As essentially public services, mutual aid groups face the same issues of efficient distribution of limited resources that other public services face, but often with limited or no technical support. We are aiming to develop and support technical solutions to the issues faced by mutual aid groups.
Right now, we’re focused on a simple solution that receives requests for and confirms deliveries of food via SMS. All someone needs is a phone with text message capability and they can get into the system and have food delivered to them..
The early version of this technology is available here. By following a simple setup, organizations can get a working intake and delivery confirmation flow managed by SMS. The only requirements are free accounts with twillio (which delivers the messages) and Airtable (which stores the intake information).
Our goal is to facilitate this setup and enable organizations, with minimal work, to get up and running with this. Each different mutual aid group can utilize this flow and change it to suit their needs, the tools that make this up are fairly easy to use without knowing how to code.
We are currently looking for:
- Mutual Aid groups interested in using and helping us tune the software
- Developers to help expand the tool
We are also seeking collaborations from like-minded organizations. If you are interested in any of these points send us an email.