Inspiring: Healing Our Relationships Media Articles
We believe in the creative, redemptive, and collaborative potential of humanity. Below are key excerpts of inspiring news articles on healing social division and polarization. If any link fails to function, a paywall blocks full access, or the article is no longer available, try these digital tools.
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“Sport in Mind began with one simple intention: to help a friend who was unwell,” [said founder] Neil Harris. “Today, having supported more than 60,000 people, I’m reminded every day of the power of sport.” Founded in 2010, the charity runs free sport and physical activity sessions for people experiencing mental health problems, from walking and football to gardening, dance and movement. It creates welcoming spaces where sport is treated less as competition and more as a route back into routine, confidence and recovery. The Bluetits Chill Swimmers is a free, volunteer-led community built around cold water swimming. What began in Wales has grown into a global network of informal local groups, where people meet outdoors to swim, dip, chat and build confidence in the water. Its appeal is not endurance or elite sport, but the chance to spend time in nature. GoodGym turns exercise into practical community action. Its members run, walk or cycle to help local projects and isolated older people, whether that means clearing a garden, sorting donations at a food bank or helping someone with a task they can no longer manage alone. “GoodGym was founded on a simple idea that we could use being active to help people and strengthen communities, Ed Field, head of operations, said. “What we’ve seen is that the benefits go both ways and that the people participating feel healthier, more connected and more purposeful through helping others.”
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This ivy-topped wall shelters an urban oasis, within which sits an unprecedented sustainable project. The world’s first “community-powered” sauna – heated by food waste from residents of the neighbouring housing estate – is set to open here. Scraps from the kitchens of residents on the Teviot estate in Poplar, will be processed in a local-scale anaerobic digester ... to produce methane gas to power the sauna. The completely circular design is just one part of R-Urban Poplar, a civic space and “living lab” where members of the community are invited to experiment with ways of taking charge of their own food supply, while adapting to the climate crisis. Andy Belfield, an architect from the R-Urban Poplar team, says those behind the project believe it is the UK’s – and the world’s – first food waste powered community sauna. Nine years ago, the site was an unused car park and empty garages. Now, butterflies flutter around leaves and flowers in raised, no-dig beds. Micro-allotments and communal growing spaces offer opportunities for local people to grown herbs, courgettes, potatoes and passion flowers. But R-Urban Poplar is more ambitious than just a community garden. It is an “ecology hub”, where workers and local residents are prototyping circular urban farming, mushroom-growing and restore-and-repair services. Wild spaces encourage pollinators. There is a community kitchen and classroom, a workshop and a tool library, even a mushroom farm.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and reimagining the economy.
“Kids don’t go on social media because they love social media per se,” the children’s author and National Year of Reading 2026 ambassador, Rob Biddulph says. “They go there looking for connection and for belonging – and for entertainment and inspiration.” The challenge, he says, is not to replace social media itself, it is to replace the things it provides. At the Scouts, Simon Carter says one of their biggest attractions is that they bring young people into contact with others outside their friendship circles. Film clubs, youth theatres and music projects offer similar opportunities: BFI film clubs bring young people together to make films in teams. Youth Music-supported projects include everything from DJing, podcasting and gaming to organising gigs. Libraries and bookshops can play a similar role: many now host gaming sessions, manga clubs, creative workshops, reading groups and book clubs. Youth organisations are not the only route to connection. Wilson recommends environmental activism for older children. John Glancy, of the National Trust, believes parents should start by asking their children why their favourite social media platform and video game appeals to them. “The answer might reveal they’re searching for a sense of identity, stimulation or a sense of achievement,” he says. “Once you know which it is, it becomes easier to find alternatives.” Joe Doherty, of Outward Bound ... recommends activities that offer rewards – be it novelty, progression or excitement.
Note: A 2025 study found that cutting social media use for just one week significantly reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia in young adults. Explore more positive stories like this on reimagining education and healing social division.
