Volunteer Assisting United Way Bay Area

United Way Bay Area (UWBA) is a non profit organization that connects and inspires individuals and communities to support both short-term needs and long-term systems. By building programs in four impact areas: basic needs, employment and career opportunities, financial stability, and housing justice, and mobilizing a network of community partners from the nonprofit, labor, business, and government sectors, UWBA is working to dismantle poverty so everyone has the opportunity to thrive. They partner across sectors, develop solutions, capture needed data, and use those insights to support public policy and create research-backed community initiatives.

United Way Bay Area had 250 locations to geocode and 50 addresses to validate. UWBA requested a GISCorps volunteer to help publish those records into ArcGIS Online and develop an internal web application to visualize those locations. The volunteer was also asked to train United Way Bay Area staff on data and application maintenance in ArcGIS Online. GISCorps volunteer, Shontelle Thompson, based in St. Mary, Jamaica, was selected for this project.

United Way Bay Area (UWBA) provided Shontelle a dataset in Microsoft Excel format of locations for 258 partners, 32 of which had no address attached to them. Research was carried out to attain the missing addresses and the results were sent to UWBA for validation/confirmation. Data cleaning was also conducted on the entire dataset.

Using ArcGIS Online (AGOL), geocoding of the partner locations was conducted, following which a map was created and subsequently an Operation Dashboard and an Instant App. The Applications enable users to visualize the UWBA partner locations and offers as a statistical breakdown of the partners. Users of the dashboard are able to filter information based on the partners, programs, program types, and the service area county. The Instant App provides details of the partner location via popups. 

A training session was conducted and recorded by the UWBA team for future reference. It covered areas including updating the web map and dashboard, and overlaying features on the web map. A training document was also provided to the team which was more detailed, providing information on how to use AGOL to: create feature classes, geocode, create a web map (performing the ‘joint feature’ analysis, changing feature symbology, configuring pop-ups and adding map overlays), create a dashboard, create an instant app, and also how to perform the necessary updates for the maps and the dashboard.

The output of the project is expected to provide visual, hands-on, accessible, and user-friendly information about the UWBA project that will facilitate planning for community initiatives.

Instant App of United Way Bay Area Partner Locations

Dashboard of United Way Bay Area Partner Locations

Project completed