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2020-06-05
Prison Policy Initiative;
Many of the worst features of mass incarceration — such as racial disparities in prisons — can be traced back to policing. Our research on the policies that impact justice-involved and incarcerated people therefore often intersects with policing issues. Now, at a time when police practices, budgets, and roles in society are at the center of the national conversation about criminal justice, we have compiled our key work related to policing (and our discussions of other researchers' work) in one briefing.
2020-05-12
SeaChange Capital Partners;
The government distinguishes "large" from "small" organizations in many ways, though the most common is whether they have 500 or more employees. Nonprofits deemed "large" under this definition have been completely shut out of the two most important sources of COVID-19-related financial support: the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP") and the Federal Reserve's Main Street Lending Program ("MSLP"). This is unfortunate because, while small nonprofits are collectively important, the large ones do most of the work.
This is true not only in higher education and hospitals, but in other areas that support the well-being of communities including: shelters, emergency food distribution, mental health, hospice, foster care, nursing homes, and caring for the developmentally disabled. These large nonprofits are systemically important partners to state and local governments, and many are on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. However, unless they receive immediate assistance, some will not make it through the next few months; few, if any, will survive without making drastic cuts to services that will be more vital than ever to our collective health, well-being, and safety during the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath.
Given the pressure on their budgets, and the difficulties that states and cities have in raising immediate funds from taxes or the capital markets, only the federal government has the scale of available resources to help large nonprofits. Fortunately, there is no need to develop an entirely new program; PPP and MSLP can be modified to get the job done.
2020-05-01
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless;
This report shows 76,998 Chicagoans experienced homelessness in 2018, per an annual analysis by CCH that relies on the most current U.S. census data.
Though the city's aggregate homelessness count decreased from the prior year, Chicago saw a nearly 2,000-person increase among those who lived on the street or in shelters. It is a development with troubling connotations today: The city's shelter system is a hotspot for COVID-19 infections and homelessness is expected to climb dramatically during the worsening economic downturn triggered by the pandemic.
Per our analysis, the number who experienced homelessness decreased by 4,282 people, or 5.9% from 2017. This net decrease was concentrated exclusively among homeless people in temporary living situations, also known as living "doubled-up" or "couch-surfing." The number who doubled-up in 2018 remained massive, at 58,872 Chicagoans.
2020-04-23
National Urban Indian Family Coalition;
Urban American Indian & Alaska Native (AI/AN) organizations have been and always will be the vanguard for addressing and responding to both immediate and future challenges of urban AI/AN communities. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, these community-based, nonprofits are experiencing significant issues and challenges, while providing critical, on the ground responses to this national crisis.
As a result of these significant challenges, NUIFC was compelled to develop this in-depth report in partnership with our 40+ members and the urban communities that they serve.
2020-04-20
Center for American Progress;
the COVID-19 outbreak has laid bare the need for a more proactive and integrated approach to fight infectious disease epidemics, which are becoming more common in many regions around the world. Specifically, alongside investments in epidemiological research and healthcare, we need to address the problem at its root: the destruction of nature.
2020-04-20
Tiny Beam Fund;
Para discutir el tema de la reducción del consumo de carne, primero debemos revisar la forma en que las personas conciben a los animales. Almirón y Tafalla (2019) afirman que la única manera de contribuir al medio ambiente es a través de la ética y la consideración hacia los demás animales. Lo examiné en mi tesis doctoral y lo actualicé con las situaciones y problemas por los que atraviesa Argentina en la actualidad.
El consumo de carne responde principalmente a las representaciones sociales existentes (y circulantes) de los animales que la gente considera comestibles. ¿Qué son las representaciones sociales (RS)? Las RS son un conocimiento espontáneo e ingenuo, comúnmente llamado sentido común (a diferencia del conocimiento científico). Este conocimiento se forma a partir de nuestras experiencias y de la información que recibimos y transmitimos a través de las tradiciones, la educación y la comunicación social. Se trata, pues, de un conocimiento socialmente elaborado ycompartido (Jodelet, citado por Araya Umaña, 2002). Entendemos las cosas a través del filtro de estas representaciones sociales. Por eso es tan importante entender las representaciones que circulan sobre el consumo de carne y las dietas vegetarianas porque eso nos permitirá saber dónde intervenir para transformar esas representaciones.
Existen cuatro elementos clave en las representaciones sociales del consumo de carne en Argentina.
1. Un sistema de creencias que apoya el consumo de carne.2. Una profunda estigmatización del veganismo.3. Los Macro-relatos sobre la carne y los productos lácteos.4. Las características de una forma particular de pensar y hacer activismo en el colectivo vegano.
2020-04-20
Tiny Beam Fund;
HIGHLIGHTS: *Shines a bright light on several fundamental cultural drivers of meat consumption in Argentina: 1) Powerful belief system in favor of eating meat. 2) Deep stigmatization of veganism. 3) Pervasive narratives and behavior justifying meat-eating that most people consider as "common sense" and which are sustained by institutions (e.g. healthcare, legal, education systems). *Suggests a range of practical measures to tackle challenges faced by those seeking to reduce and end consumption of animal-based food in that country (e.g. influence school curricula and train teachers, professionalize the vegan activist community).
