PAY IT FORWARD @ SQUARE CODE CAMP 2019

The Problem

For Square Code Camp 2019, a program hosted by Square where 20 women are selected for an immersive 5-day experience in tech, we were also given a hackathon problem to tackle. The prompt this year was "create something that solves a problem". After doing a lot of deep research, my team and I found that three are over 63,000 unhoused people in New York City. We decided to build an app that would help empower unhoused people in New York as well as individual philanthropists who wanted to help those in need in the community, promoting microeconomic empowerment. On top of that, we also wanted to empower businesses in the same community that wanted to help those in need.

We highlighted the three possible user journeys in our final presentation, but the main premise of what we hoped to accomplish with our app was:

* Micro-economic empowerment, giving a chance for not only businesses but for individuals to benefit economically

* Easy and accessible way for both businesses and individuals to contribute to social good and philanthropy

* Awareness about the community and the struggles that it may be facing at the moment

The Solution

Pay It Forward is a web application built by Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS, and Javascript. The focal point of the interface is a large map that centers in automatically on the user's geolocation, pinpointed and rendered by the Google Maps API. Businesses hoping to opt in and show up on the map as a "pin", which symbolizes a business that provides allyship to those in need in the community, have the option of filling out a form and joining in on a directory of businesses that are community allies to the unhoused. These businesses show up across the map and are even searchable, allowing those that are unhoused to find specific things that businesses may be offering -- free pizza, a few hours of temporary shelter, etc.

Additionally, individuals who may not be part of a business but may still want to help out have the option of clicking on a "Pay it Forward" link for each registered business, either from the map or business directory. The link allows them to donate any amount to a business to help contribute towards their allyship efforts, and businesses can suggest recommended donation amounts when they submit their information. We decided to keep the interface simple and map-oriented because we envisioned the product being displayed in accessible areas for those in need, such as interactive bus shelters. If given more time, we also would've wanted to integrate this into the Square for Restaurants POS system to make in-person donations easier, as well as utilizing the Square Payments API in full for checkout. Additional improvements would be adding on directions from current location to each business as well as addresses.​