Alaska Gives Cash To Citizens Every Year. The Rest Of The U.S. Could Too.

The unemployment crisis is a hard thing to solve - businesses sometimes have no choice but to let workers go. An innovative program tries to prevent joblessness by temporarily paying a portion of workers’ salaries at struggling companies.

In a pilot program in a Canadian city, the working poor were given monthly cash supplements to their income. The recipients did not stop working and were able to access opportunities to make a better living long term.

To address the food insecurity problem among its low-income students, Columbia University launched Swipes, a meal sharing app in which students with a surplus of “meal swipes” could donate them to students in need. But when that app struggled to function and roll out properly, Columbia looked downtown to New York University, where student Jon Chin launched a similarly purposed but more effectively designed app, Share Meals. So far, the app has enabled over a thousand meal donations, and is hoping to work with Columbia to share its code and expand its donor services.

Mitigating homelessness on Los Angeles' infamous "Skid Row" comprises myriad obstacles. But a collaboration between city officials, a USC architecture class project, and the Skid Row Housing Trust has responded with a multi-pronged solution in "pod-style" housing units. They have composed a cost-effective pre-fab design technology that eases their transportation, on-site construction and visual imposition on a neighborhood, while the pods' zoning classification as "congregant housing" minimizes the risk for local opposition to homeless support services on claims of structural or aesthetic noncompliance.

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.

Clarke County School District in Georgia has 21 public schools that all offer free meals to students, regardless of their financial needs. This is facilitated through a federally-funded program, so even though poverty rates are high in the area, local residents are not footing the bill. While there are still some challenges implementing the program, in general it is received well and allows students to focus on their work and well-being instead of being distracted by hunger.

Europe's generous social policies, such as allowing employees to retain their salaries while taking sick time to care for themselves or family members, may help to mitigate the coronavirus outbreak while also safeguarding the economy. Although the long-term impacts are yet unknown, in the short term, government-provided incentives are helping people and businesses stay afloat.

Intercultural city workers act as bridges between public institutions and the Arab, Moldovan/Romanian, and Russian-speaking, and Vietnamese communities. They accompany clients to government offices, where their presence makes officials more open to working them, and also to healthcare visits. The workers conduct field visits, communicate via social media, and form relationships with prominent community members. They foster inclusion by helping immigrant communities learn the social norms while also informing public institutions about the social needs of the communities.

Integrační centra jsou v Česku často podfinancovaná, nejsou dostupná všem potřebným a zaměřují se především na tlumočení. Brno přišlo se změnou. Tamní magistrát do své struktury přímo zakomponoval supinu interkulturních pracovníků, která pomáhá s integrací cizinců. Její členové vytváří pomyslný most mezi veřejnými institucemi a zástupci cizineckých komunit. Pracují jak v terénu v rámci komunit, tak prostřednictví sociálních sítí. Podporují začlenění imigrantů do společnosti tím, že jim pomáhají osvojit si místní sociální normy, a zároveň informují instituce o jejich potřebách.

The Hounslow council sent £20 vouchers to every household to help the local economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Households had about two months to spend the voucher, which could purchase products or services at a range of businesses from cafes and cinemas to retailers and laundromats. Retailers can use an app to scan the vouchers and eventually redeem them for payments.