2015 – Smart Chicago

Join mRelief at Chicago’s #CodeAcross Food Stamp Hackathon

Christopher WhitakerFebruary 16, 2015

On February 20th, the mRelief team will be hosting a Food Stamp Hackathon as part of Code for America’s Code Across event.

mRelief.com empowers Chicagoans with a tool to access the welfare system in unprecedented ways by determining food stamp eligibility through text messaging and web tools which direct people to their next step in the application.

Sponsored by Microsoft and in partnership with the Harris Food Policy Advocacy Group, Code for America, and Women of Code, mRelief’s hackathon invites thought leaders in policy and computer programming to expand current eligibility screening for food stamps in Illinois. The event will focus on policy rules that impact overall eligibility, accessibility for students and applicants of varying types of citizenship, and documents that people need for food stamp eligibility.

As part of Code for America’s national Code Across event, mRelief has also set up a national repository for food stamp hackers across the country to view code for their web and SMS tools and submit the code for their states so that mRelief can sustain the work beyond the weekend. CodeAcross is a weekend of civic hacking events hosted by nodes of the Code for America network around the world. It is timed to coincide with both the last weekend of the Code for America Fellows residency and International Open Data Day. The goal of CodeAcross is to activate the Code for America network and inspire residents everywhere to get actively involved in their community.

The local event and mRelief’s national challenge on Github was organized by the all-women software development team at mRelief. mRelief’s tools simplifies the social service qualifying process with for food stamps and many other immediate needs. Illinois residents can check to see if they’re eligible for a variety of healthcare, rental assistance, cash assistance, transportation, and child welfare related programs.

Full details of the event can be found here.

Follow, the team on twitter at @mrelief_form

Attend the local event at: bit.ly/chifoodstamps

Sign up for the national event at: bit.ly/foodstampsusa

Next at the OpenGov Chicago Meetup: Local School Councils

Christopher WhitakerFebruary 16, 2015

opengovchicago At the next OpenGov Chicago Meetup, we’re continuing our new series that focuses on learning about and helping grassroots groups that interact with official government functions.

Next up is Local School Councils of the Chicago Public Schools. There are hundreds of LSCs covering the entire city, and they are populated by regular Chicago residents who care about their neighborhoods (including our very own Josh Kalov). We will hear from people who run these councils, find out what kind of data and technology they use, and figure out we can help.

The next meetup will take place at the Chicago Community Trust on March 5th at 6:00pm.

Examples of Cook County Data in Use

Josh KalovFebruary 10, 2015

Here are some recent examples of Cook County Open Data in use:

LargeLots used Cook County parcel data to make it easier for people to see available city lots. This was one of the most successful tech-focused projects for the City in 2014, and the parcel data was essential to the interface.
The Chicago Sun-Times used the parcel data in a story about parking lots near the United Center
The Better Government Association uses salary data to make their popular lookup tool more accurate and up-to-date

If you are using Cook County Open Data, let us know!

Cook County Land Bank Property Viewer

Josh KalovFebruary 9, 2015

Recently the Cook County Land Bank launched a new online property viewer and search tool. The site includes property owned by the land bank and property that may be available to the land bank.

Initially you can search by parcel number, street address, or city or you can view all properties. The main view shows a map and a list of the properties. The property locations are color-coded by property classification such as “Residential Land” and “Residential Structure.” Searches can be filtered by location and building characteristics. The map can show additional layers such as recent foreclosures, tax sales, TIF districts, and floodplains.

You can click on a property to get to a property detail page with more information and pictures.

By creating an account it is possible to submit the pre-qualification application PDF.

The Cook County Land Bank worked with ePropertyPlus to develop the web application.

Smart Chicago and the Concept of “Patient Centered”

Smart ChicagoFebruary 8, 2015 1 Comment

We have a number of health programs here at Smart Chicago, all of which are run by my colleague, Kyla Williams. In working on these projects, I’ve come across a number of intriguing concepts, just like one would in any sub-speciality. Chief of these concepts, for me, is “patient-centered”.

To me, a phrase like this is a tell. Any time an industry, company, or organization starts talking about “user-driven”, “customer-focused”, or “patient-centered” strategies, it is an indication that they’ve not been driven, focused, or centered in that direction in the past.

I’ve spent the majority of my career in the world of developing Web sites. In that sub-specialty, the idea of being focused on users is pretty much all there is. If you don’t have users, if you’re not making something that appeals to them and serves their needs, you’ve got nothing.

I don’t have any particular insight into the healthcare industry, since I’ve never worked in it. I can tell you from personal experience as a consumer of healthcare and as a general observer of pop culture, however, that I’ve never felt that patients were at the center of the experience.

Patient portals seem designed to deliver as little information as possible and optimize for medical professionals. Exporting information to give to other caregivers is cumbersome. Integration with email is weak— you have to log in to the system to get even the most innocuous information, like the details of a visit you just scheduled over the phone.

In 2015, we are embarking on and expanding a number of initiatives designed to get us deeper into the patient-centered trend. Our CUTGroup methodology is a recognized as a leading way to gather and act on the feedback of regular residents. The Smart Health Centers model, where we help place trained health information specialists in clinics to assist patients in connecting to their own medical records and find reliable information about their own conditions, is deeply patient-centered. Our Health Data Liberation Meetup Group is at the conceptual forefront for patient control

We think we have a lot to offer, and we’re excited about the work to come.

Help Wanted: Administrative Assistant at Smart Chicago Collaborative

Smart ChicagoFebruary 6, 2015

The Smart Chicago Collaborative is hiring an administrative assistant to help us support our work.

The Administrative Assistant will help us with coordinating schedules, requests for information, meetings, and events that surround our work. This may sound simple, but as a collaborative organization we work with a ton of consultants, partners, and funders to get everything done. Throughout the course of our work, we try to keep everything documented and are looking for additional help to do that.

We’re looking for somebody that has at least two years of experience and great web, writing, and communication skills. As a technology outfit, our ideal candidate would be somebody who is interested in technology and not afraid to try out new tools.

More importantly, we’re looking for somebody who is community service oriented. Our work centers around using technology to create an impact in our communities and we’re looking for somebody who wants in the game.

Full details on the job posting can be found here!

Year: 2015