#303 Re(turn): Civic Tech, ReEntry, and Collaboration

One of the major injustices faced by our incarcerated population is not realized until after they have served their sentencing and are released back into society. During this reentry process, there is a major lack of resources and support that create extreme barriers to reacclimating into society.

Through a process of learning, listening, and looking for partnership opportunities, our Chi Hack Night group “Access to Justice” teamed up with the Education Justice Project (EJP) which releases an annual comprehensive “reentry guide” to aid reentering citizens.

Access to Justice’s goal was to work with EJP, digitize the guide, and build it into a searchable, filterable, easy-to-use website of resources so anyone with access to internet can use it. The result is Illinois Re-Entry Resources.

Eric van Zanten, developer at DataMade and Joseph Smalzer, Account Executive at Dell & volunteer at the Chicago juvenile detention center, will walk us through their process in researching, designing and building the app and share what they learned along the way.

RSVP required Braintree now requires all attendees to RSVP beforehand. Walk-ins will not be allowed!

ASL This event will have an American Sign Language interpreter.

Food Food and drinks will be provided. We encourage attendees to bring their own water bottles to reduce waste.