Help Wanted

Want to Help? Check These Opportunities Out!

Below is a list of short- and long-term opportunities to pitch in. Email code4asheville@gmail.com or follow any special instructions on the listing.

 

Help End Homelessness

At our community night on April 13, 2017, we collaborated with representatives of the Homeless Coalition and the Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee (HIAC) to identify some easy wins that Code for Asheville members can contribute to. The key needs are good digital tools for communication between agencies and with the public.

  • Help with the Homeless Coalition Facebook Page
    Your responsibility would be to review the monthly Homeless Coalition newsletter that comes to your inbox and post approved content (indicated on the newsletter by the agencies) to the Facebook page, taking care not to duplicate existing posts that other members of CfA may have already published. This is an ongoing commitment or an opportunity to train Coalition members to take over the task.
  • Help Administer a Homeless Coalition Facebook Group
    The Coalition will use a Facebook Group as a platform where the various agencies can discuss updates and share announcements. Your responsibilities for the group would be reaching out to service agencies and advocates and recruiting them into the group, as well as facilitating meaningful conversation on the threads within the group. This can be an ongoing commitment or an opportunity to train Coalition members to take over the task.
  • Help the Homeless Coalition Create A Permanent Information Repository
    While Facebook handles immediate communication, there is also a need for a more permanent repository of Coalition documents, agencies, and resources.We identified Google Sites as a potential technology solution for this that would allow anyone familiar with basic web technology to start building out a website. The responsibilities for this job would be to gather a full list of Coalition participant information, including name, title, role/service description, contact information (optional) and area(s) of service and to start building out a website with this information and embedded documents like meeting minutes, contact information, and general information about the Coalition are easily accessible. Maintaining the site can be an ongoing commitment or an opportunity to train Coalition members to take over.
  • Research Potential Platforms for the Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee
    HIAC needs help identifying a platform to handle immediate communication between service providers, advocates, government agencies and the public while also allowing historical information to be captured and referenced later, including attaching and archiving notes, discussion threads or comments regarding specific cases.You may research platforms independently or collaborate with HIAC via Code for Asheville. If you work independently, please share the name and a brief description of the platform; a link to the product site; pricing information, if available; capabilities; and deficiencies.High-level requirements include:

    • Immediate communication between agencies, advocates, and the public.
    • Ability to attach and archive notes, threads, or comments to specific “cases” to be referenced later.
    • Ability to have forum discussions between agencies and have these be public or private as appropriate.
    • Security and confidentiality (potentially HIPAA compliant).

 

Improve the Code for Asheville Website

We are looking for an outsider’s perspective of how we at CfA can do a better job communicating with existing and new members. We need people to navigate around the CfA website and provide feedback a writeup to code4asheville@gmail.com. If you want to help implement changes, we welcome that too! These are the goals that we would like the site to achieve:

  • Help people learn about the organization, what we do, and why we exist
  • Help members get involved in projects easily
  • Showcase our existing projects
  • Let people know the best way to get in touch with us
  • Steer people to our various communication channels and explain the purpose of each
  • Give people an understanding of ongoing brigade planning
  • Help members take leadership positions within the group
  • Help retain and engage existing members
  • Help recruit new members

Let us know if we’ve missed anything important!

 

Code for Asheville Newsletter

The newsletter comes out every other week and there are several ways to plug in, even if you’re brand new!

  • Features Writer
    Every issue has a short article on something interesting related to Code for America. You can write about a project you’re involved in, a project you are interested in, or anything interesting in local, national or global civic tech. Write one article or make it a regular gig, as you choose.
  • Editor, News from the Network
    Quick descriptions of things happening with other brigades or the national organization. This one’s easy – you can always pick something up from the Code for America Slack team or mailing list, or just by following people on Twitter or Facebook.
  • Editor, Upcoming Events & Opportunities
    Another easy one. You can start simply by connecting with organizers to get descriptions of the next 1 or 2 Code for Asheville events. Then perhaps expand it by showcasing other local opportunities to get involved in community decision-making and self-government.
  • Editor, News from Code for Asheville
    This is more of a catch-all section that so far has included media coverage of Code for Asheville members and reports on events and planning. This is a good opportunity for someone who’d like to help shape where the newsletter is going.

 

NC Reentry Resources Hub

We are working with members of Code for Greensboro to take the Buncombe Reentry Resources Hub to all 100 NC counties. We are close to completing the code needed to deploy sites, but will soon begin on the supporting administrative tools. If you’re interested in learning React and Javascript programming, this is a great opportunity. Check out our Github repo and dive in or reach out to Eric.