All People Making a Difference
- National Poetry Month: This library quenches the thirst for verse
National Poetry Month comes once a year, but the Sims Poetry Library in diverse South Los Angeles provides access to the joy of verse every day.
- Galloping over barriers: Patricia Kelly opens stables to everyone
Racial disparities can feel like insurmountable hurdles. Patricia Kelly uses a love of horses to inspire underserved children to blaze their own trail.
- Women of Winter inspires the downhill rush that uplifts – and diversifies
Catching air on the slopes is often a white male realm. But Women of Winter is training snow-sports instructors to help diversify the slopes.
- Difference Maker‘Our right to dream’: Why Emad Hajjaj draws on despite threat of arrest
Despite risk of arrest, political cartoonist Emad Hajjaj believes holding up a mirror to Arab society is a responsibility – and a laughing matter.
- Growing winter food – and community spirit – in a geothermal greenhouse
A child’s question prompted this urban farm to seek a greenhouse for winter growing – and for strengthening a community.
- Difference MakerWith after-school center, trans activist Sumi Das seeks kinder future
In eastern India, an after-school center run by trans women is helping kids reconnect with learning. It is also forging compassion and solidarity.
- Difference MakerArt as a tool for healing? Cambodian circus fosters joy and confidence.
In Cambodia, a circus is helping break the cycle of poverty and renew arts that were nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge regime.
- From reporter to teacher: Helping prisoners find their voice
Exchange for Change, a program in some Florida prisons, helps incarcerated writers forge connections – to the outside and to their innermost thoughts.
- Difference MakerHow an all-women news outlet is changing Somalia’s media landscape
Bilan, Somalia’s first all-women news outlet, looks for human stories often overlooked by Somalia’s male-dominated media and serves as an example of professional excellence to other Somali women.
- Difference MakerFlavors From Afar: Where refugees cook up new lives
When refugees start over, they leave behind careers, loved ones, and beloved places. Flavors From Afar restaurant dishes up meaningful paths forward, building on tastes from home.
- Difference MakerIn Sri Lanka, Pastor Moses shows the power of a free lunch
Generosity in one pastor’s youth has created a ripple effect, helping buoy thousands of Sri Lankans through times of hunger and hardship.
- Difference MakerBuilding Men teaches students what manhood can really mean
With male peers and mentors, Building Men helps young boys and teens gain perspective, work to restore self-worth, and learn to calm emotions.
- Fiddler Dennis Stroughmatt saves a French dialect – and culture
Preserving dialects keeps communities – and their histories – alive. Dennis Stroughmatt honors his forebears who spoke, and sang, in French.
- When raptors and urbanization collide, these volunteers are there to help
Raptors are bellwethers of human development, injuring themselves on what is put in their flight path. The Owl Moon Raptor Center is there to help.
- For Amber Richards, life after overdose starts with compassion
An overdose can feel like the end of a road. With Project Hope, it can be the start of a fresh path.
- Difference MakerFreedom is his business: How Jared Genser extracts political prisoners
Iran’s longest-held American prisoner was freed Oct. 1. His attorney’s legal strategy behind the scenes has similarly helped hundreds.
- He left gang life behind. Now Curtis Toler helps others find peace.
In one of America’s most violent cities, Curtis Toler of Chicago CRED is helping young people see the power of choosing peace.
- At Fly Compton, the sky’s not a limit. Neither is race.
Aviation’s underrepresentation of minorities spurs a group of Black pilots to pass along their skills to the next generation of professionals.
- Difference MakerRelief from the fields: Tackling food waste, hunger in one swoop
More than 38 million Americans face food insecurity. ProduceGood gets fresh fruits and vegetables to people who may otherwise have none.
- Difference MakerSowing dignity: Vertical Harvest grows produce – and community
This Wyoming greenhouse provides meaningful employment for people with disabilities, planting seeds of dignity to cultivate robust lives and professional success.