It’s easy to feel disempowered during a health and economic crisis like this. Many legal professionals are being told to stay home, shelter in place, and help flatten the curve of new coronavirus cases. And that’s advice we should all take. But if you’re looking to go beyond self-isolation and want to further contribute to the fight against COVID-19, the U.S. Digital Response for COVID-19 is looking for volunteers like you.
The organization is looking for volunteers with experience in data, engineering, operations, procurement, and general management, who “can work autonomously through ambiguity and are ready to jump into a high-intensity environment,” to work with state and local governments as they respond to the crisis. We know more than a few legal professionals who fit that bill.
The strain coronavirus is putting on our healthcare system is well documented. But as the group notes, COVID-19 is also “overwhelming the data and digital capacities of government in a myriad of ways,” including data gathering and sharing, maintenance of digital infrastructure, data collection and communication, and the like.
Volunteers selected to help face that challenge will be paired with government organizations to help by, according to Digital Response website:
- Making it easier to collect and collate data from private and public testing facilities
- Keeping websites and systems that are under unprecedented strain from going down (i.e. benefit application systems for unemployment insurance, etc.)
- Building a digital product for the public to self-assess before driving to a testing center
- Building/implementing a system to better collect and track data from hospitals about their bed and ventilator capacity
- Re-imaging and distributing laptops to EOCs
- From data scientists with modeling and mapping infection data
- With project & general operational management, as well as supply chain and procurement expertise
U.S. Digital Response is led by a long roster of public interest technologists, including the founder of Code for America, the leader of the healthcare.gov rescue effort, and the director of the Digital Service Collaborative at the Georgetown Beeck Center.
So far, they’ve gathered over 500 qualified volunteers. If you’d like to join them, you can sign up here.
Our thanks to the Logikcull customer who brought this volunteer opportunity to our attention! If you have any other community resources or opportunities during this time, please pass them our way
