One idea that came out of the event we hosted for the National Day of Civic Hacking was to build a tool that would give the formerly incarcerated a digital support group where they can share their stories and provide useful information to others involved in the reentry process. One key observation was that those who are returning from prison are more trusting of those who have been through similar experiences.
This tool would help humanize the formerly incarcerated by allowing them to write about their experiences. Success stories can help motivate those who are transitioning back to society while other stories can help reveal the truth of what actually happens to the people who are released from prison and can serve to highlight breakdowns in the corrections system.
Additionally, this tool could be a place to find and read reviews of social services, as well as providing feedback and reviews about the 211 and other reentry services.
Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from this project?
This project would directly help those transitioning back to society and indirectly benefit the family, friends, and other advocates.
Links to any research/data available/articles
NOLA For Life offers a resource guide with a lot of useful information for those returning from prison. However this is a static resource that doesn't allow for any feedback.
Vialink is the 211 provider who maintains a database of Health and Human Services Resources.
Ohana is a project built by Code for America fellows to help maintain their own resource directory of human service providers. It could serve as a good starting point for our social service review component.
The City of New Orleans is tracking their progress towards public safety objectives on ResultsNOLA and some metrics are specifically about reentry
What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?
One major assumption is that those returning from prison would have access to the internet. Another assumption is that they would have the digital literacy needed to use the site or have someone who could help them. We need to validate these assumptions and do more research on the types of users who are using this site. Developing some user personas would be a helpful next step.
Also, we need to find out how we can get the data to populate our database of social services. Vialink doesn't appear to allow us to scrape their site judging by the ominous warning on their site that reads "This proprietary data is for the use of VIA LINK 2-1-1 and its clients. Its use by any other agency or organization is strictly forbidden and subject to prosecution"
What help is needed at this time?
Eventually we need a clearly defined project owner but for now it would be useful to have some more input from others who are interested in keeping the ball rolling on this project.
What problem are we trying to solve?
One idea that came out of the event we hosted for the National Day of Civic Hacking was to build a tool that would give the formerly incarcerated a digital support group where they can share their stories and provide useful information to others involved in the reentry process. One key observation was that those who are returning from prison are more trusting of those who have been through similar experiences.
This tool would help humanize the formerly incarcerated by allowing them to write about their experiences. Success stories can help motivate those who are transitioning back to society while other stories can help reveal the truth of what actually happens to the people who are released from prison and can serve to highlight breakdowns in the corrections system.
Additionally, this tool could be a place to find and read reviews of social services, as well as providing feedback and reviews about the 211 and other reentry services.
Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from this project?
This project would directly help those transitioning back to society and indirectly benefit the family, friends, and other advocates.
Links to any research/data available/articles
NOLA For Life offers a resource guide with a lot of useful information for those returning from prison. However this is a static resource that doesn't allow for any feedback.
V.O.T.E, Voice Of The Ex-Offender was mentioned as a possible partner that could help administer and moderate the site.
Vialink is the 211 provider who maintains a database of Health and Human Services Resources.
Ohana is a project built by Code for America fellows to help maintain their own resource directory of human service providers. It could serve as a good starting point for our social service review component.
The City of New Orleans is tracking their progress towards public safety objectives on ResultsNOLA and some metrics are specifically about reentry
What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?
One major assumption is that those returning from prison would have access to the internet. Another assumption is that they would have the digital literacy needed to use the site or have someone who could help them. We need to validate these assumptions and do more research on the types of users who are using this site. Developing some user personas would be a helpful next step.
Also, we need to find out how we can get the data to populate our database of social services. Vialink doesn't appear to allow us to scrape their site judging by the ominous warning on their site that reads "This proprietary data is for the use of VIA LINK 2-1-1 and its clients. Its use by any other agency or organization is strictly forbidden and subject to prosecution"
What help is needed at this time?
Eventually we need a clearly defined project owner but for now it would be useful to have some more input from others who are interested in keeping the ball rolling on this project.