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- NiJeL: Community impact through mapping – Harnessing the local knowledge of refugees
NiJeL: Community impact through mapping – Harnessing the local knowledge of refugees
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
Refugees spend valuable time searching for nearby services and a social network. NiJeL will create an interactive mapping tool to give refugees and their providers a valuable baseline of spatial data and allow refugees to map their new communities.
Supporting organization:
NiJeL
URL:
http://www.nijel.org
City:
Tempe
State/Region:
Arizona
Country:
USA
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
The founders of NiJeL have worked with refugee resettlement organizations and see a great need for refugees, volunteers, and caseworkers to efficiently access and analyze spatial data on low-cost housing, employment, transportation, and other services. Refugees develop local knowledge about their communities that can benefit others, but don’t have a forum to exchange information easily. We will create a participatory mapping forum that can be replicated to any city where refugees are resettled.
Our web-based, open-source mapping tool will create a one-stop shop powered by refugees and their providers that will fulfill the needs of newly-resettled refugees and assist overloaded caseworkers and volunteers with spatial information. This participatory mapping and analysis tool will incorporate transportation, health care, employment, shopping, low-income housing, community centers, schools, second-hand stores, food-banks and any other services necessary to the community.
Refugees will be able to know where all the services around them are, either through the web or through paper maps. They will also be able to contribute their developing local knowledge of their community through our simple web interface, cell phone SMS, or by informing volunteers or caseworkers who can easily upload the information.
The time that caseworkers save with this tool in locating refugees' housing, employment, services, and transportation will give them more time to meet with their clients and help keep them from falling behind.
The resettlement organizations will be able to know and document that they are making the best decisions based on proximity to services, transportation, and community when they locate refugees to homes and assign them to employment.
Sustainability (financial) model:
NiJeL's financial model includes both earned and contributed income. Earned income will come from advertisement content on the open source mapping application website. Businesses will be listed that cater to refugees, such as second-hand stores, local grocers, and other refugee service providers. The resettlement organizations themselves may be able to pay for a portion of the service expense since it will save their caseworkers time and increase their organization's productivity. Contributed income could come in the form of government grants and also contributions from local organizations and individuals concerned about refugees.
Potential obstacles:
The involvement of refugees, who may have limited or no literacy is a challenge that we believe can be mitigated through support from resettlement caseworkers and dedicated volunteers who are able to navigate the web.
Resource Needs:
NiJeL's ability to impact the lives of refugees newly resettled in the US is dependent on getting funds to support database and website development.
Key Milestones:
In the initial 90 days of the project, NiJeL plans to:
- Launch a pilot program in Phoenix, Arizona for the 25,000 refugees and 4 resettlement organizations located there.
- Aggregate a foundation of spatial data on housing, employment, services, and other information that meets the specific needs of refugees and their caseworkers.
- Develop an open source web-based mapping application with foundational data for refugees, caseworkers, and volunteers.
- Engage the refugee community to add content to the site.
- Cell phone SMS capability for refugees, caseworkers, volunteers to upload info on the fly – text location and service (grocery, food stamps office, etc) to email linked to MySQL geospatial database.
Project Summary:
NiJeL, a community mapping organization based in Arizona, helps poor communities tell their stories through maps. Every year, approximately 70,000 refugees are resettled in the United States. Many come to the US from war-torn regions across the globe disoriented and have a difficult time navigating a new culture. Resettlement organizations, such as the International Rescue Committee, help to ease the transition for these refugees, but many of these organizations are stretched beyond their means. For hundreds of families, caseworkers spend valuable time searching for low-cost housing, employment, and services not to mention a transportation network to link it all up. And refugees spend countless hours searching for their new social networks and the services they need in a new land.
NiJeL proposes to assist the resettlement organizations and refugee communities, initially in the Phoenix metro area, by creating a web based mapping tool, which will allow refugees and providers quick access to the spatial data they need and a forum for anyone to add content. Refugees will be able to immediately locate:
- an affordable apartment
- nearby employment opportunities
- nearby governmental services and offices
- local schools
- nearby faith-based organizations
- child care, and
- local commercial services, like grocery stores, clothing stores, and banks
We envision a simple, yet powerful user interface where refugees can add their own content about their community and themselves. For example, a refugee who knows of a great place to get inexpensive children's clothing can add locational data, attributes, and comments to our map quickly and easily. Our site will be accessible to all language speakers through representational icons. In addition, our web application will have ability for caseworkers to analyze the data to find the best places to house new refugees, and to print maps for new families quickly with all the services around them. Refugees, caseworkers, and even volunteers can create new content, find new services, and even meet others in the community. Refugees will be able to contribute their developing local knowledge of their area through our simple web interface, cell phone SMS, or by informing volunteers or caseworkers who can easily upload the information.
The time that caseworkers save with this tool in locating refugees housing, employment, services, and transportation will give them more time to meet with the refugees and help keep them from falling behind. The resettlement organizations will be able to know and document that they are making the best decisions based on proximity to services, transportation, and community when they locate refugees to homes and assign them to employment.
NiJeL will integrate various state, local, and NGO data resources into one seamless, web-based map, which will aim to cover the caseworker's immediate data needs. NiJeL will use open source web mapping technology not only to serve these spatial data, but also to allow for participation from the refugee community and caseworkers to enhance their social networks.
