Reduce Gun Violence With Jobs

Solutions Journalism NetworkDecember 5, 2020May 19, 2025021 mins

In 2015, when Arne Duncan moved back to Chicago after serving as President Obama’s education secretary, he set out on a listening tour of perhaps the least listened-to young men in America: Shooters.

The Growing Movement to Send Counselors — Not Cops — to Mental Health Crises

Solutions Journalism NetworkOctober 31, 2020May 20, 2025016 mins

On September 13, a police officer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, fatally shot a man in the midst of a mental health crisis. The family of the 27-year-old victim, Ricardo Muñoz, said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but hadn’t been taking his medication.

Who ya gonna call? Remote learning helpline for teachers…and parents

Solutions Journalism NetworkOctober 25, 2020May 20, 2025013 mins

Not long after schools closed because of the coronavirus last spring, a Rhode Island nonprofit launched a hotline for teachers who were struggling to launch new technology for remote leaning and trying to figure out how to teach with it. Within a few weeks, hundreds of teachers — and eventually parents, too — were flooding the line with calls for help

Truth and Redistribution: How to fix the racial wealth gap, end plutocracy, and build Black power.

Solutions Journalism NetworkOctober 3, 2020May 22, 2025025 mins

In a nutshell, our racial dilemma is grounded in a political, economic, and identity-based devaluing of Black lives that has persisted ever since the first enslaved African arrived in Jamestown in 1619. The ensuing history of the United States is built on both racial and economic injustice, two related but distinct problems. These racial and economic injustices, while entrenched, can be addressed.

Toward a Cure: Cities Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis

Solutions Journalism NetworkSeptember 20, 2020May 27, 2025018 mins

“We can see the impact when we look at Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and many others,” says Dr. Tracie Collins, dean of The University of New Mexico College of Population Health. “The racism really warrants attention, it warrants prevention, diagnosis, and treatment like any other crisis.”

Black History Instruction Gets New Emphasis in Many States

Solutions Journalism NetworkSeptember 12, 2020May 28, 2025016 mins

Black history instruction tends to focus on three areas — enslavement, the Civil War and the civil rights movement — and often is shoehorned into Black History Month in February, the shortest month of the year. Now some states, schools and teachers are moving to infuse the Black experience into the broader social studies curriculum.

How Public Banking Could Make Black Lives Matter

Solutions Journalism NetworkAugust 7, 2020June 4, 2025014 mins

Today, white families have thirteen times the wealth of Black ones—a gap that persists at every educational level. Black household’s average net wealth is $11,000, compared to a white household average of $141,900. How did this happen?