News from 2015
Facing the storm after the storm in Vanuatu
Workers repair the roof of a holiday resort days after Cyclone Pam in Port Vila, capital city of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu March 19, 2015. REUTERS/Edgar Su With the devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Pam, progress in developing the small island state of Vanuatu has been wiped out. Focus is now rightly being placed on getting immediate relief to people suffering, and on rebuilding. But once the headlines disappear and the aid workers board their last plane home,…
Foster Youth Show Extreme Optimism in Face of Seemingly Great Challenge
New research shows that California teenagers in foster care display a surprising optimism about their future, despite the many challenges they face. “In general young people [aging out of foster care] tend to be pretty optimistic, in that sense I don’t think they differ much from their peers,” said Mark Courtney, Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and director of the CalYOUTH study. Initial findings from the CalYOUTH…
Kamala Harris’ Bureau of Children’s Justice Takes Shape
On Feb. 12, California Attorney General Kamala Harris held a press conference in Los Angeles to announce the creation of a "Bureau of Children's Justice" with goals ranging from reducing truancy and combatting "childhood trauma" to improving the foster care and juvenile justice systems. While the mandate Harris outlined was broad, members of the newly minted bureau's staff said that this was by design. Aside from a handful of specific issues, the office is currently in reconnaissance mode, gathering…
Make School a Democracy
In a one-room rural schoolhouse an hour’s drive from this city in a coffee-growing region of Colombia, 30 youngsters ages 5 to 13 are engrossed in study. In most schools, students sit in rows facing the teacher, who does most of the talking. But these students are grouped at tables, each corresponding to a grade level. The hum of conversation fills the room. After tackling an assignment on their own, the students review one another’s work. If a…
Derek Turner (MPP ‘06) on Net Neutrality
Derek Turner (MPP ‘06) began working on policy related to internet while a student at the Goldman School. For the past decade, he has been the research director for Free Press, a nonprofit organization specializing in media policy. He spoke us about his decades-long experience advocating for Net Neutrality and the FCC’s recent decision to approve it. Your interest in this issue began as an internship and an APA. How did that experience launch you into this arena? …
Press Release: Journalism for Social Change
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb. 26, 2015 BERKELEY, CA – On March 4th the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, Berkeley’s MOOCLab and EdX and will launch the first ever Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) focused on using solution-based journalism to drive social change. The seven-week course, Journalism for Social Change (J…
GSPP Students named Global Development Fellows
Can movie screenings have a social impact in rural Southeast Asia? This summer, GSPP student Cesar Zulaica hopes to find out. He and fellow GSPP student Diogo Prosdocimi are two of a handful of UC Berkeley graduate students selected to be a part of USAID’s Global Development Fellowship, which supports “cutting edge solutions to address... pressing development challenges.” Before coming to the Goldman School, Diogo worked as the Under Secretary for Transport Regulation in the state…
Time to implement the US-China climate accord
In the global climate fight, 2015 could be the year for innovation, collaboration and partnership. We have already see this in operation with the energy and climate language associated with the nuclear trade and verification elements of President Barack Obama’s diplomatic trip to India, which drew to a close this week. As he charts a path this year, let’s not forget that Obama legitimately helped rewrite the energy and environmental playing field in 2014. The United States Environmental…
Closing the Math Gap for Boys
At Edwin G. Foreman High School on Thursday, Avery Huberts watched as Christophir Rangel and Iann Trigveros worked on a math problem. On a recent afternoon, the banter of boisterous adolescents at Edwin G. Foreman High School, in a poor, racially and ethnically mixed Chicago neighborhood, echoed off the corridor walls. But Room 214 was as silent as a meditation retreat. Inside, 16 ninth- and 10th-grade African-American and Latino boys were working, two-on-one, with a tutor. They’re among 1,326 boys in 12…
Using Technology to Balance the Scales of Justice
Tell us a little bit about CrowdDefend - what is its main platform and what goals is it ultimately trying to achieve? CrowdDefend is a crowdfunding platform exclusively for the legal space. Our mission is to help expand access to justice for individuals, organizations, and businesses that can’t otherwise afford to hire counsel to defend or prosecute a case. For launch we are working with some of the top legal aid organizations from across the country to help…