Inspiration
The inspiration for this project comes from my (Michael) childhood living with very limited resources. Many members of my community faced similar obstacles. We had family members that could not support us despite their efforts to do so. We would attend neighborhood food truck services at community centers while our parents or grandparents were working or at home. On the other hand, our parents and grandparents would navigate churches that would post signs throughout the community. However, we were not always able to make it to these places on time because we may have seen the sign too late, so either they were no longer holding the services or all of the sources had been exhausted. Our schools may advertise extended services for food, clothes, medical supplies, and more, but due to insufficient funding, these extended services had little impact on our community. This is a common narrative in disadvantaged communities. COVID-19 has only complicated these issues more. However, this service-based application that we are providing to the people aims to act beyond COVID-19. We want to extend beyond the technological divide and address and assess resource distribution across various communities.
What it does
Our application aims to connect resources with communities. While some have addressed this issue through mere search engines, we address communities that were previously left out of being served. We inspire a healthy network of donors, volunteers, and searchers who need some relief during these difficult times. We aim to act beyond COVID-19.
Our application extends to several platforms to serve different groups of individuals. Firstly, provided that many individuals in disadvantaged communities lack a smart device and necessary skills to use these devices, we offer a voice and text service for those with a device that lacks internet connectivity. This allows for an individual to call our "hotline" to request certain resources; we can connect them with a willing volunteer who will act on their behalf or with the automated service. We will then perform a search to determine if their query can be satisfied. If it can be satisfied, we will notify the searcher. We will allow the searcher to request for delivery services, which will be upheld by local volunteers. Anyone who lacks a questionable criminal record has the ability to volunteer. For instance, students are often looking for additional ways to give back to the community; existing Uber and Lyft routes can be utilized to distribute these resources; and more. This solves several issues, especially during this time. We want to maintain social distancing while also providing for families who are stricken with unemployment, health issues, no transportation, and more.
Two of several use-cases: Here is one of several use-case scenarios: Betty is a grandmother who is not employed and supports several grandchildren. She struggles to provide for her grandchildren. During this pandemic, it is best that she does not go outside. Furthermore, lacking the confidence and skills to navigate a complicated interface, she can reach out for necessary resources by calling our number or using our texting service. We will then attempt to find the resources she needs. When we find them, we will notify her. At her consent, we will provide (or link her with) a volunteer to deliver the resources to her. If she needs this service in the future when COVID-19 cools down, she can still use it.
James is a father of two; he is unemployed. He is currently struggling as the pandemic continues and the stimulus check he received was not enough to relieve his family of stress. He searches and searches through many Facebook groups for assistance and relief. He finds someone willing to help. However, because he is facing a rough time, this only helped him and his family for a couple weeks. This means he will have to go search the web for resources every time he is in need, and this can take time to find what he needs. Instead of working through this uncertain, iterative process, he can navigate to our application and we can connect him with resources via donor participants who are willing to give. We can provide him with the resources (assuming availability). He might not be able to leave home because he cannot leave his children alone, so he can opt for delivery. James is smiling and so are his children.
How we built it
We built this project using several languages and frameworks (alongside several tools). The relational database was built in MySQL, where our NodeJS backend uses the mysql package to connect with the database. We use a few Google API's for distance matrices, geolocation, and more. NodeJS Express framework is used for routing in our web-application while React supports our client-side. Furthermore, Python is used for gathering, cleaning, and storing data for the initial launch. Lastly, having already built most of the backend in NodeJS, TWILIO API offers a powerful interface for managing call centers and building automated voice and text chatbots. Python TensorFlow libraries will be used in future stages.
Challenges we ran into
While we advertise extending beyond the technological divide, I (Michael) was unable to build the automated phone system before submission because I was unable to reach network administrators at my college to resolve firewall configurations imposed on the network. The network restrictions prevented remote access to the database so that our phone system could interact with it based on the AI-powered chat bot. This has temporarily acted as a barrier to moving forward on this component. Another challenge was navigating time schedules to communicate with one another. We had only met once. Knowing where each of us were in the sub-projects was an issue.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our accomplishments is that we learned a lot. Progress was made despite major challenges.
What we learned
Michael : In the past, I had only worked in algorithms and research. I had never applied programming to large projects. It was an experience of diving into the water without knowing how to swim. I had not designed projects, databases, and navigated large projects with teams. I had to learn how to navigate the realm of MySQL (learning the basics and then moving into stored procedures and triggers). I had only worked in Javascript once before the project, so I spent some upfront time picking up the language, though most of this was done by jumping directly into NodeJS and working with Express framework. Most importantly, having developed skill sets in multiple areas, I feel more comfortable with attacking many issues that face us all.
What's next for Reach
- Integrate an expanded definition of 'resource'
- Reach does not stop with COVID-19. This initial stage plan provides a platform to propel Reach in the direction of collecting data on communities and their common needs and then 'learning' how to allocate resources as resources become available; this extends to resource allocation in the wake of natural disasters and predicting which communities would need which resources.
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