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

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  • Income Experiment Offers Stockton Residents a Glimpse at the California Dream

    Stockton, California is piloting a closely-watched experiment with Universal Basic Income, providing a $500 allowance each month for 18 months to 125 low-income families. Preliminary data captured during the first 5 months of the pilot show how recipients spend the money, but participants report benefits beyond the financial, like lower stress levels.

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  • Finding Home: When Eviction Looms, Landlords Have Lawyers. Now More Tenants Do, Too.

    In North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County, they’ve allocated funding for tenants to have access to free legal aid, provided by Legal Aid of North Carolina, in their eviction cases. With eviction often being the start of a downward spiral, having legal representation can help people prevent or delay their evictions. Beyond funding some legal aid, the courthouse also provides residents with information about evictions and their specialty eviction court.

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  • Reducing Gun Violence

    Oakland’s Ceasefire initiative takes a collaborative, comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence. City officials, community advocates, residents, and law enforcement work together by prioritizing data analysis, multi-stakeholder gatherings, personalized social services, specialized police training, and weekly reviews of shootings and meeting with victims. While this approach has shown success, it was hard to get started and required the community to organize around demands to stop gun violence. As Philly grapples with similar issues, it looks to Oakland as a model for grassroots change.

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  • This new program lets people text to access government food aid

    Simplifying the enrollment process makes the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) more accessible to those who qualify. In Anchorage, Alaska, a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies funded a pilot program to help residents enroll in SNAP via text message. Instead of a complicated process, residents can simply text to receive information and begin their enrollment process.

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  • $1,000 a month, no strings attached

    A pilot program in Jackson, Mississippi called Springboard to Opportunities is providing 20 single, African-American mothers living in public housing with $1000 a month, with no stipulations on how that money should be spent. The experiment so far has allowed mothers to save money, avoid predatory loans, pay off loans, and consider classes and higher education.

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  • Atlanta refused to give up on homelessness. It's working.

    Atlanta has seen a decline in rates of people experiencing homelessness from 2008-2018, a trend that is particularly meaningful as other cities contend with stubbornly high numbers. Part of the solution? A new source of more flexible and consistent funding allowing non-profits to provide the assistance needed and help get people into permanent supportive housing.

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  • In wealthy Silicon Valley, a $500 million plan to save threatened farmland

    In Santa Clara County, California, the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation program is funding an effort to prevent development and bolster agriculture on local farmland. The County, home to Silicon Valley, purchases land at market prices to protect it from development, incentivize agriculture, and prevent sprawl. While still in the beginning stages, the county looking long-term to see how this program will be financially sustainable.

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  • In Seattle, A Move Across Town Could Be A Path Out Of Poverty

    Pioneering research has indicated that encouraging low-income families to move to "higher opportunity" neighborhoods improves long-term outcomes for their children. A pilot program in Seattle aims to put this to the test, providing services and support for families who have managed to land a housing choice voucher and move to what researchers have deemed high opportunity neighborhoods. Early results are promising, although questions about longer-term impacts and questions about those "left behind" in lower-opportunity neighborhoods remain.

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  • America has a housing segregation problem. Seattle may just have the solution.

    A group of economics researchers and county officials in the Seattle area teamed up to create a more comprehensive approach to housing vouchers. Rather than simply provide a rental voucher, the city piloted a program that included information about the city's areas of economic and social opportunity, increasing the number of families that moved into higher-economic regions of the city.

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  • A ‘Second Chance' After 27 Years in Prison: How Criminal Justice Helped an Ex-Inmate Graduate

    Since 2016, the Second Chance Pell program has been providing financial aid for those experiencing incarceration to pursue a college education. Started under the Obama administration, it has gained bipartisan support and traction in the Trump administration as well. Considering 90% of incarcerated individuals will be released, the Second Chance Pell program serves as a demonstrated commitment to reduce recidivism and mass incarceration.

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