Persephone

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Inspiration

Our inspiration came from trying to create a project geared toward women. We wanted to create a website that provides resources to more women. Specifically, we wanted to make the locations of several help centers and shelters more available, since their locations are less likely to be known right away. The project we ended up making is exactly this idea, but on a bit smaller of a scale.

What it does

Our website can provide the locations of the closest shelters and help centers to either a given location or at the user's location. The user will be able to get these locations by entering a zip code into the search bar or by clicking on "Use My Location" to use their current location. In addition, the user can filter which places come up to either women's only shelters or places specifically for those dealing with domestic violence. Earlier, we stated that our project was on a smaller scale than what we had been thinking of, which meant that we limited our current locations to within LA county.

How we built it

We built our website using a combination of mainly Python, HTML, Figma, and CSS with a little bit of Javascript. For our frontend, we used Figma to design our website and then used CSS and HTML to execute it. In addition, we used Google Maps API to show our map and locations. For our backend, we used SQLite to translate the data we got from a LA county database on shelters to a SQL database. Then, using Python, we extracted the information we wanted (information that would be requested by the user). We also used Python and Ipify API to find a user's current location. Using Javascript and Flask, we connected the frontend and backend by communicating the inputs and outputs of each side.

Challenges we ran into

Some major challenges we ran into were in connecting the frontend and backend. While we either already knew how to code the backend or could quickly pick up similar languages for the frontend, we were all entirely new to Flask, which was key in integrating the two sides. We ran into a lot of obstacles, such as our css files or templates not showing up and not knowing how to communicate between our HTML and Python files. We ended up spending a good chunk of our time working on this aspect, as we had to work through and figure out how to use the different methods of Flask.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of how much we learned, since we had a lot to learn. Another accomplishment we're proud of is how we created a cohesive project that looks and feels like it runs smoothly.

What we learned

We learned Figma, HTML, CSS, Flask, how to integrate frontend and backend, and how to build a website from scratch. We all came into this project with very little frontend and design experience, so we were challenged in this aspect, which in turn forced us to grow.

What's next for Persephone

Some further developments that can be made to Persephone is to expand both the range of locations, to encompass more than just LA county, and the types of location, like adding in hospitals, police stations, etc. We could also expand our website to allow for more results and output more information about each location.