Salah Hussein was 11 years old when he was woken up in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers. It left him traumatized and terrified for years. It was "triggering" to see any Israeli in uniform, he says. "For me, all of them were a threat." But decades later, Hussein, now a 33-year-old entrepreneur, has willingly and purposefully tied his fortune to his co-founder, who is an Israeli Jew. Hussein is one of about 35 entrepreneurs taking part in a start-up accelerator program called 50:50 Startups, where mixed teams of Palestinians, Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews spend six months in a kind of business bootcamp. Program leaders take pains to say that 50:50 is not a political organization. That's what allows it to create an environment where each side can see the other as people, not enemies. In one stark example, a Palestinian man who grew up in a refugee camp near Hebron was sharing how he felt humiliated and harangued by IDF soldiers at checkpoints. Then he found out one of the Israelis he had come to know in the program was actually one of the soldiers stationed near his home. It was striking, he says, to hear that former Israeli soldier share how terrified he and others were of Palestinians. "They feel [the Palestinians] will attack them, or maybe shoot them, so they always stand by, [with] nerves tense," the Palestinian man said. "At the end of the day [the soldier is] a human being. He's someone like me who just wants to get back home safe and have dinner with [his] family."
Note: War destroys, yet these powerful real-life stories show that we can heal, reimagine better alternatives, and plant the seeds of a global shift in consciousness to transform our world. Explore more positive stories like this on healing the war machine.
A small Wisconsin city has just notched a big win in its fight against a proposed data center, thanks to grassroots community organizing and support from a growing statewide coalition. And to help guide other communities facing similar challenges, organizers in Menomonie have helped develop a toolkit for taking on hyperscale data centers. As of last October, there were about 3,000 new data centers being built or planned nationwide. Soon, a wave of data center projects was washing over Wisconsin towns. Data centers bring few permanent jobs and can drain municipal water resources, drive up electric bills, rob cities of tax revenues, and cause damaging noise, light and air pollution. Residents in Port Washington have complained about the disruption caused by around-the-clock construction at the new data center. Families near the construction in Beaver Dam have reported that their wells have run dry. Menomonie residents took to social media and the streets to raise the alarm about the data center proposal and organize community members. They met to share information, staged demonstrations and began attending city council meetings in growing numbers. By September 2025, there were over 10,000 Menomonie residents and allies in a Stop the Menomonie Data Center Facebook group — more than half the town’s population. Pressure from local campaigners was so great that Mayor Randy Knaack announced at a September 22 city council meeting that he had notified Balloonist that the city would not be moving forward with a development agreement. More good news came in January when the Menomonie City Council voted unanimously to place additional regulations on data center projects. One of the statewide coalition’s greatest achievements is the Big Tech Unchecked Toolkit. Published in December 2025 by Healthy Climate Wisconsin and other coalition partners, the toolkit includes information on what data centers are, their impacts on communities and success stories from struggles across Wisconsin, including Menomonie’s.
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Members of Gen Z and Millennials are attending phone-free experiences 567% more often across the globe, signaling a major shift in how people want to gather. Eventbrite data shows that the generations having grown up with limited to no social media and smartphone use, and which then lead the charge to its ubiquitous adoption, is now leading the world back—away from constant connectivity. These events now span the full calendar year, signaling a shift from temporary reset to sustained behavior. The momentum is most pronounced in the US and UK, though each market reflects a distinct pattern of growth. The United Kingdom has emerged as the global leader for phone-free socializing, with events growing by 1,200% and attendance increasing by 1,441%. Of course the previous amount will have been very small, and ... the overall number of phone-free events will still be low in comparison to others. There is a strong focus in the UK on countering loneliness and social isolation. In the United States, the offline or analog movement is defined by expansive participation. While event volume grew by 388%, attendance jumped by 913%. The growth is already accelerating. In just the first three months of 2026, phone-free experiences have reached over a third of last year’s global event volume, signaling that this is no longer a fringe behavior, but a mainstream way of gathering.
Note: Learn more about the young adults joining "offline" social clubs across Europe. Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and technology for good.
Known as the Night of Controversies, the Paris-based event featured about a dozen different sessions including debates ... as well as workshops on the art of the argument and non-violent communication. Run by the Institute of Desirable Futures, an organization working on corporate innovation and leadership, the project aims to “enrich us from our disagreements” and to “joyfully cast doubt on our certainties” in an era of growing polarization. The Night of Controversies was the institute’s first all-out, multi-session event dedicated to disagreement, with more than 600 Parisians attending. The initiative is part of a wider movement that sees finding common ground and learning to “disagree well” as a potent remedy to many of today’s societal and political woes. A study by researchers at the University of Cambridge in February 2026 found that divisions on social and political issues in the U.S. have increased by 64 percent since 1988, with most polarization after 2008. Julia Minson, a Harvard Kennedy School professor and behavioral scientist [said:] “When it comes to the U.S., people on the other side of the political spectrum are seen as unmoral, untrustworthy, not worthy of debate.” The French institute has run “controversy” events for over a decade, predominantly as part of its work with small and large companies and even politicians. More than 2,000 people have participated in the institute’s trainings on disagreement to date, spanning topics such as food production, climate change, AI, biomimetics and governance. The training might be intensively over a week or spread over several months of sessions. “I don’t think we are fundamentally in disagreement,” said one man. “Where we differ is our understanding of the political context.” As a society, we have three choices when confronted with different opinions. First, we can withdraw from interaction and keep to our inner circle. Second, we can try to dominate and impose our beliefs on others. Or thirdly, we can learn to live and grow with them. “Listening to opposing opinions can enrich us,” [Jean-Luc Verreaux, director-general of the institute] elaborates. “A diversity of perspectives can only improve how we build the world of tomorrow.”
