Detroit Charity Turns Blight Into Gardens, Parks, and Homes
For 25 years, Motor City Blight Busters has been turning abandoned buildings and other eyesores into vibrant centerpieces of struggling neighborhoods.
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
A Charity’s Outdoor Adventures Help Kids Build Confidence
The Best Day Foundation recruits volunteers to help children who are mentally or physically disabled learn to kayak, ski, surf, and participate in other sports.
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
Aid Charity Helps Workers Practice Disaster Response
Samaritan’s Purse recruited 500 volunteers to simulate what would happen if an earthquake struck.
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bird-Watching Program Helps Lift the Spirits of Dementia Patients
The Audubon Society and a nurse have figured out a way to calm Alzheimer’s patients and lift their spirits.
By Holly Hall
Contributor
An Art Museum Uses Technology to Lure Young Patrons
Leaders of other cultural institutions are watching the experiment at the Cleveland Museum of Art with interest.
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Boston Effort Boosts Number of Hispanic Kids in Catholic Schools
Foundations are paying a big chunk of the bill to help more Latinos attend parochial institutions.
By nicole lewis
Contributor
Nonprofit Circus Project Helps Young People Overcome Struggles
A Portland, Ore., group works with social-service charities to teach troubled kids to perform trapeze and other acrobatics.
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
Relief Charities Brave Intense Fighting to Help Displaced Syrians
Hazardous conditions and lack of money to provide refugees with shelter and other necessities put a strain on humanitarian organizations.
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
Nonprofit’s Gift of Bikes Helps Cambodian Girls Get to School Safely
Girls who walked to school were at risk of rape or abduction, so many parents were keeping their daughters at home.
By Michelle Gienow
Contributor
Nonprofit’s Coaches Teach Kids Games and Prevent Bullying
Playworks is sends coaches to 360 schools to help kids have fun during recess and return to class ready to learn.
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
A Rock Opera Society Celebrates an Artin All Its Excess
An upstart Baltimore opera company that appeals to kids, grandparents, and others hopes to expand to national scale.
By BRENNEN JENSEN
Contributor
Annual ‘Equality Rides’Promote Gay Rights at Christian Colleges
Soulforce trains young activists in techniques of nonviolent confrontation and their work has led some institutions to drop discriminatory policies.
By BRENNEN JENSEN
Contributor
Ailing Children Escape Into Make Believe With Help From Actors
A theater group brings Broadway actors and dancers to the hospital rooms of chronically ill or disabled children.
By nicole lewis
Contributor
A Nonprofit Offers Homeless Clients Free Haircuts—and Pride
Robert Cradle hopes to spread his idea of opening barbershops in shelters, a way to give people in need a permanent place to groom.
By Michelle Gienow
Contributor
A Nonprofit Matches Military Veterans With Canine Helpers
Vets Helping Heroes has raised more than $2-million since 2006 to train and place service dogs with returning service members who have suffered emotional and physical damage.
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
A Leader’s Unorthodox Antipoverty Ideas Win Him a ‘Genius’ Prize
Maurice Lim Miller, head of the Family Independence Initiative, plans to use money from the MacArthur Foundation to spread his charity’s approach overseas.
By Caroline Preston
Contributor