Dr. Mark Bergel hasn’t slept in a bed since 2008. But thanks to his efforts, many of his neighbors have.
While volunteering at a Washington, D.C. nonprofit that delivered meals to impoverished residents, Bergel noticed that many families lacked enough beds for all of a household’s residents — or they didn’t have any beds at all. Learning that many of those living in poverty forgo basic furnishings in order to put food on the table, he started A Wider Circle.
The organization’s largest initiative, Neighbor-to-Neighbor, accepts donated furniture and distributes it to low-income residents across the Washington, D.C., area. A Wider Circle also operates the new Wraparound Support program, which enlists up to four volunteers to focus on one individual or family as they seek to rise out of poverty.
Watch the video above to see why Bergel sleeps on his couch and how A Wider Circle is making life better for almost 16,000 adults and children each year.
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This Woman Has Collected 40,000 Feminine Products to Boost the Self-Esteem of Homeless Women
Many homeless women can’t afford food and housing, let alone necessary feminine items like bras and menstrual hygiene products. Yet, these products are essential for any woman to feel good about herself, since they boost one’s dignity.
Dana Marlowe, a mother of two who runs a disability advocacy and consulting company, decided to do something about it. Since homeless shelters rarely receive donations of bras and feminine hygiene products, Marlowe started the organization Support the Girls. During her free time, Marlowe collects these important items, organizing house pick-ups and dropping everything at shelters in the Washington, D.C., area where she lives.
So far, she’s collected more than 8,000 bras and almost 30,000 feminine hygiene products. Learn more about what Marlowe does and how she got the idea by watching the video above.
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The Difference Between Life and Death for LGBT Homeless Teens? Access to a Cell Phone
At least half a million American teens — estimates range between 550,000 and 2.8 million youth — experience homelessness each year, advocates estimate. Lacking resources to find housing on their own, they’re continually at high risk of experiencing a night on the street.
An unexpected factor that unites the group? At least one in five identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, but the demographic could make up as much as 43 percent of the homeless youth population, according to a national survey of 350 agencies. Instead of waiting to move out before they drop the news about their sexual identity, these teens are coming out of the closet earlier. It’s a sign of society’s increasing acceptance, but their youthful independence often comes with consequences. If they face abuse at home or are kicked to the curb, teens are forced to seek shelter at emergency drop-in centers, in abandoned buildings or with friends. Already unsure of their identity, some are wary of receiving assistance from shelters (possibly religious) or social workers (possibly unsympathetic), leaving LGBT homeless teens in danger of physical violence, prostitution, substance abuse and suicide.
Connect 4 Life, a new pilot project launching in Washington, D.C., believes there’s one simple thing these kids need to stay safe from harm: a cell phone.
“Overwhelmingly, youth said that is their lifeline,” says Christopher Wood, executive director of the LGBT Technology Partnership. “It makes a lot of sense. We use our cell phones every day,” Wood adds. “Why would it be any different? Why wouldn’t it be even more crucial for someone that doesn’t have a home to have a phone? That’s why we started this project.”
Wood co-founded the organization, which lobbies on behalf of LGBT groups for greater access to technology, just three years ago, so they’re starting small, distributing 25 phones throughout the capital.
“Making sure they have consistent contact or the ability to connect to the internet greatly improves their outcomes,” Wood says, explaining that the mobile device helps determine whether the teens are able to return to school, find work or establish a stable place to stay. A phone is “their lifeline not just to supportive services, but just the ability to call a friend and say, ‘I need a place to sleep.’”
Connect 4 Life is leaving it to the service providers who interact with homeless teens on a daily basis to determine how the phones are distributed. One program is giving their share of the phones to the kids who seem at the greatest risk, so they have an instant connection to their case manager; another is using it as a kind of reward, offering their mobile devices to those with the greatest motivation to succeed. The phones come with free minutes, texting and data for 10 months. The only catch? LGBT Tech Partnership asks the teens to respond to regular survey questions. If they don’t, the phones aren’t taken away; if they do, they get to keep the devices and free plan for an extra two months.
Wood knows from personal experience how valuable those midnight calls can be. Senior year in high school, he found himself simultaneously outed and thrown out of his home.
