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Innovators Insights




  • Poverty Alleviation
  • Emergency Management
  • Juvenile Justice
  • Public Transit
  • E-Government
  • Courts and Legal Services
  • Land Resources
  • Technology
  • Public Health
  • Education Strategies
 
June 30, 2006
What's New
Sex Trafficking in the United States


 


 


View the archived multimedia presentation of our June 26 online event. A panel of experts discussed the multi-faceted threat of sex trafficking, which requires prevention, identification and prosecution of perpetrators, and protection of victims.

Poverty Alleviation
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Help for the working poor - PBS documentary to aid in fight against poverty

06/20/2006 | The Providence Journal (Rhode Island)

In conjunction with the public television broadcast this fall of Waging a Living, a documentary that illustrates the financial struggles of low-wage workers, several community groups in Rhode Island will launch a campaign to assist the working poor. With funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the campaign will feature discussion forums to raise awareness of issues of poverty as well as workshops and seminars about avoiding predatory lending, building financial assets, and other matters affecting low-income earners.

Emergency Management
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Copter carries a medic on calls; having a paramedic on board the sheriff's helicopter can save precious time

06/19/2006 | The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)

In Onondaga County, New York, a partnership has been formed between the Sheriff's Office, University Hospital, and Western Area Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES). A paramedic from WAVES now accompanies members of the sheriff's office as they make daily patrols in a customized helicopter. The life-saving arrangement allows for shorter response time to the scene of an accident and on-board medical care.

Juvenile Justice
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Judge, others like new truancy policy

06/08/2006 | The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)

To combat truancy, Columbia County, South Carolina, is implementing a strict attendance policy. The school board mandates that only five parent-excused absences will be accepted each semester, with any more requiring a note from a medical professional. Additionally, the policy allows only three unexcused absences in a semester before a pupil is reported as truant to the Sheriff's Office; parents of truant children could face fines as high as $100 and even jail time.

Public Transit
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Mayor Bloomberg signs legislation increasing number of alternative fuel, hybrid and wheelchair accessible medallions

06/13/2006 | States News Service

New York City wants to be famous for its "green" cabs, not just its yellow ones, and it wants to ensure that no disabled citizen is "left behind." This year, the city will offer specially designated medallions in order to triple the number of wheelchair accessible taxis and more than quadruple the number of alternative fuel taxis. Supporters applaud the effort, citing the potential to both improve the accessibility of New York's taxi fleet and reduce air pollution in the city.

E-Government
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Database unites social services

06/14/2006 | Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Pennsylvania's Allegheny County has launched HumanServices.net to help members of the community access information on a broad range of services available to them. The site employs a sophisticated database that enables providers from different public agencies and nonprofit organizations to share, update, and modify a common pool of nonproprietary information. Citizens can efficiently sift through data on 3,000 agencies and 10,000 programs, and funders and planners can use the site to identify gaps and redundancies in coverage. Eventually, the site could become part of a greater database that would provide complementary information about home values, income and crime levels, educational data, and recreational offerings by neighborhood. The technology could be copied nationwide in the next few years.

Courts and Legal Services
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City benefits as firm lends its attorneys; Program frees up staff, helps associates hone their court skills

06/14/2006 | The Dallas Morning News

The city of Plano, Texas, and the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski are partnering to augment the city's prosecution resources while providing valuable training to new lawyers at the firm. The Loaner Lawyer Program provides rookie lawyers with an opportunity to hone their litigation and public speaking skills as they learn the basics of arguing motions, selecting juries, and examining witnesses. As their skills strengthen, they help take pressure off city attorneys by handling some of their caseload. The program's success has spawned similar endeavors in other cities.

Land Resources
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Creative composting; Project serves goals of centralized yard waste site, gravel pit reclamation

06/18/2006 | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)

Officials in Genesee County, Wisconsin, have found a way to combine waste management with erosion control. Yard waste, estimated to be 15% of all waste in the county, is used as a substitute for expensive prepared topsoil to reclaim pits previously mined for gravel. A dozen county municipalities will now have an inexpensive, centralized site to drop off the bio-material, and the improved land will allow the eventual development of a business park.

Technology
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Google unveils federal search engine

06/15/2006 | TechNews

For anyone looking to bypass time-consuming directory searches when navigating local, state, and federal websites, Google has released Google U.S. Government Search. Unlike the company's previous feature to conduct searches about the government, the new portal-like tool helps users keep up-to-date about government news by allowing homepage customization, providing government-specific news content from both official and commercial outlets. The tool will allow users to quickly focus their searches, restricting results to specific pages within agency sites, and allow content feeds in RSS formats.

Public Health
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Area program to combat diabetes recognized as a national model

06/20/2006 | The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)

Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) 2010's Diabetes Coalition, directed by the Medical University of South Carolina, has won several awards in recognition of its pioneering efforts to fight against the deadly blood sugar disease. REACH is credited with improving the health of thousands of minorities dealing with the disease. Over the past six years, the program has helped more people get tested, linked more patients with assistance programs to help them pay for treatment, and reduced the rate of diabetic amputations in the Charleston area by 50%. The program has the potential to serve as a model for other states.

Education Strategies
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For boys, reality matters; effort encourages reading by targeting their interests

06/13/2006 | The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)

GUYS READ, a nonprofit literacy initiative supported by the New York Foundation for the Arts, encourages educators to connect boys to texts that appeal to them. Research suggests that boys want to read nonfiction, newspapers, humor, and reference works, while girls are generally attracted to fiction. Another program that encourges boys to read, MENtors in Lyncourt School, New York, invites older male students and men to serve as literacy role models by reading to pupils in kindergarten through fifth grade.


Newsletter produced by: Brendan St. Amant and Vanessa Ruget (researchers and writers); Joellen Secondo (editor).

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