www.communitysos.org
Core
The core of our project is to create an integrated platform that connects people in need with those who offer to help. With the funds raised on StartSomeGood we would like to:
*program a web-based platform that matches volunteers with flood victims;
*sensitize a network of stakeholders and involve them in the development of the platform.
Our goal is not to substitute institutional help, we do not have neither the ability nor the ambition to do this. Institutional help mostly looks at life or health threatening emergencies. We would like our tool to support, for more practical issues, aiming
at getting back to normality: getting rid of wet furniture, wet walls, mud, etc. Our goal is to assist people and, possibly, institutions, by organising the genuine and spontaneous strength of the Community and contributing to its resilience.
Background
Between 1998 and 2009, Europe suffered over 213 major damaging floods, including the catastrophic floods along the Danube and Elbe rivers in 2002. Severe floods in 2005 further reinforced the need for concerted action. These floods have caused
1126 deaths, displaced of about half a million people and caused at least 52 billion euro in insured economic losses (Source: EEA).
On May 3rd, 2014, just a few short weeks away from tourist season in Senigallia, Italy, Senigallia’s Misa River overflowed and the result was a very powerful flash flood. The flood covered 20% of the city surface. Three people lost their
lives, and the damage was estimated around 190 million euro.
The flood’s strength surprised everyone, responsible authorities included. It was a difficult intervention: people in need could not be helped quickly enough and the aid turned out not to be effective. There was a large area affected by the
flood and institutional help turned out to be insufficient to restore normality in the community. People struggled to find appropriate and prompt aid. On the other side there were people who wanted to offer help, but simply did not know how to do it.
By using different open-source online tools, such as social media and Google docs, we managed to connect the two groups. The system was managed and promoted on a popular facebook page (SOS Alluvione Senigallia) and found support in the network
and volunteers of a charity organisation (Caritas). We gathered 1700 volunteers in seven days, who completed almost 500 resolutive interventions. These volunteers offered
olio di gomito (hard labour and good will) and the opportunity to quickly return to normality to the weakest and oldest people. They emptied houses from wet furniture, clothes and books, swept water and mud out and brought food, clothing
or tools, where necessary. The volunteers’ action created a strong sense of belonging to the community and boosted its resilience. This is the what we are most proud of.
Shortly after we started, institutions saw the effectiveness of our platform, and began to support our work and integrate it into their communication strategies.
This experience and thorough research after the flood, made us realise that there is the opportunity to develop a more effective and efficient method that quickly connects flood victims to those who are willing to offer help.
Our proposal
We will create a platform that consists of a combination of social media, google maps, and the realisation of web-based application, able to run on IOS, Android and Windows.
The platform is based on the following steps in case an emergency occurs:
1) You enter the site;
2) The phone locates you ;
3) Based on the location, it chooses the language (language can be changed manually);
4) You choose your role: do you want to report a situation? Do you want to ask for help? Do you want to offer help?
5) Based on your choose you can select from another menu: who are you? What is the situation? Where are you? When did it happen?
6) There will be a matching done based on the above information:
The helper has name, phone number, location, time and date. The person in need of
help has the name, phone, number, location, time and date.
The system will be simple and safe. It will be a resource for the community and the institutions as well.
We want people to be able to help other
people, and create resilient communities.
Please, support us! Spread the word and donate what you can. Grazie mille!