Raised in a military family in northern Virginia, Wood was the commander of his high school’s JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps). “When I was 17, I was a really good kid. I didn’t do drugs, I didn’t get into trouble,” he recalls. But he guarded the secret of his sexuality and a private love for his boyfriend. One night Wood invited his boyfriend over and fell asleep in his arms on the couch. He woke up early in the morning to find his father bellowing at him. His parents “didn’t understand, they were afraid,” he remembers. “Later that morning, I was being kicked out of my house.” Carrying a hastily packed bag of clothes, Wood didn’t know where to go next. His basic cell phone proved the “crucial” element to finding spare bedrooms and fold-out couches with friends until things smoothed out at home, he says.
“I could text and call people on it. My ability to use a cell phone meant finding a warm place to sleep after that morning. It meant putting myself back together to go to school,” he says. “That changed my entire life trajectory.”
In our increasingly connected world, these phones are proving essential to helping a wary and highly mobile group of at-risk teens safely navigate their way back to safety. It’s a low-cost answer that shelter staff has recognized for years — they’ve often paid for the plans out of their own pocket — and that’s a strategy that’s being adopted nationwide. Google has donated the devices to homeless individuals in the Bay Area, and Ohio’s state government recently asked Wood about bringing the pilot west — ensuring help is only a text message away.
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The Latest City to Build an Elevated Park Is…
Washington, D.C. has high hopes of building a park to not only attract more tourists, but also unite two very different parts of America’s capital city.
The 11th Street Bridge Project, a plan for an elevated park similar to New York’s High Line, is designed to sit atop a bridge over the Anascostia river. To the west of the river is D.C.’s more familiar parts, dotted with museums and monuments on the National Mall, while the east side is home to a part of the city forgotten in the economic and housing boom. Predominantly African-American, the Anascostia community has been home to black leaders including Frederick Douglass and former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who was a city councilman for Ward 8 until his death last month.
“Looking at Ward 8, there are a lot of struggling families in the community,” says Rolanda Wilson, a Ward 8 resident and project volunteer. “So to be able to bring something so monumental to the neighborhood and to be able to give people [from both neighborhoods] a chance to connect is more important than anything.”
Park planners want the project to be more of a destination than a walkway, much like the High Line, which is built on an abandoned elevated rail bed on Manhattan’s west side. Using public and private money, D.C.’s bridge park is the size of three football fields laid end to end, erected atop piers that previously held up a freeway bridge over the river, according to Governing.
The park features space for three waterfalls, gardens, a boat launch, an environmental education center, an auditorium and a cafe. The winning design was created by Netherlands-based OMA and OLIN of Philadelphia and is shaped as an “X” over the river.
Project planners have four goals in mind for the 11th Street Bridge Project including: improving community health, encouraging locals to connect with the Anascostia river, uniting neighborhoods on each side of the river and also creating new jobs and economic opportunities, reports Governing.
For example, a new canoe and kayak launch promotes exercise and brings more people to engage with the river, while a waterfall is not only a picturesque spot, but also improves river water quality.
The District of Columbia has already committed $14.5 million toward the project, covering half of construction costs while community leaders from across the city, Virginia and Maryland have gotten on board, along with the federal and municipal governments. Planners aim to raise a total of $45 million in order to include money for pre-construction planning and an endowment to pay for programming at the park, according to project director Scott Kratz.
If all goes according to planned, D.C. residents could find themselves in a new park in 2018, at the earliest.
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Name the Most Pedestrian-Friendly City in America
Pedestrian life is picking up speed across the country, with an estimated five percent more Americans walking to work now compared to 2000, Bloomberg reports. But with more than 4,700 pedestrian deaths in 2012, city planners are recognizing the importance of improving pathways and policies to protect citizens on their feet.
In a study of the safest cities for pedestrians by insurer Liberty Mutual Holding Co., Seattle topped the list. The Pacific Northwest city had fewer than 10 annual pedestrian deaths in 2012 and was noted for its investment in infrastructure to improve the walking safety of more than 108,000 commuters each day. That same year, the city ordered more than 500 crosswalks and also improved walking routes for students.
Boston and Washington, D.C. came in second and third, respectively. San Francisco notched fourth and New York City grabbed the fifth spot on the list of of 25 cities analyzed for pedestrians. The most dangerous for walkers? Detroit. The report ranks cities by traffic data, infrastructure and local attitude on public safety among 2,500 residents across the observed cities.
Dave Melton, Liberty Mutual’s managing director of global safety, attributes well-planned pedestrian safety to countdown lights and flashers at crosswalks that help drivers focus on the road and direct attention from pedestrians. But pesky cellphone usage still remains an issue.
“The human brain doesn’t multitask,” Melton says. “It switches back and forth.”
It’s tricky to try to control phone distraction, but ensuring every other component of protecting pedestrians is a step in the right direction.
