How Facebook's Disaster Maps is helping aid organizations serve people affected by Florence

Shredded coconut husk, known as Coir, is becoming a popular material for shoreline restoration projects. It’s typically used to trap sediment while protecting vegetation and wildlife from the force of waves. Once the vegetation has several years to flourish, the natural coconut fibers will have decomposed.

Refugio, Texas was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey, leaving behind damaged houses, schools and businesses and people who can not afford to rebuild their lives. However, this town has used its community and found strength in their love of football and their support of one another to keep moving forward.

Despite advancements in technology in most sectors of life leading to an increase to access of information about practically anything, little is still known about the ocean and its behavioral patterns. Liquid Robotics – a Silicon Valley-based company – is trying to change that. Engineers here have created the "Wave Glider," which essentially acts as a router within the ocean powered by wave energy and solar panels. This invention can transmit data on tectonic activity that has the potential to predict tsunamis.

A program called the Safety Planning Intervention is reducing the occurrence of repeat suicide attempts among veterans. The program helps veterans establish a safety plan and identify a support network that they can rely on during times of crisis.

FEMA’s response to Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Irma has been the “longest sustained domestic airborne food and water mission in the nation’s history. The agency has never distributed more food or installed more generators.” However, due to bureaucracy and delayed decision making, there are still thousands of Puerto Ricans who have not received aid, or were underserved.

A modest fleet of floating schools in Bangladesh ensures children can continue getting the education they need even if their village is cut off during the rainy season. The boats pick the kids up and they have lessons on the floating schoolhouse before being returned to their villages. There are now 23 such schools in the country and the model has grown to include floating medical clinics and a combination library and playground.

Hospitals in Colorado are changing their approach to opioid crisis by treating patients that come in as emergent cases and rushing them into medication-assisted addiction treatment. The model has proved so successful that doctors are now looking to expand this approach to methamphetamine users as well.

The Wraparound Project at Zuckerman San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center turns gunshot victims' hospital stays into "a teachable moment," by providing them with services aimed at helping them avoid a repeat injury. Getting shot once is a key risk factor for a second injury, particularly for gun violence's most common victims, young Black men. Wraparound is one of the nation's oldest hospital-based violence intervention programs. It has helped about 850 clients, mostly with mental health counseling, housing, and jobs. The program is associated with a decreased reinjury rate in San Francisco.

A growing number of governments, companies, and nonprofit organizations are working together with new technology and data to identify fishing vessels that are breaking laws and engaging in human rights violations. Using satellite imagery and tracking signals, for example, a philanthropic company and a nonprofit worked with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to help the Ghanian navy arrest four vessels for illegal fishing practices. Technology by itself won’t stop forced labor and unregulated ships, but it can be helpful for cash-strapped governments looking to increase oversight of their fisheries.

The nonprofit group Save Giraffes Now, the Kenya Wildlife Service, the Northern Rangelands Trust, and local community members are working together to save the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe species. Rising lake levels and flooding have stranded the animals on its island, so they made a custom-built steel barge to relocate them to a protected wildlife reserve. It’s not easy to move giraffes, but so far they’ve successfully moved three out of nine of them.