Note: Our Substack, The Social Media Platform Transforming Division Into Common Ground, spotlights a game-changing social platform that's using technology for good and bringing people together across differences. Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division.
The Mt. Airy Babysitting Co-op is a beloved local institution that has been running since 1974. The premise is simple: Families in the co-op provide each other with free childcare. A point system — once tracked in a pen-and-paper ledger, now in Google Sheets — ensures that everyone contributes their fair share. Every half an hour is worth one point, with extra points for things like looking after multiple children or sitting after midnight, explains [Stef] Arck-Baynes, who now serves as the co-op’s membership chair. “If you do a sleepover, points are raining down on you!” With rising living costs and a growing childcare crisis, communal arrangements like this can be a lifeline for parents living far from extended family or still looking to build their “village.” It goes beyond saving money, says Arck-Baynes. Knowing that the evening’s babysitter is a fellow parent can make for a more trusting relationship. There are currently 17 families in the co-op. The logistics can seem overwhelming at first — there’s a vetting and voting process for new families, 16 pages of bylaws and a rotating secretarial role for coordinating sits and recording points. But it becomes second nature once you get a handle on it, says Arck-Baynes. “We’re constantly talking about how to make the process easier.” Mama geht tanzen (Mom’s going dancing) events have spread across cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands. Their “After-Care Parties” start at 8 p.m. and wrap up by 11, so moms can go clubbing without sacrificing their sleep (or their nerves) the next day. DJ Nikki Beatnik launched Mums that Rave in the U.K. after the birth of her child in 2019.
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Being hurt by others is common and can be deeply painful. Which raises the question of forgiveness. In the last few decades, researchers have helped us better understand how people experience forgiveness and how it influences our lives. The Global Flourishing Study seeks to enrich this knowledge from a more global perspective. Launched in 2021, the study follows people over time to understand what a good life looks like in different parts of the world – including health, happiness, meaning, relationships, character, and financial security. It’s the first study to measure forgiveness in national samples from many different cultures and contexts. In the first wave of data from more than 200,000 participants across 22 countries, my colleagues and I found that about 75% of individuals reported they had “often” or “always” forgiven those who had hurt them. Percentages varied across countries, ranging from 41% in Turkey to 92% in Nigeria. We looked at whether people who reported being more forgiving tended to report better well-being about a year later. We found that forgiveness predicted somewhat higher well-being on many of the 56 outcomes, including mental health, purpose in life, relationship satisfaction and hope. Decades of research have pointed to similar links. The hopeful news is that forgiveness isn’t a rare quality that some of us have and others lack. Studies have shown that forgiveness is like a muscle we can strengthen.
Note: For people who find forgiveness especially challenging, this project produced a forgiveness workbook that can be completed in about three hours. In the face of the brutal war machine, these powerful real-life stories show that we can heal, reimagine better alternatives, and plant the seeds of a global shift in consciousness to transform our world. Explore more powerful stories like this on healing social division.
“Agrihoods” [are] communities designed around a central farm. Like a garden in a big city, agrihoods promise to boost food security, reduce temperatures, capture rainwater and increase biodiversity. As climate change intensifies heat, flooding and pressure on food systems, agrihoods could be a way to make urban living more resilient — not just more picturesque. “Developers have a hard time offering open space, because they would like to build more housing,” said Vincent Mudd, a partner at the architectural firm Steinberg Hart, which designs agrihoods. “One of the few ways to kind of bridge that gap is to be able to use active open space that actually generates commerce.” On paper, an agrihood is a simple concept: A working farm surrounded by single- or multifamily housing. Steinberg Hart recently finished two of them in California — one in Santa Clara and another, called Fox Point Farms, in Encinitas. Scale that food production up across a city, and the impact could be huge: One study found that Los Angeles could meet a third of its need for vegetables by converting vacant lots into gardens. These green spaces help cool the neighborhood because their plants release water vapor, making summer more comfortable for the surrounding community. An agrihood can also support local biodiversity. Planting native flowering species, for instance, simultaneously beautifies the landscape and attracts pollinating insects, hummingbirds and bats.
