Civic Hack Day Community Design Workshop

FAQs

What will happen at this event?

This will be a planning event to foster open conversation about what we hope to achieve during the official hack days. We will try to identify design opportunities at this planning meeting. For more information about The National Day of Civic Hacking please visit rockawayhelp.com. 

What are my transport/parking options getting to the event?

Things in Rockaway are constantly changing. We will post transportation possibilities in the week before the event.

Where can I contact the organizer with any questions?

Email us: rockawayhelp@gmail.com

What is Rockaway Help?

Rockaway Help is an innovative, hyper-local journalistic project that provides the opportunity for Rockaway residents to advocate for and empower themselves as a community in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

We are a community-based project conceived of and developed by three women born and raised in the neighborhood of Rockaway Beach, New York.

In the first hours, days and weeks after the storm we found ourselves acting as first responders, helping friends and strangers begin the long process of cleaning up their homes and neighborhood. Before FEMA or the Red Cross showed up, we used technology to mobilize volunteers and locate people who needed help. We have since shifted from a crisis management collective to an open news resource.

Of equal importantance, we created a large social network and website to publicize and facilitate relief efforts. In the absence of specific information from traditional journalists, we utilized crowd-based social network platforms like Facebook and Twitter to gather and disseminate crucial information as quickly and accurately as possible.

Using these same channels, we’ve now grown our efforts in a distinctly journalistic direction--one that values in-depth open data gathering, but also allows for the communal voice of the people to to be heard and immediate needs to be met.

Through field research, we have learned that Rockaway residents feel fear or discomfort when discussing the topic of rebuilding their community. Many feel left out of the decision-making process to make improvements to the beach, the boardwalk, their city blocks, as well as the allocation of funds. Going forward, Rockaway Help plans to provide these constituents with the necessary information to empower them to represent and advocate for their own community with confidence.