COVID On The BLOCK

A website which provides resources for those who are impacted by COVID-19 pandemic, included with community-contributed resources.

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Inspiration

This was our first hackathon, and we weren't sure how to start. Based on the Devpost page, we created a theme and mission for our project. It boiled down to doing something for the common good and to integrate it with cloud technology (AWS/Google Cloud). Taking an approach similar to how carrd.co sites were made (e.g. BLM, crises, social movements), resources were available, but not exactly map-able. People would often have to scroll through long docs, Twitter/Reddit/FB/(whatever you use) threads, or pages with links overflow, often resulting in harder-to-find resources that may be important or missed.

Enter COVID on the Block: www.covidontheblock.org

Alternative Link: http://dbllznd2wlj1v.cloudfront.net

What it does

Why COVID on the Block? We aim to make COVID on the Block a location based resource website. Keeping efficiency in mind, we put everything someone may need during this pandemic into one central location. We mapped every single location and website in Maricopa with COVID related resources: foodstuffs, shelter, medical supplies, testing centers, emergency rooms, unemployment, and even local community resources! This way, anyone wanting to find a COVID related resource can go onto our website and get the help they need. Furthermore, we realized there were many untapped resources in the community. We let users submit their own contribution to fight COVID such as masks, canned food, etc and it populates the community map.

How we built it

We downloaded a HTML & CSS template and modified it to our categories. Having minimalism in mind, each category is an image with an embed link which takes the user to the resource they need. The maps of resources are created through google maps and google earth pro and embedded for each category. For the user input, we created a Google Form that collects user's resource(s) and preferred location via coordinates. Using the Google API we downloaded the information and created a KML file, this file was then embedded into the website. This process is run on a 1 hour timer using Lambda. Our website is hosted in AWS and https functionality is added through cloudfront. Route 53 is used to add our own custom domain name.

Challenges we ran into

Formatting the HTML template to our needs. Creating custom google maps with all the resources. Getting KML to be embedded in our website. Configuring different parts of AWS to work together. Uploading a python file with all its dependencies to Lambda. Getting Lambda to fully function, still having errors.

Improvements and What's next

Our Community Resources tab can be improved upon by:

  • using something more practical for geolocation, such as addresses or zip codes.
  • adding descriptions and contact information (like where/when users are available, how many resources they have, etc.)

Eventually, we hope to move our database to AWS's Aurora to scale and handle more user inputs from a custom-built form on our website.

For now, we only have data populated for Maricopa County, but we plan to take it to the next level. We hope to populate helpful resources to people everywhere in the United States (and potentially the world) based on their location!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We made a website with useful information. And the website is interactive with users to contribute their content!

What we learned

Working with various AWS services such as webhosting and serverless. We also learned how to create a custom map that updates with user inputs.

Acknowledgments

Thank you: sunhacks organizers for not sleeping and helping us, mentors, sponsors, and everyone else behind the scenes to keep this up and running! Without you guys, we would not have a hackathon. Oh, and Good Morning Kevin from MLH! (Does this count as swag ;) )

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