Urban Issues
Should Springfield have two high schools?
November 10, 2019
Springfield School District 186 faces challenges familiar to many urban school districts. Academic achievement at district high schools lags behind state averages. Parents are voting with their feet as they choose to live outside the district or enroll kids in... Read more...Block party celebrates start of school, calls for end to violence
July 21, 2019
Just more than a week after Springfield marked its eighth homicide of the year, hundreds of residents flocked to Jaycee Park for a street festival celebrating the upcoming start of the school year and calling for an end to the... Read more...‘Health & Housing’ center proposed to better respond to homelessness
July 21, 2019
To more effectively prevent homelessness and intervene in the lives of people living on Springfield’s streets, a local social-service agency is proposing a $3 million Center for Health & Housing where mental-health, health-care and emergency shelter services would be offered... Read more...
How to Win the Fight for Fair and Equitable Transit
November 10, 2019
Bus service shapes the geography of accessibility, and this means how we plan bus service is deeply intertwined with social equity, whether we admit it or not. Read more...When Green Infrastructure Is an Anti-Poverty Strategy
July 21, 2019
In Portland, inspiring stories of how resident leaders – mostly lower-income, non-English-speaking, stay-at-home mothers- push for change in their community. Read more...5 ways social entrepreneurs are trying to cut food waste
July 21, 2019
Drought and heat waves are decimating crops around the world in countries like Afghanistan and South Sudan, driving rising hunger crises. The problem of hunger may only get worse as the global population reaches almost 10 billion people by 2050, making it more... Read more...
Applying a racial equity framework to ending homelessness in Illinois
November 10, 2019
Black Illinoisans are eight times more likely to experience homelessness than White Illinoisans. We need to reprioritize resources within a racial equity framework to change that. Read more...How Community Development Lenders Work Around the Legacy of Redlining
July 21, 2019
In Highland Park, a small hamlet surrounded entirely by the city of Detroit, 2014 was not the best time to be thinking about expanding primary care and behavioral health services. Detroit had recently declared bankruptcy, and the broader economy was... Read more...Your Local Library May Have A New Offering In Stock: A Resident Social Worker
July 21, 2019
Trish doesn’t have many places to turn. She’s living at her elderly father’s home without a job because she can’t afford the care he needs. And every day she says the balance sheet seems stained with more red ink. Read more...