Offshore wind boom is transforming U.K.’s coastal town economy
Growth in the U.K. offshore wind industry is transforming the U.K.’s coastal towns from empty ports to bustling industry with thousands of skilled job opportunities.
Poverty alleviation
University of Texas promises full scholarships to low-income students
The UT Board of Regents voted to establish a $160 million endowment to offer full scholarships to in-state students with family incomes under $65K by 2020.
Maine passes 2 bills to reduce ‘welfare cliff’
The bills aim to keep families transitioning from welfare to work from losing health, financial, and education benefits until they are earning enough to fully support themselves.
Child poverty in the United States falls to record low
The child poverty rate in the United States has fallen to a record low of 16% in 2016. In 1967, it was 28%.
New Zealand ‘wellbeing’ budget focuses resources on vulnerable populations
New Zealand’s Labour coalition government has unveiled its “world-first” well-being budget which offers billions for mental health services, child poverty, and family violence.
Atlanta to create United States’s largest food forest for public
The move would result in the city’s first food forest and the largest of its kind in the country.
Child and teen deaths worldwide fall by 50% from 1990 to 2017
New research in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that deaths among children and adolescents fell from 13.77 million in 1990 to 6.64 million in 2017.
World Data Lab projects Kenya to eradicate extreme poverty by 2032
A global data enterprise suggested in a post published last week by a US think tank that the share of abjectly poor Kenyans will drop from nearly 21 percent to 4.3 percent in 2030.
Indian state of Sikkim is launching the largest basic income experiment in history
Sikkim will provide cash payments to each of its 610,000 citizens — the largest basic income experiment in history.
Microsoft pledges $500 million for affordable housing in Seattle area
Microsoft’s money represents the most ambitious effort by a tech company to directly address the inequality that has spread in areas where the industry is concentrated. It will fund construction for homes affordable not only to the company’s own non-tech workers, but also for teachers, firefighters, and other middle- and low-income residents.