NeighborBridge ATL

Inspiration

We created NeighborBridge ATL to make it easier for Atlanta residents to find support and for neighbors to discover ways to help. Food and housing resources can be difficult to navigate when information is spread across different organizations, eligibility requirements are unclear, or people do not know what step to take next. At the same time, community members may have time or skills to contribute but not know where to begin.

The need is especially visible in housing: from June 2025 through May 2026, 142,047 eviction filings were recorded across five core metro Atlanta counties. Filings are not the same as completed evictions, but they show how many households may need help navigating housing instability.

We designed around three illustrative personas: Maya, a college student looking for nearby food assistance; Marcus, a resident facing housing instability; and Jordan, a community member looking for ways to give back. Their different journeys helped us focus the project on two pathways: Find Support and Exchange & Contribute.

What it does

NeighborBridge ATL helps users explore food and housing resources by need and ZIP code, review resource details, and find a next step such as contacting a provider. Its Community Exchange board gives users another way to participate by exploring community needs, offers, skills, and volunteer opportunities.

Resource browsing does not require an account. Community listings and interest interactions are demonstrations using sample data unless they are connected to live functionality.

How we built it

We designed NeighborBridge ATL as a mobile-first experience in Figma, organized around two main pathways. In Find Support, a user selects food or housing assistance, searches by ZIP code, reviews resource details, and finds a next step. In Exchange & Contribute, users can explore community needs, offers, skills, and volunteer opportunities.

The interface emphasizes plain language, clear actions, and browsing without requiring an account. The Atlanta Community Food Bank card in the Find Support resource directory links to the organization’s resources. The resource filters and other buttons outside the demo cards are interactive; most examples in Exchange & Contribute use simulated data to demonstrate the experience.

Challenges we ran into

Our original concept included resource navigation, direct bartering, and a time-based credit system. Building all of these within the hackathon timeline would have added complexity, along with important moderation and trust-and-safety needs.

We narrowed the MVP to resource discovery and a lightweight community exchange experience. This helped us focus on clear next steps while keeping more complex exchange and credit features as future possibilities.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We brought two related experiences, finding support and finding ways to help, together in one mobile-first concept. We’re proud that the resource directory gives users a clear path from choosing a need to reviewing a provider’s information, while the exchange board shows how community members could contribute in different ways.

We also made the prototype’s limits visible: sample community listings are presented as demonstrations rather than live requests or confirmed opportunities.

What we learned

We learned that finding a resource is only part of getting help. People also need to understand eligibility, confirm details, and know how to take the next step. That shaped our focus on clear resource details and direct provider contact.

We also learned to keep the MVP focused. A simple, accessible path to useful information is more valuable than promising features that are not ready. Our personas and user journeys helped us prioritize those paths and make the prototype easier to understand.

What's next for NeighborBridge ATL

Next, we hope to build partnerships with local nonprofits and community organizations, verify and moderate community contributions, improve resource updates, and expand coverage across metro Atlanta. We also want to explore multilingual and SMS access and, over time, a community time-banking system.