Civic Leaf

• 

  Sidebar

• 

  My Events

• 

  Event Map

Inspiration

Frustration with existing systems of volunteer coordination and management, we decided to create an app that would allow users to easily register and keep track of volunteer events, but the project soon grew far beyond that scope.

What it does

Users can create and register for events (much like SignUpGenius) and receive announcements/updates from the organizers (similar to Remind101, group chats, etc). Users can also opt-in to receiving push notifications from local events in urgent need of volunteers.

How we built it

We used Flutter to build the client app. To store users and events, we used Firebase Authentication and Firestore, along with some Cloud Functions to handle some minor tasks.

Challenges I ran into

Early on, Firebase integration was working perfectly, but after making some small changes to the database, the app integration started falling apart. Even though it took us multiple git commits and a couple hours of mind-numbingly staring at the computer screen, we managed to fix the issue and continue on with the project.

Additionally, starting the project at 8 PM the night of the contest was ill-advised.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are proud of how managing to setup and integrate the Firebase platform so quickly. We are also very proud of the maps UI and how it looks.

What I learned

We learned how to properly manage and organize a Firebase database. This was also the first app we created that utilized a proper backend that we had to create

We also learned that sleep is for the weak.

What's next for Civic Leaf

We plan to polish up the local event notifications, as due to the time constraints of the Hackathon, we were unable to properly test its functionality. We also plan to implement participation certificates, which could replace student volunteer logs and ease the work of youth outreach organizations. If we decide to pursue these goals, we would also likely submit this app to the Congressional App Challenge 2020.

Built With

• dart
• firebase
• flutter