colorado's Transforming Safety initiative empowers communities to decide how to use grant money to address high rates of recidivism. One community-chosen grantee is Colorado Springs Works, founded by a man who made a habit of asking those he was incarcerated with why they had been sent back to prison on parole violations. Lack of good jobs was a key reason, and so the program he created helps recently incarcerated people get job training and jobs on the outside.

How this donation app helped get food directly to hungry people during the pandemic

https://www.fastcompany.com/90642359/how-this-food-donation-app-helped-get-food-directly-to-the-hungry-during-the-pandemic

Talib Visram

FastCompany

2 June 2021

Podcast / Over 15 Minutes

“DoorDash for the food insecure” is how the founder of Food Rescue Hero describes the service that is connecting surplus food supply to those who can put it to good use. The service takes on a growing crisis of food insecurity while also diverting food from landfills. The initial pilot was created in Pittsburg, where a team of experts created an app to redirect surplus food from restaurants and events to nonprofits that can get the food where it is most needed. A network of volunteers is notified when deliveries in their area are ready for pickup without much inconvenience to their daily routines.