Local Changemakers App

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Local Changemakers App: Getting involved is hard. Try starting with a mobile app for local problems.

New Orleans, United States
Year Founded:
2017
Organization type: 
nonprofit/ngo/citizen sector
Project Stage:
Idea
Budget: 
$1,000 - $10,000
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Scaling strategies launched within the past 6 months:
Not Applicable
Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Big thanks to social media for helping drive large-scale social change! However, I still find 10 bottles of beer on my walk to school and wonder why local change is so difficult. Let's create an app to drive local change in order to clean up our communities and start some truly authentic movements!

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if everyone in your neighborhood got together to clean up the storm debris from an elderly woman's front yard?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

Local change is hard because there are very little platforms for reaching out to the community directly around us. You may be connected to 10,000 people across different social media platforms, but I know myself and others included don't even speak to the neighbors next door. If this precedent of being closed-off from the community directly around us remains how will neighborhood-wide actions ever occur?

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

"Local Changemakers" is an app with three sections that connects individuals in specific communities. The 1st section is the "Current Problems" section. This section allows users to input problems in their specific community. Ex: "Trash on streets." Users in the community then upvote or downvote problems. The problem at the top of the list after one month is transferred to the second section. Here, users input proposed actions to address the problem, and the one at the top of the list after a month is transferred to the final section. The 3rd section implements the action. A date is selected by the head of the organization around the first of the next month. All sections run continuously, so a community action is implemented each month.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

Section one: Problems can include anything from "trash on streets" to "audiences needed to recognize hidden community talent." Section two: "Trash on streets" is chosen as top problem of the month to be addressed. Ideas to address problem for "trash on streets" include: 1) Organize a community clean-up day. 2) Draw from community donations. Bike club will clean the streets and receive $100 towards their repair shop. 3) Sign a petition to ask local government to do a better job cleaning the streets after government-run parades. "Bike club" idea was top vote of the month to address the problem. Funds are collected and bike club organizes a day at the beginning of the following month to clean the streets. The possibilities are limitless!

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

Have not developed the app yet; only an idea. The future impact is more community actions, which lead to more community interactions, and ultimately a greater sense of community among members. So not only are local problems addressed in the community, but also all of the members in the community feel like they have a direct voice and belong to a cause that affects the people around them.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

Start with small pilot organizations. See what problems in the app itself need to be addressed (the app team can be its own community :) ). Work up to larger organizations and maybe one day "Local Changemakers" can be renamed to "Global Changemakers."
Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

The app is purely volunteer-based. It is very simple to create, and is really run by community members themselves. If full-time positions are needed, advertisements within the app or corporate contributions might become necessary to provide some sort of income. App itself is free. No exceptions.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

There are a lot of attempts at organizing communities for action. Social media makes this really easy. For example, there are many facebook groups that I am involved in that are ideal community groups for the app itself. The key difference is that the app is focused. It is designed for a community to have a plan of action each month. Problems and solutions to those problems are explicitly asked for, and I predict marvelous ideas to emerge in this grassroots social platform.
Team

Founding Story

The initial problem that inspired this idea for me was just how messy the area around the student dorms where I lived were. Even though we all realized the problem, it was too much trash for just one person to clean up. There seemed to be no way to gather the community together to solve this easy-fix problem in a positive way.