2020-04-20
Tiny Beam Fund;
KEYWORDS: Chickens and eggs. Industrial production. Consumption. Guatemala. HIGHLIGHTS: *This report or Guidance Memo explains the major role played by: (1) a few powerful home-grown businesses and brands, (2) cross-border and international trade and policies, in flooding Guatemala with industrially-produced chickens in the last half century. *It brings to the fore public health, food justice, and other significant issues that should be emphasized in campaigns to defeat "industrial chicken" there. *The Guidance Memo also exposes assertions and myths that help to hold in place chickens' current popularity with consumers (e.g. the claim that producing chickens industrially is important to the country's economy, but the fact is that economic benefits accrue mainly to the country's most powerful families like the Gutiérrez-Bosches who own Pollo Campero and Pollo Rey). *Provides practical strategies and actions that one can take to turn things round (e.g. challenge industry claims through magazine articles and social media, valorize indigenous culinary knowledge and promote consumption of nutrient-rich native legumes, form alliance across permaculture and other food movements).
2020-04-20
Tiny Beam Fund;
HIGHLIGHTS: *Using information gathered from visits to field sites and interviews with farmers in 2019, the authors of this report or Guidance Memo document the challenges faced by socially and economically-marginalized women in the Northern Mountainous Region (NMR) of Vietnam who raise local or heritage pigs on small-scales to supplement their family income. *These women have been greatly affected by recent growth in industrial-scale pork production in Vietnam. *Moreover, the African Swine Fever crisis in northern Vietnam in mid/late 2019 threatens to put an end to raising local/heritage breeds on small scales in NMR. *But there is clear evidence that smaller-scale pork production in NMR is viable and is good socially, economically, environmentally, and for animal welfare. *A number of concrete, practical ways to support small-scale producers are suggested, from providing training in pig breeding to simple steps like teaching the small producers to use Facebook to attract customers.
2020-04-10
Tiny Beam Fund;
HIGHLIGHTS: *This report or Guidance Memo is aimed at supporting cage-free egg production operations in China. It provides information regarding international best practices in relation to farm productivity and animal welfare in the context of the Chinese egg industry. *Collaborating and in consultation with local Chinese producers and animal welfare experts, and based on her surveys of cage-free farms in China, the author of this Guidance Memo offers practical information for key housing and management issues, including: Disease management; egg production; the provision of an appropriate environment; maintaining normal hen behaviors and avoiding mortality; humane killing on farm. *There is an emphasis on the importance in understanding, training and investment in key management aspects, particularly the prevention and control of severe feather pecking and infectious diseases in order to maintain a healthy flock and operate a successful and profitable production business. *This report shows compellingly that improving cage-free layer hen welfare in China is quite feasible and such improvement is hugely beneficial for producers and layer hens. Higher welfare cage-free systems are indeed increasing in China even though the vast majority of eggs in China are still produced in facilities with cages. *A Chinese translation of this Guidance Memo is available in late 2020.
2020-03-20
Tiny Beam Fund;
Keywords: GHG emissions. Industrial-scale food animal production. Extensive animal agriculture systems. Highlights of this report or guidance memo: *Scientific literature on greenhouse gas emissions of various forms of animal agriculture systems are synthesized. *Explains the complexities of models used to generate estimates of GHGs in these scientific literature, and the reasons why they are not very robust and they contain errors that often go unreported. *Points out that high-quality measurements that do exist consistently demonstrate that industrial animal agriculture's emissions are actually higher than typically estimated. Therefore the claim held by many experts and policy-makers that intensifying animal agriculture significantly limits global GHG emissions is unjustified. *Cautions about not jumping to the conclusion that extensive, pastoral systems is the perfect answer.
2020-03-04
Center for Community Alternatives;
On January 1st, New York's new bail reform law went into effect. This law, fought for by communities across the state, was designed to reduce the number of people and families harmed by pretrial incarceration, protect the constitutional right to the presumption of innocence, and address the criminalization of poverty and of Black and brown communities.Before the passage of bail reform, New York's fifty-seven counties outside of New York City spent $705.5 million jailing legally innocent people each year.
This system of mass pretrial incarceration coerced plea deals and destabilized individuals who were often in dire needof support, not pretrial punishment. By some estimates as many as 84% of people in New York jails had a substance use disorder or mental illness. National surveys show that 20% of people incarcerated in local jails have a "serious mental illness" like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Without bail reform, New York's local jails would have continued to function as warehouses for people failed by social services and social policy, including people struggling with mental health needs, substance use, and homelessness.
Bail reform is already working. Each day, there are 6,000 fewer people incarcerated pretrial in New York's local jails.Thousands of people can thus return to their families and receive the treatment and care they need as they await their date in court. With the state budget deadline fast approaching, this is a critical moment for New York's legislature to protect the new law from regressive changes, and instead commit to shifting resources to the services - education, healthcare, mental healthcare, and housing - that keep communities safe and thriving. To do so, we must re-examine the staggering sums counties have historically spent on jailing compared to community-based resources.
