A decade ago, these girls weren't allowed to play lacrosse. Now they inspire a reservation.

After a young rugby player died in Northern Ireland, his family and a brain expert set about to establish concussion guidelines, looking in part to the United States.

Non-profits in California worked together to set up a national network for undocumented immigrants to fight isolation and support legal aid. Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) offers a free confidential hotline to report human rights abuses at detention centers and help families locate each other. CIVIC’s volunteers receive 14,000 calls a month from 210 detention centers in the United States.

In the late 1990s, Iceland had both a high rate of teen alcohol abuse and a lackadaisical attitude towards that abuse. Responses to these issues included instituting a curfew, investment in after school activities, and programs to change parent attitudes. The result has been a large decrease in alcohol use among teens and a strengthening of family relationships.

The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's police force has transformed its culture using a police assistance referral program that focuses on getting people the help they need first rather than arresting them. It's a way to address the underlying issues that prompt an incident by partnering with social workers and nonprofits to help police to look at themselves as problem solvers. The majority of referrals for services focus on violence committed against or in front of children and this is one way to try and address trauma before it wreaks devastation on young lives.

A two-year curriculum on interpersonal conflict resolution transformed secondary schools in the province of Jawzjan. Violence between students fell by half. Girl’s school attendance increased. Both boys and girls experienced lower rates of depression. The curriculum is part of a larger project by a local NGO to build mediation skills and human rights knowledge in the conflict-affected province.

A pilot program in New Mexico shows promise in helping stabilize families at risk of homelessness by giving them subsidized housing combined with social services like therapy and addiction treatment. Keeping Families Together prevented numerous children from entering foster care and reduced repeat cases of abuse and neglect, and is cost-effective. But it's unclear if it will continue with state funding, bringing instability once again to many participants.

A community-based program in Uganda has helped reduce violence in families and gender inequity by training both parents in effective communication and parenting. Organizers focused specifically on recruiting men because they are often not involved in home life and are exposed to societal beliefs about masculinity that can perpetuate patterns of violence. The pilot program of 600 participants showed positive results in reducing family violence and other communities want to adopt it.

Coaches have unique relationships with their players and Milwaukee is using that to help young men create healthy, respectful relationships as part of a pilot project using the curriculum Coaching Boys Into Men. The training uses ideas of teamwork and sports to apply those principles to actual situations and relationships. An evaluation of the curriculum in Sacramento found participants were less likely to commit abuse and more likely to intervene when they witness problematic behavior by peers.

In Colorado an alleged kidnapping was thwarted thanks to an app that acted as a panic button on a teen's cell phone, alerting police to his exact location. It's one of several apps taking hold across the country, including in schools where they are a tool to alert responders to mass shootings, and provide key information for police, such as the layout of a school. Panic button apps have been installed on phones in some school districts in New York, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and California.

New supports are being put into place for the referees of youth sports leagues in order to stop or punish harassment. These include signs, monitors in the stands, and a Facebook page that publicly shames out of control patients.