Note: The rise of urban food forests across the US are ensuring that communities belong to affordable, equitable and resilient local food systems. Communities from Los Angeles, Florida, Illinois, to suburbs in the Netherlands are growing organic vegetables and food in their own yards, sharing their resources, and transforming neighborhoods. “I can’t think of a more generous gift to give to the community than to grow delicious, naturally organic food for the direct community,” [says Crop Swap LA subscriber] Katherine Wong. “This is one of the noblest things anyone is doing today.” Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and healing the Earth.
What if a ticket to the opera could also be a prescription against loneliness? In Hamburg, the nonprofit KulturistenHochZwei — a play on the words culture (kultur) and tourists (touristen) — is turning concert and museum visits into powerful social medicine. Founded in 2015 by Christine Worch ... the initiative pairs teenagers with older adults to attend cultural events — everything from symphony performances to plays and art exhibitions. For the seniors, many of whom live on limited incomes and might otherwise stay home alone, these shared outings are a way back into public life. “With the young people, I feel young again,” one 85-year-old from Bramfeld in the northeastern part of the city said after a concert at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. “They’re so kind and respectful. Everyone talks badly about youth these days, but these students are wonderful. We even exchanged phone numbers. I hope we can go again soon.” The idea is as elegant as it is effective. Seniors who fall below the income threshold — €1,350 ($1,575) per month for individuals or €1,750 ($2,040) for couples — receive free tickets to cultural events. But instead of attending alone, they’re matched with a “culture buddy” aged 16 or older, recruited through partnerships with local schools. For the young volunteers, the outings are a crash course in empathy and human connection. The teenagers commit to at least three cultural outings per school year and receive a certificate for their volunteer service.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and amazing seniors.
For the past decade, every year, Parisians like [Anne-Valérie] Desprez have been able to see their proposals come to life on the streets of the French capital. Under the city’s Participatory Budget, any resident above the age of seven, regardless of their nationality, can propose a project to be paid for by municipal funds. The model, increasingly popular across the globe, is helping authorities spend resources efficiently and boost democratic participation. In Paris, more than 21,000 ideas have been submitted by citizens since the scheme launched in 2014, resulting in 1,345 funded projects and an expenditure of €768 million (almost $900 million), including €263 million set aside for low-income districts. Each proposal must pass a feasibility study by city hall before being voted on by residents. “It is a very good device and it’s important,” says Yves Sintomer, a French researcher and co-author of the book Participatory Budgeting in Europe. It’s led to the creation of rooftop farms, children’s play areas, community art murals, shade structures and baggage storage for the homeless, as well as a number of projects at the [Cherry Sociocultural Center], which was founded in 1999. In 2017, following the center’s first successful budget proposal, benches were installed in the street out front, providing a place for people to congregate for free. Further funding from the participatory budget enabled the center to buy a cargo bike — shared with other local businesses — for short-distance deliveries in 2019.
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In Montana, a focus on restorative justice is reducing juvenile recidivism through a nonprofit program that engages them, rather than punishes them. The nonprofit believes that it’s actually far more challenging for juvenile offenders to look their victims in the eye and explain why they behaved antisocially than it is to simply serve a suspension from school, where they’re distanced from friends and mentors, and often fall behind in their education. The Center for Restorative Youth Justice (CRYJ), is not a new organization, but their influence in Montana is growing. CRYJ receives referrals from Youth Court probation officers, school administrators, or school resource officers made on behalf of a juvenile offender who’s broken the law. CRYJ then has a conference with the youth and their parent or guardian, and creates a tailormade program of restorative justice. This can involve peer group discussion, victim-offender meetings, and other situations where the youth is given the forum to reestablish a relationship with the community, rather than something like a school suspension. CRYJ believes that by limiting the overuse of exclusionary discipline and emphasizing a community-driven approach, it can help at-risk youth avoid falling behind in school. We spend a lot of time separating people after there’s been harm, but often the deepest healing and learning and moving forward can happen ... when we can actually come together and talk about what happened and how to make things right.
