How A COVID-19 ‘Rapid Response Team' In Chicago Is Working To Fix Decades Of Neglect In Black, Latinx Communities

Neighborhood Centers, a Houston anti-poverty program has a simple philosophy: “The people are the asset, the source of potential solutions, not the problem.” The non-profit has scaled nationally, employing its bottom-up approach to disburse funds in poor communities.

Neighborhoods in Chicago suffer from gang violence and gun-related deaths. A church leader and a physician trained in infectious diseases created Cure Violence, a program that sends teams of local residents to meet with gang leaders as a means of producing positive behavioral change by re-setting social norms. Their approach has reduced violence between 40% and 70%.

In 2014, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that gang-related crime had dropped by nearly half since 2008. The transformation of LA holds lessons for decreasing violent crime through community policing, a focus on gangs, and the use of CompStat.

Juvenile offenders can feel as though they have no chances for a good future. Volunteers of America’s Face Forward 2 program helps young people in Cleveland to complete their education and to find employment. With this program, juvenile offenders believe they can succeed.

The Queensbridge Houses, one of the nation's largest public housing projects, is celebrating more than one year without a shooting in what Mayor de Blasio called "a year of golden silence." Security measures such as the implementing of lights and cameras, combined with the creation of the 696 Queensbridge, a team of ex-convicts who patrol the area, has greatly reduced violence in the area.

Dorchester, the Boston neighborhood with the highest poverty levels, struggles to keep kids in school from engaging with gangs and crime. But College Bound Dorchester (CBD) is fast rewriting the solution to high drop out and recidivism rates, paying ex-offenders a weekly stipend to enroll in and complete a diploma program and proceed to (and through) college. With "core influencers" -- ex-gang members who have "left behind their troubled pasts" -- as role models in the community, CBD emulates similar programs in Chicago and Baltimore, and studies show the initiative is working.

Years of misrule and a subsequent dearth of hard currency, along with crippling bank-fostered debt cycles and exorbitant home mortgage interest rates, have created immense suffering for Myanmar's poor. But with the guidance of a local NGO, Women for the World, a pilot project helped women in some of Yangon's poorest neighborhoods capitalize on their cultural "head-of-household" status; by forming and managing community savings cooperatives, the women have instilled trust through local control and, above all, enabled members to secure land, build homes, buy food, and even generate profit through loans to families' business enterprises.

Women in El Salvador have long faced the extreme challenges of having fewer economic and social rights than men, making it difficult to survive when tragedy - such as an earthquake - strikes. The Romero community, which comprises of 90% women, is providing protection and community for women where they help each other survive.

Anita, Iowa faced many of the same challenges as other small towns when the last local grocer closed amid competition with large chains like Costco and Walmart. But when its residents realized the value of a local "mom-and-pop" food purveyor to the town's economy, they created the Anita Grocery Cooperative and a board to oversee it. The Coop marks a testament to collective action, resilience, and sustainable, locally-sourced solutions.

The Kansas City neighborhood of Ivanhoe was once plagued by blight, illegal dumping, drug trade, gun violence, and neglect; neighbors lived in fear or moved away. Inspired by one compassionate and proactive family, the Youngs, the community stepped up, partnering with the local university and a charitable foundation to map out a tangible blueprint for sustainable change. They are working with police and the city council to tackle the blight and revive their neighborhood through affordable housing, park space, and a renewed sense of community.