NetSquared recently followed up with the N2Y3 Featured Projects to develop these short case studies, with the goal to expand the knowledgebase of best practices for applying social media in the nonprofit context. We interviewed participants from the N2Y3 Featured Project teams to gain a better understanding of the way they used social media to increase their reach and carry out their missions. We are very happy to bring you their stories!

Today's spotlight: Healthy City Project!

Project Details:

• Name of Organization: Healthy City Project | Advancement Project
• URL: www.healthycity.org
• Location: Los Angeles

Project Description:

Map This! was created to bring the benefit of www.HealthyCity.org, the Los Angeles region's "most comprehensive database of public and nonprofit resources," to a larger audience.   This expansion will enable people from the entire state of California - community residents, nonprofit organizations, advocates, public officials and civic leaders, to see and analyze the distribution of critical community assets in relation to essential demographic information, electoral and school district boundaries and the like. With the expansion, Healthy City hopes to continue to offer unprecedented access to the largest public database of community resources, demographic and health data for the region, paired with best-of-breed database and GIS mapping technology.

Social media tool or tactic used:

Data sharing, crowd sourcing, user-generated content.

How was it used?

Healthy City has launched the "My Healthy City" and "My Groups" section on www.HealthyCity.org.   These sections allow people to create a free account that enables them to upload data, comment on services, create maps, and attach photos and video.     The "My Groups" is a way for individuals working on similar issues, organizations, community members and others to come together to share their information   uploaded data, comments on service sites, created maps, and photos and video as well as send group messages and post to a group bulletin board.     They have begun and will continue trainings to promote various uses of these tools to best capture local knowledge and enable communities to use this information whether that is for community building, community organizing, story-telling, sharing critical information, or other efforts.

Outcome:

Since the Netsquared Challenge, Healthy City has added advanced functionality, data, and capabilities to their site at www.HealthyCity.org and additional tools for people to better connect and share information.   Currently they are in the planning stages of a California statewide expansion and are very excited about the progress they have made.   They have achieved many of the goals that we set for their selves, although they will still continue to improve and advance the site to best serve our constituents.

Lessons learned:

• In order for a statewide expansion to be successful, it is necessary to develop on-the-ground, committed partnerships in pertinent issue areas (e.g. Public Health, Technology, Information Referral, Nonprofit Management) for regions throughout the state
• Along with launching a site, it is important to have follow up trainings, and an outreach strategy to fully make the site useful
• Have a process in which it is possible to learn from current and potential users to set priorities on site functionality be sure to schedule extra time in for user feedback
• Be proactive in seeking partners and allies
• It is difficult to maintain multiple projects without a solid core library of tools set up and at the same time it is difficult to maintain a solid core library with constantly changing tech needs and innovations

For more information:

• See the full list of N2Y3 Featured Projects here.    
• Read all of the N2Y3 Case Studies as they are published.

The work to create this case study series was funded by a grant from the Packard Foundation.