Note: Read more about the powerful work of restorative justice. Explore more positive stories like this on repairing criminal justice.
Ethan Welty and Caleb Phillips originally started Falling Fruit so they could keep track of edible plants in their city. The two are avid foragers, often sourcing their fruits and vegetables for free from city streets and public spaces. Foraging can help people save money and prevent food waste. And for Welty, one of the biggest benefits of Falling Fruit is that it can help people learn about the “different plants that have some sort of edible use” in their city. For instance, it’s a useful tool in community education programs, like urban foraging trips, as well as in classes that teach people how to prepare the foraged fruits and vegetables they brought home. Since launching in 2013, Falling Fruit has mapped over 4,000 different species of edible mushrooms and plants — including fruit trees, berries and herbs — across almost 2 million publicly accessible foraging spots in cities around the world. Zooming in on Billings, Montana, the Falling Fruit map reveals edible plants clustered within the city’s parks. These plants are part of the city’s Parkland Gleaning Project to give excess harvest to neighbors facing hunger. The interactive map offers details for foraging, but more than that, people can use it to learn more about their neighborhoods. Community programs ... can have a bigger impact when paired with the Falling Fruit map. Falling Fruit is completely sustained by app sales, with annual expenses sitting at about $2,000. The app costs $1 to download.
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In the misty hills of southern Haiti, the town of Beaumont sits on a fault line of tension. Yet in this uncertain landscape, a quiet movement has been unfolding, one led not by international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) or government officials, but by local mediators who believe that peace must begin with conversation. Their work, modest in scale but profound in effect, is helping rebuild what years of unrest have eroded: people’s belief in one another. At the heart of this effort is Médiation Lakay (“community-based mediation”), a grassroots initiative reflecting the work of local community leaders in Haiti who mediate disputes over land and resources. Elders, local officials, and church figures convene to discuss disputes before they escalate. Rather than waiting for formal judicial intervention, these mediators facilitate dialogue between families, helping them reach agreements and restore communication. “It’s not about who wins,” says Wilfrid, a local Haitian pastor. “It’s about whether both sides can share a plate of rice after.” The process blends traditional dispute resolution with restorative justice principles, an exchange of listening, acknowledgment, and reparative action. Disputes that might have lasted years are often resolved in weeks. The team keeps no written records, to preserve confidentiality and community trust. By focusing on rebuilding relationships rather than assigning blame, Médiation Lakay is gradually reweaving the social fabric that conflict had torn apart. “People came to understand that fear had made them cruel,” [school teacher] Josette says. Beyond conflict resolution, the group’s meetings have become spaces for collective healing, where villagers discuss shared trauma from past hurricanes or lost livelihoods. By focusing on rebuilding relationships rather than assigning blame, Médiation Lakay is gradually reweaving the social fabric that conflict had torn apart.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive healing social division and repairing criminal justice.
My journey into healing began 10 years later when an envelope containing a greeting card slid beneath my cell door at Florida State Prison. Inside was a card embossed with a dove carrying an olive branch—an image that would come to symbolize restorative justice in my life. “I’ve been thinking about you over the years,” it read. I stared at her handwriting, confused. When I wrote back, she revealed, “You killed my daughter and grandson.” That sat me down. The impact of what I’d done suddenly became tangible. I wept—for Pat, for Chris, for Agnes. We began exploring the shades and textures of the tragedy that connected us. Our relationship became a living example of restorative justice—pouring our spirits out like wine into each other’s hearts. On the morning of our meeting, I walked alone across the compound toward the visiting park. My heart raced as I prepared to meet the woman whose life I had shattered. Inside the visitation booth, I waited, unsure. When Agnes entered—small, strong, radiant—her presence filled the room. We had already done the hard work through years of letters and calls. This meeting was about connection, remembrance, and honoring the restorative justice we’d built. Agnes pressed her palm to mine through the glass. Her eyes met mine. I broke down. “I’m sorry,” I cried again and again. “I forgive you,” she said softly. “And I love you.” That moment—her smile through tears—was the purest expression of restorative justice I have ever witnessed.
Note: Watch a powerful clip of Leonard Scovens sharing his story with vulnerability and humanity. Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive human interest stories and repairing criminal justice.
