Institutions and individuals attempting to reinvigorate American democracy and promote more inclusive, transparent, and efficient government. From hyper-partisanship to disinformation, our democracy is under threat. These stories explore how communities across the country are responding to issues at the heart of our democracy through civic engagement, electoral and political reform, and government innovation.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/may/01/slay-the-dragon-film-gerrymandering
Adrian Horton
The Guardian
1 May 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
In a time of extreme division in American politics, one documentary is highlighting an issue both sides agree is an issue--gerrymandering. As contorted districts have made elections pointless in many Michigan elections, the grassroots group Voters Not Politicians, featured in a recent documentary Slay the Dragon, worked to establish an independent, public citizen's commission for redistricting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/opinion/i-served-my-prison-time-why-do-i-still-have-to-pay.html
Courtney E. Martin
The New York Times
30 April 2019
1500-3000 Words
In 2018, San Francisco county forgave $32 million worth of criminal justice administrative fees. These fees are issued to formerly incarcerated individuals upon release from prison, most of which are not employed and without stable housing. The coalition pursuing this policy change cited economic justice for those that have already paid their societal debt and an overall state savings in collection costs as the primary reasons to end this practice.
https://coloradosun.com/2019/04/18/fruita-swastika-inclusivity
Nancy Lofholm
The Colorado Sun
18 April 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
A small city in Colorado turned an act of bigotry — someone publicly flying a Nazi flag — into an opportunity for growth for the city. Fruita considers itself a welcoming, inclusive community, so they seized upon this opportunity to pass an Inclusivity Proclamation. The proclamation affirms their commitment to defeating prejudice and also added inclusivity as a part of their next city planning strategy.
https://hechingerreport.org/what-happens-when-students-are-given-a-say-in-school-budgets
Caroline Preston
The Hechinger Report
12 April 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
This year, New York City's Department of Education introduced participatory budgeting in 48 public schools to bolster civics education and create a more transparent budgeting process. At Veritas Academy in Queens, students conducted research, consulted teachers, and prepared pitches in pursuit of the $2,000 of the annual budget available; in the end it was a close race between a greenhouse, multi-purpose studio, and filtered water fountain.
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.
https://www.thetrace.org/2019/04/illinois-lawmakers-want-to-fingerprint-gun-buyers
Brian Freskos
The Trace
9 April 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Following a mass shooting in Aurora, IL, lawmakers are introducing legislation that could make it harder for guns to be obtained by those who shouldn’t have them. The legislation proposes requiring fingerprints prior to obtaining a concealed carry license – allowing agencies to conduct more accurate and thorough background checks.
https://www.civicstory.org/civics-blog/2019/4/3/how-a-bipartisan-caucus-aimed-to-change-us-house-rules
Tina Kelley
CivicStory
4 April 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Shortly following the 2018 Midterm elections in the U.S. House of Representatives, a group of legislators known as the Problem Solvers Caucus used their numbers to change House rules easing the passage of bipartisan legislation. After working to build consensus on issues like health care, infrastructure, gun control, and immigration since 2013, the congressional membership organization noticed that their bipartisan bills often did not receive a fair chance due to the significant power that Speaker and committee chairs held in deciding which bills advanced. Their "Break the Gridlock" reforms changed that.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/das-have-this-blueprint-for-rethinking-criminal-justice
Emily Nonko
Next City
28 March 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
Formerly incarcerated individuals, community leaders, and members of San Francisco’s District Attorney’s office, have joined forces to create a collaborative advisory board. The board meets to share re-entry challenges and successes, discuss the DA's work, and develop a deeper understanding of systemic crime in the city. From conversations about mental health to poverty, members are helping create new policies and opportunities for those still incarcerated.
https://www.bustle.com/p/ariana-grande-is-registering-voters-on-her-sweetener-tour-to-say-thank-u-next-gen-photos-16966615
Alani Vargas
Bustle
22 March 2019
Text / Under 800 Words
In an attempt to encourage voter turnout, Ariana Grande set up tables at concerts on her tour where fans could register to vote, or receive text alerts reminders for those who already had. The "ThankUNextGen" campaign, which plays on one of her song titles, has helped motivate younger voters.
https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/ideas-we-should-steal-voter-turnout-contest
Alyssa Biederman
The Philadelphia Citizen
21 March 2019
Text / Under 800 Words
In South Jersey's Cumberland County, election officials played on one of the state's oldest football rivalries to increase voter turnout by launching the Turnout Trophy. The competition put fourteen towns against each other to get the highest percentage of eligible voters to the polls. All towns except for one scored above the national average for voter turnout when the dust of the competition--and election--settled.
https://india.mongabay.com/2019/03/a-womens-squad-in-odisha-defends-its-forest-for-20-years
Sahana Ghosh
Mongabay
21 March 2019
Multi-Media / 1500-3000 Words
Biodiversity and forest cover in Gundalba rebounded after a women-led group started using whistles and rotational patrols to scare away timber smugglers and woodcutters. The group also helped neighboring villages coordinate fuelwood gathering and avoid conflicts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/opinion/it-takes-a-friend-to-get-a-friend-to-vote.html
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
19 March 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
A suite of new voting apps are bringing new technologies to old organizing methods, like asking (or shaming) friends to vote and finding community leaders to encourage voter turnout. These old methods, now called "relational organizing," are coming back into fashion in an age of impersonal elections, when strangers often reach out to strangers to ask them to vote and campaigns spend millions on Facebook and television ads.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/03/14/new-york-city-s-bail-success-story
Eli Hager
The Marshall Project
14 March 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Around the country, states like California, New Jersey, and Maryland are implementing legislation that eliminates the cash bail system. While this is one way of addressing that system’s growing unpopularity, New York City has recognized a different approach. By taking advantage of a growing cultural shift in how individuals think about bail, jail time, and criminal justice reform at large, the city has seen an organic decrease in the use of cash bail within courtrooms and judges’ decisions.
