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  • Gamification in Urban Planning: Participation Through Minecraft

    November 03, 2020 |

    Urbanet |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Sweden

    Urban planning using gamification is a viable way of engaging diverse parts of the population and placing people and communities at the center of the process. “Block by Block” is a collaboration between UN Habitat and the game company Mojang that holds participatory workshops, where people design public spaces using the game Minecraft. Over 25,000 people from diverse backgrounds and age groups have participated. Professional advisers are present and they adjust the designs for implementation. The method has been used by the City of Stockholm and to create the first skatepark in Kosovo.

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  • Take Me Out To The Ballot Box

    November 03, 2020 |

    FiveThirtyEight |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    The coronavirus made cramped or high-risk polling locations untenable so at least 39 sports arenas have opened up their facilities for voting. Their expansive size allows them to welcome large numbers of voters while maintaining social distancing protocols. Many are outdoors, which lowers the risk of transmitting the virus even further. Prompted by calls from athletes, arena owners’ site the summer’s racial-justice demonstrations as inspiration for supplying the spaces since voting is a key way to create definitive changes. Voters were thrilled to cast their ballots in a sports arena.

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  • The cycle of punitive justice starts in schools. Eric Butler is showing kids and teachers how to break it.

    November 01, 2020 |

    Mother Jones |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Selma, Alabama

    Hundreds of schools nationwide use restorative justice to respond to student disciplinary problems differently. In place of police, arrests, and suspensions, restorative practices emphasize conflict mediation through dialogue, asking how to hold people accountable without necessarily punishing them. Such programs have helped reduce suspensions and referrals to criminal or juvenile courts markedly, and reduced racial disparities. This story follows one man, a formerly incarcerated murder victim's brother, as he takes on the difficult task of introducing restorative practices to punishment-minded schools.

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  • Chennai Ran Out of Water — But That's Only Half the Story

    October 30, 2020 |

    bioGraphic |

    Multi-Media |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: India, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

    The city of Chennai in India is engaging in wetlands restoration and stormwater management by using traditional knowledge and community action to reduce flooding and ensure that people have access to drinking water. Through a development program called Water as Leverage, they are implementing “slow water” projects that restore flow paths for water, which could provide greater water resiliency for humans and protect and restore natural ecosystems. While it can be difficult to get government engineers to embrace green solutions, public awareness of the environmental work is helping move the projects forward.

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  • King County hospitals are making sure patients can vote

    October 30, 2020 |

    Crosscut |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Hospitals in King County launched programs to help inpatients register to vote and cast their ballot. Some adopted VotER, a program that sets up voter registration kiosks and QR codes that can be scanned for voting information. If inpatients don't have someone who can bring them their ballots, hospital staff can print them online. Since the state has universal mail-in voting with ballot boxes that anyone can drop ballots in, hospital staff also helped deliver ballots. With health care policy often on the ballot, helping patients vote is another way healthcare professionals care for their patients.

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  • #EndSARS: Inside Nigeria's Fight to End Police Brutality

    October 29, 2020 |

    Yes! Magazine |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Nigeria, Lagos

    Modeled in part on America's Black Lives Matter protest movement, Nigerian protests against brutality and extortion committed by the police have in a brief time attracted uncommon levels of support across ethnic and religious lines. The government responded by disbanding the primary focus of the protests, its notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), and made other concessions. Protesters say these steps, while welcomed, might easily be undercut by government intransigence. So they have vowed to continue pressing for reform of the Nigeria Police Force.

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  • We can't vote in San Quentin prison. So we held a mock election

    October 28, 2020 |

    The Guardian |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Quentin, California

    Two men incarcerated at San Quentin prison tell how the men incarcerated there held a mock presidential election, despite a pandemic-related lockdown and prison officials' failure to distribute ballots that had been sent to the prison. Using handwritten ballots, the "voters," denied their actual voting rights by the state, managed to cast 176 mock votes (heavily favoring Joe Biden) by distributing the ballots during limited time outside their cells. Voting gave the men the opportunity to express their views, not just by checking a box but by adding comments on their ballots.

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  • Bus Stop Shakespeare

    October 26, 2020 |

    Transitions Online |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Poland, Gdansk

    A program at the Gdansk Shakespeare Theater in Poland is creating job opportunities for people with Down syndrome after partnering with the city and a local foundation that supports job training and coaching for special-needs individuals. The project has not just benefited the participants – patrons of the company as well as other businesses are realizing "that people with Down syndrome who have the appropriate skills can prove themselves at work."

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  • Nigerians don't trust the government to respond to emergency calls. So they created apps instead.

    October 24, 2020 |

    Rest of World |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Nigeria

    Fearful and distrustful of corrupt and abusive police forces, Nigerians by the thousands have downloaded locally developed mobile apps like Sety and Aabo to call friends for help during abductions or other emergencies. These first-responder apps feature panic buttons that alert contacts or people nearby during an emergency. The app makers do not share usage data, but users say they feel safer by having such apps available if they are harassed by the police or in need of protection from an attack.

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  • To Recognize Misinformation in Media, Teach a Generation While It's Young

    October 23, 2020 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    Media Literacy Now is a nonprofit aimed at combatting misinformation, especially on social media platforms, and lobbying for media literacy education in schools. The organization was started by Erin McNeill in 2013 and played a hand in the formation of 30 bills in 18 states. The organization also provides resources on its website, including toolkits for teachers to incorporate media literacy in their lessons, and templates for emails and letters people can send to their local officials in support of increased media literacy in schools.

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