Wade Milyard heard the voice from “out of nowhere” and knew he needed to listen—he thought it was God, or some other higher power. The former canine officer for the Frederick Police Department in Maryland was responding to a domestic dispute at a homeless camp. Soon after he investigated the disturbance, the voice rang out. “Ask them about their laundry.” Milyard heeded the voice, asked the question, and unknowingly set the course for a prayer-fulfilling future. The homeless couple he interviewed told him they typically washed their laundry in a nearby creek. The cop never forgot that response, nor his call to service. He pooled multiple donations with some of his own money and went to work creating a full service laundromat on wheels. Fresh Step Laundry was born—with a mission “to help restore dignity to the unhoused community by providing free, accessible, and hygienic laundry.” Since retiring from the police force in January, the 45-year-old has been traveling around his Maryland city, which is near D.C., making a difference—one load of wash at a time. He’s set a schedule so people can meet him to take advantage of his laundry service, and his email is at the bottom of the web page. In the last several weeks alone, Fresh Step has washed more than 2,000 pounds of laundry and his next goal is to add a second vehicle so he can double the number of people he can serve.
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In 2019, Ostbelgien, a town in Belgium with about 80,000 residents, took a gamble on a new approach to governing: The city’s parliament voted to establish a permanent Citizens’ Council and Assembly, giving randomly-selected citizens the power to make decisions. They called it, aptly, the Ostbelgien Model. “Its main objectives are providing citizens not only a permanent voice in the process of decision making but also a systematic monitoring system to ensure they are heard,” the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy writes. “Ultimately, the project seeks to increase accountability and reinvigorate the agenda-setting power of common citizens.” Now, about six years into the experiment, which was created with the express purpose of increasing trust in government, participants say it’s working. Once a year, about 1,500 letters are sent to randomly chosen residents in Ostbelgien. Recipients indicate their interest. Of those who express interest, about 30 are chosen to become members of the citizens’ assembly. The newly formed assembly meets once a week for about two months, with each participant receiving a stipend of 155 euros (or $133) per day. They are assigned a topic of concern and have in-depth discussions about how the government should proceed, with an appointed moderator present to help move things along. Their recommendations to the parliament are not binding, but lawmakers are required to consider them.
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The first time Mike Martin held an AK-47 was after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. “My faith tradition is rooted in peace and non-violence,” he says. Martin took the AK-47 to a nearby blacksmith in Colorado Springs, dismantled it and forged the metal into a shovel and a rake. This moment sparked the beginning of RAWtools (War spelled backwards), a nonprofit Martin now runs full-time, and a movement spanning four states with affiliates in Buffalo, NY; Philadelphia, PA; and Asheville, North Carolina. Since its humble beginnings 14 years ago, RAWtools has destroyed and repurposed more than 6,000 guns, forging them into garden tools and art. Martin now carries the trigger of the first Kalashnikovs he destroyed on a keyring. For Martin, the physical act of destroying a gun can be healing, but often it’s just the beginning of a bigger conversation. “The dominant culture often tells us that we can’t escape the violence, so we should therefore join the violence,” he says. “Instead, this counter-story of turning swords into plows insists that violence is the problem, not the solution.” Anybody can fill out a form on the RAWtools website, or respond to the buyback program “Guns to Gardens,” and arrange to donate their gun. Donors often want to be involved in transforming the weapon into a force for good. RAWtools regularly holds events, especially in front of churches and synagogues, not only to collect and transform guns, but to start conversations.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and healing the war machine.
A recent survey from the British Standards Institution found that 68% of teen respondents said they feel worse when they spend too much time on social media, and 47% would remove them from existence if they could. So it’s not surprising that hundreds of thousands of people are now attending ‘IRL’ events (in real life) where phones are either banned or limited. Several new services are now curating “offline experiences” for social gatherings and dating, and the number of these events that are landing on the calendars of Americans and Europeans is a testament to the deep desire for human-to-human contact. The Offline Club of Europe has over half-a-million Instagram followers (an ironic yardstick of success), and chapters across the continent gather at venues where one’s smartphone is locked in a box at the start of the event. Once inside, reading, chatting, sharing a drink, playing a board game—in short, everything we used to do to socialize—are preferred over looking down at your phone. In addition to the Offline Club, companies like Kanso, Sofar Sounds, and the app 222, are making a business out of disconnecting humans from their social media feeds that overflow with targeted ads and AI-generated drivel. Each one has found itself a niche, but all are returning us to the social activities that our parents used to do before phones. There are likely more options for engaging with the world and humanity offline; these are just a few that are exploding in popularity.
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