https://newrepublic.com/article/153062/crime-parenting-poor-new-york-city-child-welfare-agency-reform
Kathryn Joyce
The New Republic
25 February 2019
Text / Over 3000 Words
New York City's child welfare agency is trying once again to combat its "reputation for unjustly targeting low-income families of color" by piloting child care centers that are set up to help families feel respected and prepared to succeed. Although the impact of these programs has not been confirmed yet, the approach learns from past failures to deal with the systemic oppression it has perpetuated.
https://apolitical.co/solution_article/australia-is-building-community-alternatives-to-prisons-they-work
Lorana Bartels
Apolitical
22 February 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
With their national imprisonment rate on the rise, Australia is pivoting to a justice reinvestment strategy that diverts money towards "early intervention, prevention and diversion." Although this has yet to be implemented on a large scale, small projects are underway in parts of the country and have delivered promising results.
https://apolitical.co/solution_article/importance-of-early-engagement
Amanda Bernardo
Apolitical
22 February 2019
Text / Under 800 Words
When designing policies, user engagement is an essential part of obtaining feedback and raising awareness among the very people that the policies are intended to impact. One small government team in Canada, the Next Generation HR an Pay Team, also contends that user engagement must come early on in the process to allow for course correction.
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/19/692322738/scrubbing-the-past-to-give-those-with-a-criminal-record-a-second-chance
Eric Westervelt
Barbara Brosher
NPR
19 February 2019
Radio / 1500-3000 Words
Indiana's Second Chance law was passed in 2013 and allows people to petition to remove their misdemeanor convictions and arrests from public view. In Marion County alone, more than 11,500 people have visited the full-time paralegal processing all requests since legislators implemented the law. Many of those visitors speak with relief about the newfound opportunities that have come their way since the dismantling of that barrier. This is part of a growing movement in the US to reimagine the existing criminal justice system that creates far more problems than it solves.
https://thisisafrica.me/nigeria-kenya-senegal-provide-solutions-in-anti-fgm-fight
Patrick Egwu
This is Africa
15 February 2019
Text / Over 3000 Words
To combat the persistence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Africa, communities band together to spread awareness through film, religious outlets, community gatherings, and other creative means of education. While FGM is still prevalent in areas that believe it to be an important traditional practice, individuals and groups across Nigeria, Kenya, and Senegal have reduced the practice of FGM in their areas.
https://psmag.com/social-justice/native-american-rights-groups-are-gearing-up-to-fight-voter-suppression-in-2020
Massoud Hayoun
Pacific Standard
14 February 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
A variety of reasons can make it hard for Native Americans to vote. Voter ID laws that require proof of address prohibit some Native American nations without formal addresses. And often polling places are situated too far from nations to begin with. But an organization called Four Directions fights this disenfranchisement by encouraging election commissions to lessen the financial, legal, and travel burdens on Native Americans who want to vote.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/nyregion/sexual-harassment-ny-legislature.html
Vivian Yang
The New York Times
12 February 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
After 11 months of calls to employment lawyers and civil rights groups, legal proceedings, and recommended reforms to current legislation, seven women of the Sexual Harassment Working Group, all of whom are survivors, have successfully forced the New York's lawmakers to hold the first public hearing on sexual harassment since 1992. The members of the working group see the hearing as an important first step in reckoning with Albany's checkered past.
https://coloradosun.com/2019/02/06/cities-across-colorado-saw-how-gentrification-impacted-denver-theyre-trying-to-avoid-the-same-pitfalls
Kevin Simpson
The Colorado Sun
6 February 2019
Text / Over 3000 Words
As gentrification drives involuntary displacement in Denver, Colorado, the city planners elsewhere in Colorado aim to avoid the same fate by instituting policy safeguards. Fort Collins has put in extra protection for mobile home parks, one of the only viable housing options for low-income residents, and another city program controls utility costs.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/04/picture-clue-cops-turn-to-amateur-web-sleuths-to-help-crack-cases
Senay Boztas
The Guardian
4 February 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, otherwise known as Europol, is using crowdsourcing to identify locations involved in both past and current child abuse cases. By posting unedited images online and asking for tips to help identify the clue, tens of thousands of emails have been sent in by individuals and groups which has lead to the identification of nine victims and potentially stopped repeat offenders.
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900053712/overhaul-of-utahs-public-defender-system-a-huge-benefit-for-juab-county.html
Annie Knox
Deseret News
2 February 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
In 2016, the state of Utah took control over the funding model for individual county's legal defenders in order to better use resources. Thanks to the restructuring, in just a year, counties have seen noticeable increases in both manpower and budgets which not only betters the public defenders, but also those they're defending.
https://www.hcn.org/articles/letter-from-california-on-the-ground-pollution-data-stricter-zoning-in-los-angeles
Ruxandra Guidi
High Country News
31 January 2019
Text / 800-1500 Words
In Boyle Heights, a working class neighborhood of Los Angeles, members of the community have taken to the streets armed with clipboards and pens to document environmental hazards, zoning violations, and and other things that endanger their fellow residents. They then took this on-the-ground information, which they called "ground truths," to local politicians to advocate for change.
https://www.klcc.org/post/native-american-tribes-gaining-recognition-timber-and-forestry-practices
Brian Bull
KLCC
30 January 2019
Radio / 5-15 Minutes
Native American tribes in Oregon have garnered attention for their sustainable forest preservation, especially since recent national legislation passed that gave thousands of acres of land land back to several Native American tribes. Dedication to the land over short-term profit has allowed these forests to thrive. By using techniques that promote longevity of wildlife, these forests are cost effective and managed to last.
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