"The Mokoloki town has a 11 percent stake in the minigrid project. The community power association (CPA), made up of nominated members of the town, reflecting gender balance and inclusive representation of minority groups, also gets a vote in key decisions affecting the minigrid.
As with the percentage share of ownership, the community now receives 11 % of revenues accruing to the minigrid after all operational costs and expenses have been settled. "
Vielen Dank für die gespendeten Prompts für Januar, Ihr seid großartig! Bräuchte nur noch ein paar mehr. Ich bin auf jeden Fall sehr begeistert von eurer Hilfsbereitschaft.
#PhantastikPrompts brauchen eure Hilfe!
Ich steck grad in einem Berg aus Stress fest und würde trotzdem wirklich gerne eine Promptliste für den Januar herausgeben.
Daher möchte ich Euch bitten, wenn Ihr mögt, mir Fragen und Prompts aus der Community per DM zu schicken.
Natürlich werden die Urheber (sofern nicht anders gewünscht) auf der Liste genannt.
Ich hoffe auf die #communitypower und bitte euch, den Aufruf zu teilen.
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I’ve previously posted about how the lack of access to healthcare and mental health services contribute to making a community unsafe. There were two projects at the Community Safety Fair that were directed towards solutions to the appalling lack of access to mental health counseling in the District. One proposed a series of wellness centers called M.A.R.C.H. 1/8
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MARCH stands for Metropolitan Area Recovery Calm House. The call is for the city to establish at least four centers, one in each of the four quadrants of the city. The idea is that the centers would provide a support system in a safe space for helping residents, particularly those re-entering to begin healing from the traumas they’ve experienced in life. At the moment all crisis beds are in one quadrant. 2/8
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The problem the advocates are attempting to address is the fact that DC has only 16 (!) community based crisis beds where people can stay for up to only two weeks to receive professional mental health services. To put that in perspective, DC has 700,000 residents. At the moment, if a person is experiencing a mental health crisis in the district they can either go to the hospital or to jail. 3/8
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We know where poor people go and its not to the hospital because again many lack access to health care insurance. This is a perfect example of the way multiple factors in poor communities of color interact to worsen safety. I shouldn’t have to tell you that jails and prisons are not equipped to deal with mental health issues. The ask is that the city fund the centers and allow local nonprofits to run them. 4/8
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The second booth was run by a sub group of the DC organization called HIPS. HIPS has been around for about 30 years. They have a “comprehensive program providing a variety of services, education and advocacy to sex workers, drug users and their communities.”They provide a non-judgmental place where sex workers can receive support services, particularly important for youth engaged in sex work. 5/8
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Under the HIPS advocacy banner there are three sub programs, one of which was Chosen Few/HIPS, who had a table at the community fair. Chosen Few’s table focused on the negative impact on Black communities due to law enforcement and DC’s Dept of Behavioral Health Services’ (DBH) responses to mental health crises. Eight in ten DC voters support 911 calls for mental health being diverted to health professionals. 6/8
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Yet, as of 2022, DBH still receives only a small fraction of the mental health crisis calls. Chosen Few’s proposal is that the District fund a community based peer-led team to respond to the mental health calls. They want eight vans dedicated for use by the teams AND have DBH train the teams so they will be properly certified. Info about Chosen Few/HIPS here: https://www.hips.org/chosen-few.html 7/8
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While I was at the fair someone was doing an interview. I heard the person say to the reporter: “Can you image how life in DC would be changed if all these programs were funded and up and running.” I stopped and looked around the room and thought YES! The community has the power and the ideas to make our lives better. But we don’t have the $. DC has the $ but too much of it is spent on the police. 8/8
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Last week I highlighted some groups from the Community Safety Fair in DC that were focusing on reduction of harm – one of the four identifiable buckets of police reform. Today I want to highlight two groups that are working on transparency and accountability. Remember that transparency is about getting full data about police misconduct. More data may lead to more accountability. 1/8 *Ed: spelling & Grammar
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A hot demand in the police “reform” side of thing is to demand all law enforcement use body cameras. Body cameras aren’t a magic bullet. The police often don’t activate them, or disable them when the incident begins, and they have been known to try and tamper with the footage. Nonetheless today body cam footage can serve to contradict cop created versions of an incident. But who gets the footage and when? 2/8
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In DC family members of those killed or harmed by the police often do not receive all footage from officers who recorded at the scene. They may not receive even the full footage of the primary officer despite the fact our legislation requires the release of footage. Advocates are asking that all footage, from all officers present be released. Multiple views of an incident provide important context. 4/8
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Another group focusing on accountability is supporting proposed legislation to compensate folks held in pretrial detention. The Detention Compensation Act would provide reparations for those held pretrial without bond. Pretrial detention in DC can last for days, months or even more than a year. This mainly impacts the Black residents of DC, as whites are almost NEVER detained. 6/8
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Before COVID people detained for 131 days awaiting trial. Post COVID the period stretched to 214. During detention lives are severely disrupted. Detainees lose jobs and resources, and their families suffer collateral damage. The proposed legislation would compensate for lost wages and resources. The advocates are demanding DC Council introduce the act before the end of 2023. 7/8
*Ed: Spelling
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As you can see, working on transparency and accountability can produce some good, but remember these provisions rely on the state action, not only to enact but also to enforce. The body camera issue is a reminder that even when reform passes, the system will reset to minimize the benefit of reform.
Tomorrow, I’ll highlight some of the groups’ thinking on mental health. 8/8