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Cover image for Shopping Volunteers for Elderly (SVE)
Ankit Minocha
Ankit Minocha

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Shopping Volunteers for Elderly (SVE)

The Problem

Early March, The White House issued specific social distancing guidance for the country that urges older Americans to stay home and to avoid other people.

The Solution: Shopping Volunteers for Elderly (SVE)

Using The Shopping Volunteers application, elderly people submit a request for their shopping needs eg. Grocery, Pharmaceutical needs, etc. Their needs are fulfilled by a network of Volunteers. Volunteers take the necessary precautions and wear a mask all the time when shopping and visiting the Elder Homes.

How it works

Shopping Volunteers for Elderly application has a network of volunteers, who work to fulfill the needs of the Elderly people.
The SVE application has 2 interfaces. One, for the Elderly, where they submit their needs. Two, for the Volunteers, where new Volunteers register to SVE.

During the Volunteer registration process, SVE captures the Zip Code that the volunteer is available to serve.
Elderly people submits a request for their grocery needs on the SVE website. The application also captures the Zipcode that the person in need belongs to.

SVE algorithm then matches the volunteers to the Elderly's needs. Each applicable volunteer is notified via Text & Email. The request is accepted when SVE volunteers update the form with 'Accept'.

Once a request is accepted, the request initiator is notified of the action, and a communication stream is opened between the elderly person and the volunteer shopper.

Useful links:
SVE Elderly Delivery Request form: https://bit.ly/3aSqWKl
SVE Volunteer registration form: https://bit.ly/2Wo6JHt
SVE Volunteer Request accept form: https://bit.ly/2ShrXoQ

How I built it:
This is built using google forms, and google script. There are three forms created. Elderly Request Form, Volunteer registration form, and Volunteer request accept the form. When the forms are submitted by the user, a google script function is triggered. This will then notify a volunteer or elderly people using Twilio SMS API.

Technologies Used:
Twilio SMS API, Google script, Google Forms, Google Spreadsheet

Link to Code

https://github.com/delikacylabs/shopping-volunteers-for-elderly

What's next?
We will use Twilio Autopilot to accept the Delivery request by Elderly via SMS, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Facebook Messenger as well.

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