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
The teens so addicted to phones they're going into detox
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/20/asia/smartphone-addiction-camp-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
Sophie Jeong
CNN
21 October 2019
Multi-Media / 800-1500 Words
For those struggling with smartphone addiction, detox and counseling can prove beneficial. In South Korea, the government’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, alongside partners like the National Center for Youth Internet Addiction and the Youth Counseling and Welfare Center provide teens and elementary school students with detox programs to address the issue of internet and smartphone addiction. The students can attend summer camps where they switch off their phones, participate in activities, and attend counseling.
How Telehealth Gives A Rural School More Mental Health Services
https://www.sideeffectspublicmedia.org/post/how-telehealth-gives-rural-school-more-mental-health-services
Carter Barrett
WFYI
18 October 2019
Text / Under 800 Words
In rural areas, gaining access to mental health care can be difficult, but is made even more challenging for students. To combat this, a farming and manufacturing town in Indiana is piloting telehealth access in schools that offers students the opportunity to connect with therapists via video chat.
On air: The live radio show tackling mental health taboos
https://www.pioneerspost.com/business-school/20191018/on-air-the-live-radio-show-tackling-mental-health-taboos
Anna Patton
Pioneers Post
18 October 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
Based out of the city of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, a live radio show is tackling the stigma around mental health care by combining their platform with those in the mental health care field. Not only does the radio show discuss psychological issues on air, but it also offers free and reduced-cost mental health services to those that serve as guests on the show.
Being Outside Boosts Your Health, but not Everyone Has Ample Access to Nature
https://bitterrootmag.com/2019/10/18/being-outside-boosts-your-health-but-not-everyone-has-ample-access-to-nature
Julia Hotz
Bitterroot
18 October 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
Studies have routinely shown that spending time outdoors is good for health, so programs are being implemented in the United States in order to increase children's access to getting outside. From California's Outdoor Outreach which aims to help low-income students to the Every Kid Outdoors Act initiated by Congress which eliminates fees for national park passes for fourth graders, these initiatives not only get kids outside, but also teach them social skills.
Real food challenge: Auburn University, unlike peers, requires 20% local source of dining food
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/solutions-journalism/2019/10/16/auburn-university-local-food-source-required-dining-meals/3928188002
Melissa Brown
The Montgomery Advertiser
16 October 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
Several colleges in the U.S. use a third-party corporation to manage their dining services, but Auburn University's contract is unique in that it specifies 20 percent of all food must be locally sourced. This partnership was originally born out of a student group that wanted the land-grant university to embrace its agriculture roots by including the community farming industry.
Building for Real With Digital Blocks
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/opinion/building-digital-blocks-Lego.html
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
15 October 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
To get input on city design plans from citizens without any technical knowledge, some city planners are turning to Minecraft, an easy-to-use computer game that allows users to build in a three dimensional environment. Useful for planning public spaces (rather than designing a building), Minecraft has been adopted by UN Habitat to plan everything from soccer fields in Nairobi to a riverbank in Kosovo.
From Hoarding to Healing in California
http://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-10-15/older-hoarding-patients-get-help-healing-through-in-home-program
Kelly Davis
U.S. News & World Report
15 October 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Hoarding can be a symptom of depression or an outlet for trauma, and was forcing low-income seniors out of housing in California. To address this, researchers collaborated with various agencies and organizations to offer an approach that offers both mental health help and public assistance.
Easing the Way Home for Returning Senior Citizens
https://nextcity.org/features/view/easing-the-way-home-for-returning-senior-citizens
Kate McQueen
Next City
14 October 2019
Multi-Media / Over 3000 Words
For seniors re-entering after incarceration, San Francisco’s Senior Ex-Offenders Program (SEOP) is there to help with the transition. The program offers transitional housing, employment services, and even assistance for minor things like getting a debit card or help with transportation. SEOP has partnered with the city, county, and law enforcement to strengthen its efforts, a key one being the one-on-one assistance and support groups that have shown the most impact with participants.
A Lesson for the Toy Industry's Future: Sharing
https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/a-lesson-for-the-toy-industrys-future-sharing/93617
Maroosha Muzaffar
OZY
11 October 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
Millennials are having fewer children and caring more about environmental impact, so the toy industry is now experimenting with a newly popular "toy subscription" service. Rather than accumulating mass quantities of plastic, children can now receive monthly boxes filled with toys that are designed to pique their interests and can even be themed. Parents say that children look forward to a new box each month and that the plastic consumption could be cut in half if kids share. Large companies like Amazon are now creating their own toy sharing services.
This Charcoal-Coated Seed Could Bring Kenya's Forests Back to Life
https://medium.com/the-slowdown/this-charcoal-coated-seed-could-bring-kenyas-forests-back-to-life-35d3d48661f2
Randi Eicher
The Slowdown
10 October 2019
Text / Under 800 Words
To combat the rapidly decreasing forest density in Kenya, an organization created "seedballs," or seeds from trees coated in charcoal and other nutrients that help the seeds survive long enough to germinate. The organization created a competition for schoolchildren to scatter the seeds using slingshots and encourages other creative ways to spread the seeds across the country.
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