Stanford Social Innovation Review

Texting emerges as a source of confirmation for drug legitimacy

By 1998, thousands of people had contracted HIV and hepatitis C from Canada’s tainted blood supply. To restore the supply and the public’s trust, the federal, provincial, and territorial governments of Canada created a new organization, Canadian Blood Services. Despite the public health tragedy that it inherited, Canadian Blood Services rebuilt Canadians’ faith in the nation’s blood supply by infusing transparency into its structure, culture, and operations. —By Moe Abecassis, David Benjamin, & Lorna Tessier

Paying people to practice safe sex. 

LivingGoods sends its version of Avon ladies—white-uniformed “health promoters"—knocking on doors in hundreds of Ugandan communities.

THE INSANITY OFFENSE: How America’s Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens by E. Fuller Torrey

Grassroot Soccer uses the world’s most popular sport to educate kids in sub-Saharan Africa about HIV and its prevention.

Public nursing homes outshine nonprofits and for-profits.

When the Salk polio vaccine proved to be effective in 1955, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis had to choose whether to close up shop or to pursue a new agenda. The foundation first broadened its mission, but lost donations, volunteers, and public support. After honing its mission to birth defects, however, it recovered. Here’s how the organization that eventually became the March of Dimes planned – and survived – its transitions.

Toxic environments knock impoverished kids’ systems out of kilter.

The Population Media Center mixes science with soap operas to protect public health.

Jimmy Carter details his ongoing efforts to make a difference as John Q. Citizen.

How for-profit clinics are healing and enriching the rural poor in Kenya.

The Montana Meth Project’s graphic ads saturate TV, radio, billboards, and newspapers to portray the reality of methamphetamine use, in all its grit. Scabs and body sores are just the beginning. So far, the shock factor is working.