Inspiration Chapel Hill is a town full of resources such as food pantries, free clinics, shelters, and job training centers. People have built them, funded them, and staffed them because they care about the community; however, for someone who actually needs them, finding them is pretty difficult. You search online and get outdated pages, disconnected phone numbers, and misinformation. I wanted to fix that. I don't have the resources to create new resources, but I wanted to make the ones we already have easier to find. BridgeWay is built on a simple belief: if help exists in your community, you should be able to find it in seconds.
What it does BridgeWay is a community resource map for Chapel Hill and Orange County, NC. It lets anyone instantly find food banks, shelters, clinics, and job training centers. Every resource is pinned on an interactive map with real addresses, phone numbers, and hours. One click opens Google Maps directions straight from where you are.
How I built it
I built BridgeWay from scratch as a single-page web app using plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The map is powered by Leaflet.js, a free open-source mapping library, with OpenStreetMap tiles. There is zero API keys and zero cost involved.
The data is hand-curated JavaScript array of real Chapel Hill and Orange County Organizations. Each resource has coordinates that I looked up manually on Google Maps to place pins accurately.
The UI is built around:
- Filter buttons - toggle categories on and off using a JavaScript Set.
- Search - Filters the sidebar list in real time as you type.
- Click to explore - Clicking any card or map pin flies the map to that location and slides up a detail panel with full information.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Time: Building solo in a short window meant making real decisions about what to cut. I kept the stack as simple as possible so I could focus on making the core experience really polished rather than building something complex that half-worked.
JavaScript bugs: I have recently started coding in JavaScript, so I had a lot of syntax errors at the beginning, trying to have variables declared inside my function that is supposed to load after my map and resources are loaded. Making sure my variables and functions were in the right containers was difficult as well.
Finding accurate data: Finding real and up-to-date resource information for Chapel Hill took some time and research. I cross-referenced multiple sources to make sure phone numbers, addresses, and hours were accurate.
What I learned
This project made me learn that the hardest part of building useful software isn't the code, it's understanding the real problem deeply enough to solve it well. I got much more comfortable with CSS, debugging, and thinking about real users while making design decisions.
What's next for BridgeWay
BridgeWay is a foundation, not a finished project. With more time, I'd love to add a user geolocation so users can sort resources by distance. I would like to build a submission form so community members can add new resources. I'm very passionate about learning new languages so I would love to have multilingual support for those who do not understand English. I would also like to connect to a real database so information stays up to date automatically.
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