Building Community
Our Theme in November 2019
How a 10-year-old girl sent thousands of art kits to kids in foster care
A young girl with a big heart has found just the way to cheer up other kids stuck at home during the pandemic. Chelsea Phaire, a 10-year-old from Danbury, Connecticut, has sent more than 1,500 children in homeless shelters and foster care homes art kits to give them something uplifting to do when Read More...
Minneapolis to disband its police force and adopt community safety model
These days, we find ourselves writing stories that would have been unthinkable just weeks ago. Yesterday we published a groundbreaking story out of Los Angeles where Mayor Eric Garcetti recently announced that he was defunding the police department. By defunding the police, what is really meant is Read More...
Los Angeles is defunding the police and investing in minority communities
One of the main demands to come out of the nationwide George Floyd protests is for cities to defund police. That doesn’t mean completely defunding police departments but, rather, allocating some of their budgets to other initiatives that provide poor and minority communities with more than a Read More...
This is what happens when police respond to protesters with compassion
In many cities where the George Floyd protests are taking place, the police have responded to protestors using rubber bullets, riot gear, and tears gas, which seemed to demonstrate the very need for these protests in the first place. But not every interaction between police and protestors turned Read More...
Cities are finally removing Confederate monuments following protests
Shocking as it may seem, more than 700 Confederate monuments remain on display in public spaces in America. Now, thanks to protests in the name of George Floyd, calls for cities to remove monuments dedicated to the Confederacy and its racist ideology have grown louder. And in many places, the Read More...
Action, not tweets: Five ways corporate America can combat racism
Major companies across the US have flocked to social media to express their solidarity against racism and police brutality, but for many black Americans, the corporate tweets and executive memos on combating racism ring hollow from companies that too often have baked systemic racism into Read More...
Understanding whiteness: The first step to ending racial discrimination
The Optimist Daily is first and foremost a platform dedicated to solutions and the people behind them. But this week it has become more blatant than ever that there is a problem in our country in dire need of a solution—and this time it is us who need to be the ones coming up with the Read More...
You can now rent BBQ grills from Finnish libraries
Finnish libraries go above and beyond when it comes to serving the community. They offer not only books for rent, but also sewing machines, board games, musical instruments, and even sports equipment. Now, as the summer season approaches and families get anxious for some outdoor fun, Finnish Read More...
Food access: The LA restaurant charging lower prices in poorer areas
Fast food restaurants don’t just lure people into eating their unhealthy food because it tastes good. Often enough, fast food is chosen because it’s cheaper than other options. If healthy fast food was the same low cost as McDonald’s, would people keep choosing to eat McDonald’s? That’s Read More...
Detroit Mower Gang: These volunteers compete to maintain city’s old parks
As small budgets and bureaucracy leave playgrounds and parks uncared for in Detroit, a group of twenty-five volunteers known as the Detroit Mower Gang is taking matters into their own hands. This past weekend, volunteer lawnmowers competed for a championship belt awarded to the person who cuts Read More...