GAGDC's Very Owns Makes It To The Sustainable City Urban App Finals
Reprinted /www.cnt.org/urban-apps
Published: June 8, 2016
The Urban Sustainability Apps Competition connects coders, designers, and developers with community leaders and representatives to solve neighborhood problems. Sheenita Robinson, Greater Auburn Gresham Development Coroporation, an idea leader took the challenge, "I want to work on an app that allows concerned citizens to provide feedback on properties and management in the communities."
Join the Center for Neighborhood Technology at the Sustain-a-City Celebration on June 16th where a panel of high-powered judges will choose the winning team and YOU will get to vote for your favorite!
Sheenita's idea stated simply but powerfully, is called Neighbors Creating Neighborhoods.
"Neighbors Creating Neighborhoods works like an advocacy group for tenants to address issues with landlords. Tenants encountering slunlords can use NCN as an easy way to report and document compliants tos spur landlords action. Information is shared with community leaders - includling the alderman, local organizations and more - to pressure landlords to fix Chicago's rental stock. On the flop side, it also publicly recognizes responsive landlords. Anyone who rents can share in the NCN community to help advocate for better housing."
The annual CNT Urban Sustainability Apps Competition sparks the fertile minds of individuals from Chicago’s neighborhoods to create digital solutions to real community problems facing residents every day. Over the course of the event, community activists and app developers will work together to create workable prototypes of apps that make our neighborhoods more sustainable, both environmentally and economically. We welcome participants from all corners of the city, whether you’re a local activist working to improve your neighborhood or a coding whiz looking to make a difference in the community.
The Apps Competition partners with 12 community-based organizations to spark robust conversations about strategies to improve neighborhoods:
Chatham Business Association
Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation
Bethel New Life, Inc.
Instituto del Progreso Latino
Chicago Commons
University of Chicago Innovation Exchange
Teamwork Englewood
Blue1647
Chicago Local Initiative Support Corporation
Greater Southwest Development Corporation
Residents Association of Greater Englewood
Southwest Organizing Project
The 2016 Urban Sustainability Apps Competition took place February through June in Chicago. The competition began online in February 2016, continued with the June 3-5 competition weekend at TechNexus (20 North Upper Wacker Drive, Suite 1200, Chicago), and culminates with the final judging at the Sustain-a-City Celebration on June 16.
See all 12 competiting apps at: urban sustainability apps concepts and ideas
The exciting lineup of judges:
Dr. Janice Jackson | Chief Education Officer, Chicago Board of Education
Shelley Stern Grach | Director – Civic Engagement for the Technology and Civic Engagement (TCE) group, Microsoft Corporation
Brenna Berman | Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) Commissioner and CIO
Devin Mathews | Partner at ParkerGale Capital
Peter Laundy | Peter Laundy Projects; formerly Doblin: A Member of Deloitte LLC
Elizabeth K. Lukehart | Associate Director, Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Northwestern University
Uzma Noormohamed | Program Analyst , Illinois Science and Energy Innovation Foundation
Deciding the winners was a difficult task. In the end, the judges chose these four finalists:
Chi Safe Path
Idea Leader: Steve Luker
Chi Safe Path allows users to submit geo-tagged images of sidewalk problems that hurt accessibility to Chicago’s 311 system. This will help wheelchair users and others with limited mobility access public spaces, buildings, and more. The app allows users to locate accessible directions to sites of their choosing based on the crowdsourced data modeled in a map interface.
Stop Crime App
Idea Leader: Maurice Gunn
Stop Crime App facilitates the anonymous reporting of crimes. The app allows for anonymous video, photo, or audio submissions directly from users’ phones to a trusted intermediary organization, providing real-time evidence that is GPS coded and time-stamped, which will make it easier for law enforcement to address crime and minimize the risk to residents. End users will be incentivized by consumer discounts, giveaways, and other value-adds.
Neighbors Creating Neighborhoods
Idea Leader: Sheenita Robinson
Neighbors Creating Neighborhoods works like an advocacy group for tenants to address issues with landlords. Tenants encountering slumlords can use NCN as an easy way to report and document complaints to spur landlord action. Information is shared with community leaders – including the alderman, local organizations, and more – to pressure landlords to fix Chicago’s rental stock. On the flip side, it also publicly recognizes responsive landlords. Anyone who rents can share in the NCN community to help advocate for better housing.
Schedule Scout
Idea Leader: Corliss King
Schedule Scout allows co-parents to coordinate the care and nurturing of their children, whatever the state of their relationship. Parents who may no longer have a functional relationship but continue to raise children together can use the app to track pickups, payments, connections, calendars, care givers, and more. Details that often go uncommunicated when a relationship goes sour can be tracked in the app, helping parents know where their kids are and what they are doing on a platform that the child can also access.
Join CNT at the Sustain-a-City Celebration on June 16th the panel of high-powered judges will choose the winning team and YOU will get to vote for your favorite!
Answer real, community-level questions and create apps that help solve local issues.
Keywords:
Center for Neigborhood Technology, Civic Tech, CNT, gagdc, Technology
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