This App From MIT Tells You How Much Solar Energy Your House Can Produce
As solar energy continues to become more available, more Americans are getting on board with the idea of taking their power off the grid and embracing more sustainable sources like solar panels.
But with that decision comes a lot of research. Individuals must find out just how expensive it might be and how much money installing solar panels actually saves, which can be a costly process if it involves seeking professional consultation.
Enter, Mapdwell.
Mapdwell, born out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), helps individuals determine solar potential of their properties using massive data sets across cities including Washington, D.C., Boston and Cambridge, Mass.
The company taps into LIDAR data from aerial mapping flights to produce one-by-one meter resolution 3D models of landscape including the shape of a roof and surrounding greenery.
With up to 8,600 data points to illustrate, the maps then provide a rating of solar potential based on analysis and historical weather data. Users can also share visual components of the data with a systems installer.
“We had to show you all the information, which can be overwhelming, but you need to have it if you really want to make a decision,” CEO Eduardo Berlin tells Fast Company. “Many times designers want to communicate the minimum amount of information to get you interested. But in this case, it’s different.”
Mapdwell lets users simply enter their address to access the information, as well as helping design custom solar systems based on metrics such as price, energy and environmental impact.
“The challenge is: How can you get people interested? How can you get people informed and excited with all these little things that we can do. If I do it, and you do it, and your neighbor does it, it could really have a huge effect,” Berlin says. “…You can really empower change within a community by people having all this information — if you manage to get it to them.”
The technology is only available for a select few cities right now, but the company is planning to expand, as well as design similar systems for rainwater collection, small wind energy installations and green roofs at a city level.
While solar energy still only accounts for less than 1 percent of the country’s electricity, the potential of transitioning more people off environmentally harmful fossil fuels is evident. With the help of companies like Mapdwell, the process can move more quickly.
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How Our Nation’s Capital is Improving Life for Commuters
On the heels of Apple’s unveiling of the new iPhone 6 and iWatch, Washington D.C.’s transit system Metro announced a new pilot program in line with the next wave of technology.
Metro’s new program will let riders pay transit fares with a smartphone, contactless credit and debit cards and other types of near field communication (NFC) devices like the iWatch. Starting in January, 10 Metrorail stations, six bus routes and two parking facilities will be outfitted with the new technology, but Metro officials plan to begin installing the new fare readers in October, according to the Washington City Paper.
“The main goal of this whole program is to eventually eliminate the need for people to convert their U.S. currency into Metro money,” says Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.
Officials contend the initiative is to make public transportation easier for both D.C. riders as well as tourists.
The nation’s capital is not the first city in the world to march toward contactless payment for public transit network. London’s bus system has already removed cash from its fare system, and the underground Tube is rolling out a new contactless payment program September 16.
But are days numbered for Metro’s old fare gates, vending machines and SmarTrip card program? Not anytime in the “foreseeable future,” according to city officials. If the pilot is met with success, Metro plans to install new fare readers across the entire transit system in 2017.
The city will begin recruiting around 2,000 participants for the pilot project this fall, encouraging residents who commute between the stations or along the bus routes included in the program to sign up. More details of the recruitment process are expected to be announced next month, according to Stessel.
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A New Museum Exhibit Educates About Disaster Preparedness
From ‘superstorm’ Sandy in 2012 to the countless forest fires that ravage the West every year, natural disasters are increasingly becoming a large part of American life. As a result, combating Mother Nature when she’s at her angriest requires not just innovation, but education, too.
That’s exactly what a new exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. aims to do, according to Next City. Organized into categories of earth, wind, fire, and water, “Designing for Disaster” is educating visitors about the history of disaster relief and prevention, as well as what works and what doesn’t.
Tales of large-scale projects such as flexible staircase joints at UC Berkeley’s California Memorial Stadium will surely draw in visitors, though it is the hands-on demonstrations and focus on everyday solutions that this exhibit is making the most difference with.
As the Washington Post writes, “The exhibit’s most compelling demonstrations show how innovative engineering solutions can reduce the impact of disasters and, in fact, already are.”
Whether highlighting family disaster plans, showcasing earthquake drills, or using an interactive feature to help visitors learn about the durability of different roof styles, Designing for Disaster is spreading knowledge.
As Americans flock to our nation’s capital during the summer vacation months, they can learn how others are preparing for natural disasters. And with that education, perhaps they can educate members of their own communities on how best to prevent future damage.
After all, while you can’t avoid Mother Nature’s fury, you can make sure you’re ready to meet it head on.
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