Matterform employees attended Code for ABQ‘s first quarterly hack of 2017. The quarterly hack was held at the FatPipe Coworking Space. Code for ABQ (shorthand for Albuquerque) is a part of the larger Code for America movement and one of their Brigade chapters. Code for America is a nonprofit organization that seeks in increase the amount of technology used effectively by both the public and private sectors. Other major missions are assisting other non-profit organizations with their goals and tech projects, as well as increasing the amount of knowledge, and resources available to the general public. Code for ABQ’s goal is the same, with focus on building tools with local government & community partners around civic issues for a better Albuquerque.
Matterform worked on the Circles USA project. Circles USA works to address poverty by increasing the capacity of communities, with a long term goal of decreasing poverty by 10% over ten years. A particular focus for Circles USA is the cliff effect that is built into assistance programs and how to better mitigate the transition that occurs as a person’s income increases.
Our goal for the evening was to set up hosting within our systems for a local branch of Circles USA. This branch is currently establishing a Cliff Effect planning tool meant to better visualize, and help users understand how services are affected at differing income levels. This tool is also being used in demonstrations and presentations to multiple levels of local government. We were part of a larger team and while our focus was hosting, the other half of the group was working on bug fixes and application improvements. By the end of the evening, we had accomplished our goal of establishing hosting. Improvements to the tool are continually being made.
The Circles USA project was one of five projects worked on by different groups. The other projects were a brochure site for Speak Love (an antibullying organization), a traffic analysis project for the University Heights Association, a redesign of the Code for ABQ website, and establishing a local presence on LocalWiki. The Speak Love and Code for ABQ projects were completed that evening.
Code for ABQ plans to have monthly meetings, coupled with quarterly hacks. Matterform plans to continue attending these meetings, continuing our community involvement. If you are a local non-profit that needs help, or have a project idea, let us know! We can pitch it to the rest of Code for ABQ and continue to code for a better Albuquerque.
