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title: 2-3 Examples of Enhancing Collaboration with Interdisciplinary Groups for Social Good
tags: jothon, NDI
---
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"g0v Civic Tech Project & Community Handbook" is licensed under CC BY-NC.
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# 2-3 Examples of Enhancing Collaboration with Interdisciplinary Groups for Social Good｜g0v Civic Tech Project & Community Handbook

### Chapter 2: Community Partnerships and Network Development

## Examples of Enhancing Collaboration with Interdisciplinary Groups for Social Good

### Happiness Bankbook Project (g0v x Grass Book House)

> Image from Happiness Bankbook Project

In Taiwan, there are approximately 43,000 children and adolescents from high-risk families, 23,000 students who have dropped out, and 4,000 students who have discontinued their education. Due to insufficient family support, they face learning difficulties and survival challenges on their own, and may even leave the educational system early, continuing a vicious cycle.

Located in Sanxia, New Taipei City, Grass Book House has long been accompanying highly vulnerable children and low-achieving teenagers from low-income, single-parent, intergenerational care, and drug-related crime families. From academic support to life skills development, it has established a community support system to accompany these children through their darkest moments in life and has discovered a unique life proposal.

In 2020, Grass Book House initiated the “Happiness Bankbook Project.” Through the design of an electronic reward system for non-profit organizations providing support to children and adolescents, children can earn points by completing tasks. Prizes and rewards can be exchanged with these points or customized needs (such as shoe repairs or bike repairs) from partnering institutions. The aim is to create a new system that breaks the cycle of vulnerability, enhances learning motivation, reduces social dependence, and decreases theft.

To address the design issues of the project system, Grass Book House participated in the g0v Sch001 2020 Demo Day. Following the proposal format of g0v hackathons, they look for talents and suggestions for project development. John, a participant in the community, happened to come across the Happy Passbook proposal on the website and was deeply moved. He joined the project and developed an app that supports both iOS and Android systems. The first version focused on replacing paper-based operations and streamlining processes, while gradually planning system expansions, including a web version, expanded task functionalities, and collaborations with other institutions through the "Taiwan Corp. Sustainable Urban and Rural Care Association."

### Do You A Favor: A Homeless Helper

> Image from Do You A Favor

Supplies for the homeless often gather during cold spells or specific days reported by the media, sometimes resulting in excess food that goes to waste. However, most of the time, there is a lack of meals. For the homeless, this phenomenon is difficult to address, as they fear refusing the goodwill of others, which could leave a negative impression.

Do You A Favor has long been concerned about the issue of homelessness, including the homeless, street vendors, recyclers, and more, through various crowd action projects to raise public awareness of the vulnerable in society.

In 2018, Do You A Favor initiated the "Homeless Helper" project, aiming to provide a web platform for individuals who wish to distribute supplies to register their street meals and supply distribution records. By leveraging open data and coordination mechanisms, the project aimed to improve the unstable supply of resources.

In addition to organizing the Street Hackathon and recruiting web front-end and back-end engineers, app developers, UI/UX designers, and project managers interested in the issue, Do You A Favor also applied for the “g0v Grant” to participate in the g0v community. They combined the consulting resources provided by the community and collaborated with civic organizations, allowing proposers to have the resources to pursue the project. During the development process, they learned new tools and further engaged with the community. Throughout the project's operation from March 2019 to March 2020, a total of 28,032 items were registered, including boxed meals, fruits, snacks, bath products, and more.

### InkRosetta

> Image from InkRosetta

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals frequently needed to quickly update their announcements in accordance with policies. These announcements were typically shared in the form of image cards for easy reposting and sharing by the public. Image cards have become one of the most commonly used forms of communication for government agencies. However, they pose challenges for translation and often cause difficulties for non-native speakers and individuals with disabilities (visual or hearing impairments.)

InkRosetta was initiated to deal with these problems. It aims to address the challenges of medical interpretation by developing a systematic image card creation platform. The platform allows for the creation of multilingual and disability-friendly webpages and image cards, which can also be outputted as physical cards with accompanying QR codes, providing integrated offline and online services.

The initiator of this project, Teemo, is an engineer working in a hospital. At the beginning of the pandemic, he observed on the front line that “Many foreign friends visit the hospital for medical treatment, including many caregivers for elder family members, who didn't speak English. I may not understand the English they speak, and they may not understand the English I speak.” The image cards not only solve the problem of medical translation but also can be used for foreigners traveling and for migrant workers when shopping or seeking medical assistance. The image cards allow migrant workers to achieve communication through vocabulary recognition.

During the project development process, Teemo also consulted with NGO organizations related to migrant worker issues, including 1095 Culture Studio, Tainan Sprout Association, Taiwan YES Service-Learning Association, Taiwan One-Forty Migrant Worker Education and Culture Association, Vietnam-Chiayi Culture House, and Listener, and others, to gain a deeper understanding of the translation needs for healthcare among Southeast Asian migrant workers.