Volunteer Hackathon to support those in need during Covid-19
02 Details
Connect Educate is an open source app developed at the #UKvsCovidHack. Its aim is to connect isolated parents with community mentors. Due to the sudden stay-at-home isolation, parents are overwhelmed with the immense variety of education and entertainment resources across Google Classroom, Microsoft 365, Zoom YouTube and online parenting groups. In response to this, WDD (Women Driven Development) is seeking to solve some of the challenges that have arisen due to this rapid introduction of technology. Frontline key workers and charity representatives were invited to talk about the difficulties they and their communities are facing in the battle against COVID-19 during our pre-hack. There were livestream presentations on public health, food banks, women and family services, education, homelessness and accessibility.
03 Must haves
Accessibility
Available volunteers
Diverse subject areas
Private chat
Booking system
Suitable for a range of age groups
04 User Stories
Parents feel overwhelmed as they quickly try to adopt new technologies to support their children’s education.
Closure of schools and local libraries predominantly affects families living in overcrowded and/or precarious homes.
Parents who do not speak English find it difficult to navigate resources and access the right type of support.
Children are encountering feelings of isolation away from their classmates and teachers. Helping families access the right resources through technology could help families connect with one another.
Parents who work in shifts or long hours find it hard to find time to browse through all the resources currently available.
05 Our Solutions
We placed the parent’s experience at the heart of the design
An easy-to-use landing page where parents can raise questions for mentors
Simple registration so busy parents can submit requests quickly
An offline SMS journey for parents who do not have access to the internet
UI for parents who do not speak English to increase accessibility