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Users select their district on the interactive map and then they will be directed to the following page
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There is information about the representatives and senators. Users click a link to get an auto-generated email with the addresses pre-filled
Inspiration
A revolution is occurring across the nation and virtually on social media: the Black Lives Matter movement. Due to the pandemic, many people are hesitant to go outside to protest, but that should not stop them from protesting. We wanted to contribute more to the cause, so we decided to make a platform for people to easily get involved and have access to a range of information. Our two main focuses is to end qualified police immunity in the country and to get universities to pay more attention to racism on campus. As incoming college students, this is especially important to us, and it is upsetting to hear the stories of so many students finally voicing the hardships that they have faced. We want to put an end to this, and the best way we felt to make this happen is through web development.
What it does
Our website is an easy to use platform for users to send emails to New Jersey Senators/Representatives, and to colleges expressing their desire for change . Users can hover over their respective district and click it to receive information about their representative and senators and click a link that will auto-fill an email expressing interest in ending qualified immunity. The email addresses are pre-filled so users do not need to worry about looking for this information. We did the research, so it is a convenient way for them to express interest in seconds. Our second part addresses ways to reach out to colleges and schools to end racism in schools. We have provided links to various resources including petitions to get colleges to match donations, donation links, interest forms, and other means of support to these organizations fighting against racism in these campuses. And unfortunately, a lot of schools are not taking much action, so we decided to make a pre-filled email generator for this part too, expressing interest in what the school is doing to combat this issue, and how we can get involved. It shows schools that we as students are interested in what they are doing, but also helps students help cultivable a better learning environment.
How we built it
We used HTML, javascript, and css to build out interactive site. We collaborated through visual studio.
Challenges we ran into
We really wanted to incorporate the google-maps-api for javascript and other apis to make it more feasible for users to enter their location and get their senators/representatives. We wanted to use the AddressToRepresentative feature that the api offered but we were having trouble with interpreting the java script and the backend components involved with rubyand jekyll. We plan to expand this site in the future and put in on a domain, and will implement these features for a more user friendly experience.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We used the map tag for the first time in html and it was a cool feature that we implemented successfully. We also were able to style the site to be user-friendly in the time that we had. We also spent a lot of time with APIs this weekend, specifically the google maps APIs. Although we were not able to implement all of the feature from it in the time being, we spent time reading about other backend features like jekylland ruby installerand this was new to us. We came out with a strong understanding of web development and using github, but also how to move forward with our idea. We want to implement APIs into this site to make it more user friendly, but also take advantage of other features such as the AddressToRepresentative feature that makes it more easier for users to type in their address to get required information.
What we learned
We learned a lot about backend development this weekend. We were not able to incorporate every feature that we would have liked due to the troubleshooting costing a lot of time, but in the end, we understand how to leverage the apis that google has to offer and implement them more effectively. For example, we understand the use of jekyll to make this process effective and this was new to us at the beginning of the competition.
What's next for blmContact
We would like to use the AddressToRepresentative feature in the google-map-API javascriptand use that to make an effective way for users to get information in one step. We also want to style the website better and then put it on a domain to get people we know involved!
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