In the lead up to the President’s historic visit to South by Southwest (SXSW) this week, The White House announced the launch of “The Opportunity Project,” a new effort to put public data and digital tools in the hands of communities to help them navigate information about critical resources such as access to jobs, housing, transportation, schools, and other neighborhood amenities. The Opportunity Project includes collections of federal and local open data sets, which tech developers and communities can use to build new digital tools.
Many communities across the country, like Minneapolis–Saint Paul and Chicago, have already begun building web and mobile applications to help youth experiencing homelessness find and access local resources. These communities can now use the datasets provided by The Opportunity Project to enhance their projects and ensure that their efforts are informed by the most thorough and accurate public data available.
The True Colors Fund is incorporating Open Opportunity Data into our soon-to-be-released True Access app, which is being developed to help lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth experiencing homelessness across the country find the resources and opportunities they need to thrive. The True Colors Fund will also release its data on safe and inclusive services under an open source license, so future Opportunity Project teams can include LGBT-friendly resources in their digital tools.
Is your community working on an app to support LGBT youth experiencing homelessness? If so, let us know about it!