Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Reviving the Cherokee Language Is a Full-Time Job – Literally

    The Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program is an immersion program that pays adults to learn the Cherokee language, which is quickly disappearing yet important for preserving Cherokee culture. The program requires 40 hours a week for two years and participants are paid $10 per hour as an incentive to focus on their studies. When creating the curriculum, the Cherokee Nation looked to other Native Nations with initiatives to preserve Native cultures and languages. The program has grown over the past six years and now, when fully filled, has 32 participants taking part in the two-year program.

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  • In a Mafia Stronghold, This Cooking School Is Stirring the Pot

    Italy's first tuition-free cooking school gives unemployed young people in the economically challenged region of Calabria a career path – and a culturally resonant alternative to working for the region's organized crime syndicate, the 'Ndrangheta. The school, Uno Chef per Elena e Pietro, surrounds cooking instruction with an appreciation for food culture and farming. Besides the extortion, kidnappings, and murder that the Calabrian Mafia uses, it also launders money by infiltrating farming and the food business.

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  • Next Step goes to the front lines of gun violence in Minneapolis, starting with the shooting victims

    Next Step is a hospital-based violence intervention program based at Minneapolis' Hennepin County Medical Center that counsels gunshot victims to try to help lower the chances that they will be harmed again or seek to harm others. Focusing on young adults and their families, the program starts its work when a victim is hospitalized. The counseling and connections to support services can continue for months and even years.

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  • St. Louis comedian shares story of redemption, reentry following prison sentence

    When people emerge from long prison sentences, they can be in a hurry to put their lives back on track. But, when enrolled in a voluntary re-entry program called the Concordance Academy of Leadership, they first must go through intense mental health counseling that begins while they're incarcerated before they launch a search for a job or permanent housing. The St. Louis-based program boasts much lower-than-average recidivism rates, in part because it responds to post-release mistakes with more counseling rather than automatic punishment.

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  • Local group gives LGBTQ, BIPOC communities and allies inclusive recovery space

    Diversity in Recovery created an inclusive space for the LGBTQ community, Black and Indigenous people, people of color, and allies, many of whom report negative experiences because of their race, sexuality, and/or gender in other recovery groups. The group provides a safe and affirming space to support each other in recovery and discuss issues that also impact recovery, including conversations about trauma and current events, such as racial injustices and political insurrections. Because of Coivd-19, the group meets twice a week on Zoom, which has enabled people from outside the city to attend.

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  • A Heavy Blow: The Pandemic's Impact on Domestic Violence

    Domestic Violence Intervention Services supports domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. Services include counseling, legal advocacy, and group meetings among others. A texting service allows people to subtly connect to advocates, which was crucial during COVID-19 lockdowns and certified interpreters are available. Services are tailored to special populations, like immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ survivors, individuals who are incarcerated, and rural populations. An intensive year-long intervention program works with convicted offenders to develop coping mechanisms and tools to change behaviors.

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  • Almost a year after opening, Compass House provides direction amid safe surroundings

    Compass House provides safety and support for women, many of them newly released from incarceration, who struggle with substance misuse issues or mental illness. The transitional housing program is the first of its kind in a state that is sorely lacking in such services. Peer support and professional counseling and treatment can last a year or more. The women in the program, who are at high risk of homelessness without a refuge like Compass House, pay 30% of their income for rent, with the rest of the costs covered by a state agency.

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  • Inmates are learning to be their own bosses after they leave jail behind

    Inmates to Entrepreneurs has graduated 1 million people from its eight-week program that teaches incarcerated people how to start their own low-capital businesses. An extension of a free online entrepreneurship course, Starter U, the program offered in-person workshops until COVID forced it to go virtual. One study shows the unemployment rate in December 2020 for formerly incarcerated people was more than 27%, more than four times higher than the general public. Inmates to Entrepreneurs was started 28 years ago in North Carolina's prison system.

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  • How Covid turbocharged the QR revolution

    Quick Response (QR) codes have become a popular way to conduct contactless business, and even contact tracing, during the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurants and retail stores allow customers to order and pay by scanning the codes with their smart devices, which pulls funds from payment accounts like PayPal, or their bank account, debit, or credit card. Public health agencies in the UK display QR codes that people can scan to “check in” and if someone tests positive for Covid-19 at that location people who scanned the code within 21 days are notified. QR codes hold massive amounts of data reliably and cheaply.

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  • Plotting the future: the ‘seed guardians' bringing variety to UK gardens

    Hundreds of seed-saving initiatives across the UK support the cultivation of “open pollinated seeds” in small plots and gardens to preserve future seed diversity. In contrast to static seeds in a bank, these seed-saving efforts focus on actually growing and sustaining seeds to provide security and more resilient crops. Open pollinated seeds reliably produce viable, true-to-type plants year after year so new seeds do not have to be purchased every season. Many “seed-savers” participate in seed circles where they exchange surplus seeds among small groups, enhancing the security and diversity of seeds.

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