New South Dallas tech hub at ICDC offers face-to-face help with digital connections

PowerMyLearning, a program that any student, parent, or teacher can use for free, helps students take ownership of their own learning. When most attention is being placed on teacher effectiveness, this program redirects those efforts toward students.

Delaware has been working to make sure that all college-ready graduates, regardless of socioeconomic status, make it to college. With financial reasons standing in the way of many qualified students, the state has worked on multiple levels to make this a possibility.

Low budget schools across the U.S. are having students use their smartphones as learning tools inside and outside the classroom. At no extra cost they can incorporate technology into the curriculum through a myriad of applications, from homework reminder apps to free cloud document platforms like Google Docs.

Government benefits to aid the poor are frequently left unclaimed, leaving children hungry, young people unable to finish school, and opportunities for stable housing and preventative health care unused. New York City-based program Single Stop connects people to benefits for which they may be eligible. Importantly, Single Stop has served community colleges where disadvantaged students can use the assistance to help get through school.

Accessible affordable health care is needed for millions of uninsured Americans. The Affordable Care Act is a viable solution that helps the uninsured. Although the launching of the website had some glitches, many states designed their own insurance marketplace and have successfully signed up people for coverage.

Organizations in Detroit are piloting a program to apply food stamp credits in grocery stores towards the purchase of nutritious produce, in order to increase access to healthy items. The initiative can also help the local economy prosper through increased promotion of locally grown produce.

Currently, women make up only 20% of computing jobs - in 2012, only 18% of computer science (CS) graduates were women , a figure that has been cut in half since 1984 when women made up 37% of CS majors. Now, girls are taught coding and computer programing in an after school program built to inspire girls to become more involved in computer science, a predominantly male job market.

Hospitals in New York improve healthcare quality and reduce medical costs by staying in frequent contact with patients requiring frequent or long-term care. Montefiore's Accountable Care Organization pulls in care providers from across the medical and social spectrum to improve patient health while curbing expenses.

San Francisco's Care Not Cash program began in 2004 in response to the city's homelessness crisis. One facet of the program is an outreach team, whose members regularly visit homeless people on the street to connect them to resources such as housing and drug rehabilitation.

Officials in Niger are addressing chronic severe droughts causing food shortages and leading to a widespread threat of starvation. They provide aid to malnourished children and resources for a crop planting technique called 're-greening,' which aims to reforest agricultural regions, restore soil quality and, in turn, increase food supply.