Is There a Formula to Creating an Anti-Racist School?
RISE students pose at graduation. (Photo courtesy of RISE Schools) From the fiery debate about critical race theory to stormy school board meetings and the uncertainty of schooling in a deadly...
View ArticleHear Us: We Are Reclaiming Our Political Power in the Struggle for Progress
A quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" on the wall of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. (Photo by J.G. Park / public domain) EDITOR’S NOTE: “Hear Us”...
View ArticleMilwaukee Fund Fuels 100 Black-Owned Businesses
Milwaukee City Hall (Photo by Casey Eisenrich / CC BY-NC 2.0) One-hundred businesses in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will soon get an independent stimulus thanks to the PNC Foundation’s $600,000 grant for...
View ArticleAmid Calls to Defund the Police, Many Mayors Are Still Relying on Cops to...
A homeless camp surrounds the Bellingham, Washington, City Hall in December 2020. (Photo by Robert Ashworth / CC BY 2.0) How much control does your mayor have over the issue of homelessness? From the...
View ArticleHousing in Brief: Big Profit, Big Questions Surround New York Eviction Relief...
(Mural artist unknown; photo by Dave R / CC BY-NC 2.0) Private Company Distributing New York’s Eviction Prevention Money Claims Large Profits The Washington Post released audio of the CEO of...
View ArticleMaking Music, Changing Lives: Youth Orchestras Help At-Risk Kids
(Photo by Julio Rionaldo on Unsplash) Bethany Uhler Thompson didn’t know what to expect when she decided to start a youth string orchestra at Chatham Youth Development Center. She was inspired by her...
View ArticleEconomics in Brief: NYC Amazon Workers Move One Step Closer to Unionization
(Photo by Scott Lewis / CC BY 2.0) NYC Amazon Workers Earn Sufficient Support to Hold a Union Election Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island have earned sufficient interest to hold a union...
View ArticlePhilly’s Queer Doula Collective Is Helping LGBTQ Parents Navigate the Health...
Zach Strassburger, right, with their wife and three kids. (Image courtesy Zach Strassburger) Giving birth in a modern hospital can leave new parents frustrated, or even traumatized. The experience can...
View ArticleThe Bronx Apartment Fire Is No Surprise to Me. I Was a NYC Renter.
(Photo by Zach Korb / CC BY-NC 2.0) An electric heater wasn’t the true cause of the fire that blazed through the Twin Parks North West in the Bronx earlier this month. It was poor legislation and lack...
View ArticleHow Midwives and Doulas Are Working to End Birth Disparities
(kali9/iStock Photo) Angela Phillips had been in labor for almost three days when her doctors began to pressure her to have a C-section. There wasn’t a medical reason other than the fact that her...
View ArticleWith Donations as Small as $20, Land Trust Makes $9.4M Affordable Housing Buy...
San Francisco Community Land Trust plans to convert 285 Turk Street into a limited-equity housing cooperative. (Courtesy of San Francisco Community Land Trust) It always seemed impossible, until it...
View ArticleWorker-Owned Corn Processing Co-Op Planting Seeds in the Philly Region
South Philly Barbacoa staff In the village back in Guatemala where she grew up, Lesly Lopez remembers grinding corn into masa was a daily activity. It’s the same in many villages across Central and...
View ArticleFor Some Afghan Refugees, Sewing Machines Provide Needed Sense of Normalcy
(Photo by jackmac34/Pixabay) Since Kabul fell to the Taliban last summer after the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, more than 76,000 Afghans have resettled in the U.S. Like all refugees,...
View ArticleEssential Workers in the Bronx Are Getting an E-Bike Boost
NYC essential workers pose with their new e-bikes subsidized by Spring Bank through the Equitable Commute Project. (Photo courtesy of Spring Bank) Solomon Smart has been biking to his work as senior...
View ArticleTaste the Diaspora Is Building an Equitable Foodway in Black Detroit, One...
Founders of Taste the Diaspora (from left) Raphael Wright, Jermond Booze and Ederique Goudia during a trip to Louisiana in September 2021 (Photo by Valaurian Carter, Val Waller Photography) On a...
View ArticleSustainability Group Helps Low-Income Homeowners With House Repairs,...
(Photo by Bru-nO/Pixabay) With over 60,000 homeowners living in poverty, the housing crisis in Philadelphia is only growing. Philly was already the U.S.’s poorest big city (with a poverty rate of...
View ArticleHousing in Brief: Human Rights Watch Identifies Risks to Public Housing Tenants
(Photo by Jonathan McIntosh, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons) Human Rights Watch Identifies Risks to Public Housing Tenants A report from Human Rights Watch found that the federal government’s Rental...
View ArticlePennsylvania CDFI Network Finds Power in Numbers
Pennsylvania CDFI Network Executive Director Varsovia Fernandez (Photo courtesy of Varsovia Fernandez) As the first executive director of the Pennsylvania CDFI Network, Varsovia Fernandez is excited...
View ArticleEconomics in Brief: Philadelphia to Try Guaranteed Income Program
(Photo by ByteForByte / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Philadelphia to Try Guaranteed Income Program Philadelphia will give up to 60 people $500 a month for a year in a basic income pilot program set to begin as...
View ArticleHow ‘Cool Roofs’ Are Helping Women Earn More in India
(Photo by Emmanuel DYAN / CC BY 2.0) During the scorching midday heat in Behrampura, a slum in the Indian city of Ahmedabad, it can be difficult to breathe, let alone get any work done. Throughout the...
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