About this project

http://www.lahap.org/site/metasite/LRG.html

New Orleans. A beautiful city, full of wonderful music, nice people and great food. However, there is also poverty, discrimination, violence, negligence, and many other problems that its people face day by day. Many agencies, organizations, professionals, and volunteers (AOP&V), dedicate their time, efforts and resources to help people in need. The problem is, most of them need to work together with other AOP&Vs, and after hurricane Katrina came to visit, many AOP&Vs ceased to operate, changed their information, or changed their area of action. To make things worse, most resource guides available still use outdated information, and those that were recently compiled and verified become obsolete rather fast.

We have come to think that our mistake has been to fail to come up with a way to bring all these efforts and services together, in an organic manner that would give itself naturally to evolve according to the needs of the people.

Enter the LOUISIANA RESOURCE GUIDE (LRG).

Product of a convergence of ideas from many AOP&Vs... and an artist, the LRG is a dynamic platform that uses an architecture similar to those seen in social networks, but works to provide both AOP&Vs and the general public the information necessary to access the wide range of services available in the city, the State of Louisiana, and we hope eventually anywhere.
Resources will cover the Health, Legal, Social Services, and Education fields.

So, why do we need your help?

We, the LRG team, believe that for this kind of project to stay true to its purpose (to inform the community), we need to avoid placing advertisements in our site altogether.

In order to get the LRG operating, we need some help to do the following:

--We require a programmer to build the complex platform we need, and make it work the way we want it to.
--A group of people must compile information about AOP&Vs in the city, and promote the LRG among them.
--A couple pieces of hardware and software are needed to allow volunteers/interns monitor the site without the hassle of coding their way around.
--Providing free access to all the information, in English and Spanish, is crucial.

A grant for $6000 has been approved for the LRG, PROVIDED THE LRG TEAM SUCCEEDS IN RAISING THE REMAINING FUNDS (about twice as much) FROM OTHER SOURCES!!! (Kickstarter fits description!)

WHY SHOULD YOU HELP US BUILD THE LRG?

With the LRG, AOP&Vs will have direct access to a wealth of information about what is available in the city of New Orleans, and use it for their own advantage, share it with their target public, or use it for referrals; they will also have access (after verification) to all the information they posted, allowing for easy updating, and cost effective publishing.

The general public will also have access to all that information, and will play a role on keeping the site reliable, by notifying the LRG team whether a resource is outdated, not useful, misleading, or if any of the articles in the site contain biased or misleading information. This, along with a team of volunteers/interns that will constantly monitor the site, and verify the information posted, will be our way of keeping the information as fresh and crisp as we can possibly deliver it!

Imagine if all those services that go unnoticed because of a lack of information start being used; if funding for social work is spent more efficiently, and if all the information needed to do this could be found in one single place?... Sounds to me like a great chance to make a difference.

Carlos Vergel
LRG Co-creator & Designer.
Fine Arts & Graphic Design Student