Every day the Good Good Good team collects the best good news in the world and shares it with our community. Here are the highlights for this week!
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The Best Positive News We’re Celebrating This Week —
Students in Florida are spending their Saturdays learning Black history lessons they don’t get in school
Students across the state of Florida are attending Black history lessons on Saturdays as a part of programs organized and hosted at community centers to teach important history lessons that students aren’t getting in schools.
The programs are largely supported by Black churches, with more than 400 congregations pledging to teach lessons developed by Faith in Florida as part of its Black history toolkit.
The lessons cover South Florida’s Caribbean roots, the state’s history of lynchings, the ways segregation still shapes communities, and grassroots activists in the Civil Rights Movement.
Why is this good news? While Florida has required public schools to teach African American history for the past 30 years, the state’s own metrics show only a dozen school districts demonstrate excellence at teaching it.
Only by learning the critical details of Black history can we chart a better, justice-oriented, equitable path forward for all. Until that happens in schools, people are taking proactive action to learn (and teach!) these lessons.
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Minnesota is banning phones in classrooms, and this club is helping teens with the transition
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A Florida teen invented a vibrating headset to help visually impaired people navigate their surroundings
An estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide are blind or visually impaired — 28% of the global population.
Emerging apps — and walking canes — can help, but unexpected factors (like cracked asphalt and construction hazards) can make a simple city walk incredibly dangerous.
And while guide dogs provide an invaluable service, they can be expensive, with some costing upwards of $50,000.
Fortunately, Orlando Science School high schooler Tiffani Gay invented a solution that could dramatically improve the lives of people with vision loss.
Her innovative headset sends vibrational warnings to the users to communicate obstacles — and she’s setting the price tag at $200.
So few babies are contracting the virus through their mothers, a camp for kids with HIV/AIDS is now closing
For more than 30 years, One Heartland in northern Minnesota welcomed young campers living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. The camp is now closing and the 80-acre site is going up for sale.
While former campers were saddened by the closing of the camp, ultimately, they said, it’s for the best possible reason.
HIV treatment has improved so significantly, the number of babies contracting the virus through their mothers through pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding has declined so much that the camp no longer needs to exist — there aren’t enough kids in need anymore.
Good progress: In the U.S., the perinatal HIV transmission rate is now less than 1% thanks to antiretroviral medications. And the news is good globally too: New HIV infections among children up to age 14 has declined by 38% since 2015 and AIDS-related deaths by 43%.
Joining a crowdfunding campaign, Kristen Bell donated $100,000 to pay off strangers’ medical bills
Teaming up with influencer Quentin Quarantino, Kristin Bell just donated $100,000 to help strangers pay off their medical bills.
With the issues surrounding the U.S. healthcare system in the spotlight, Quarantino saw an opportunity to help people in need — and reached out to Bell with a “no pressure” ask to get involved, too.
Bell generously agreed, offering up $100,000 of her own funds to the cause, too. The pair shared medical bill-related GoFundMe campaigns, and once the fundraiser reached half its goal from the public — Bell covered the second half.
Her donations included $20,932 to third grader Mia and $24,182 to Murilo — both of whom are battling leukemia.
Quarantino acknowledged that “we should not have to raise and give money in order for Americans to receive life-saving medical treatment,” but “until we can change the system, this is the reality. And we can be the helpers.”
More good news of the week —
A new ‘angel shot’ app helps bartenders hail Ubers and call the police with the tap of a button to help customers in need. The discreet code phrase has taken on a new life with an app that immediately alerts bar staff to instances of dangerous behavior, unwanted advances, and sexual harassment.
A village of tiny homes in Australia is supporting young people transitioning out of the child and family protection system. Ten self-contained “pod-style” homes were built on a once-empty suburban lot, helping foster community, provide support, and ease stress for teens leaving the system.
A lab in Colorado is helping restore the breadfruit tree lost in the Lahaina wildfire. On a larger scale, their efforts are intended to also undo the ecological damage done that made Maui so susceptible to wildfire.
A new, first-of-its-kind tongue-stimulating implant offers a new treatment option for people with sleep apnea. Sleep apnea causes breathing to stop repeatedly during sleep and is thought to affect about 8 million people in the UK.
Tens of thousands of volunteers planted 750,000 trees to help save a native Australian bird’s habitat. The Regent Honeyeater Project started in the 1990s and is “working wonders” both for the species and for other wildlife.
Quebec adopted a new law that will ban gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035. It’s part of the Canadian province’s larger plan to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, and it could go into effect even sooner if EV production can keep up with demand.
