Reach4Help

Who We Are

Driven by the principle that solidarity brings out the best in individuals, Reach4Help is a global volunteer-run initiative developing technologies to bridge the gap between people in need and people who can help during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Our platform enables users to create mutual help networks in their local communities where people in need can send out a local call for help (need for in-home care items, grocery/medical supplies, etc.) and are paired with trusted volunteers who can help.

We just released v2.2.0 of our app to support community volunteers and volunteer organizations in providing for people in need during quarantine. Nearly a month from our launch, we have been streamlining and automating help requests (primarily food and medical supply deliveries) for over a hundred users around the world.

Inspired by the altruism of organizations already supporting their communities, we're working with existing mutual aid networks such as AIESEC in Portugal and Bangladesh and the Outremont COVID-19 Help Foundation in Quebec to reach more people in need and to mobilize volunteer help more effectively. We believe that helping people through volunteerism on a daily basis is vital in creating a meaningful level of social support.

In parallel, we developed a global map of mutual aid showcasing the extensive network of these community organizations working on the ground, providing essential services to people in need worldwide.

We’re humbled to say that our project has inspired others to support and partner with us on our mission. Companies such as Google, Netlify, Slack, Algolia, Datadog, and more are providing their services for free or giving us credits. We’re also deeply thankful to our partner HermitQA and their dedicated staff ensuring a smooth experience for our users.

Through the development of open-source and accessible tools for volunteers, people in need, and volunteer organizations alike, we aim to build a large-scale network of help to keep us stronger and more interconnected during this pandemic and beyond.

Our goal is to ensure that anyone, anywhere can reach for help.

Our Team

Our team is all over the world, hailing from LA to Morocco and Portugal to Bangladesh. Despite the enormous time differences and being complete strangers before the project, each of us decided to step up and become a part of something bigger: a global movement for unity. We tore down barriers within ourselves and set out to do exactly that for the rest of the world.

We’re humbled to say that our project has inspired others to support and partner with us on our mission. Companies such as Google, Netlify, Slack, Algolia, Datadog, and more are providing their services for free or giving us credits. We’re also deeply thankful to our partner HermitQA and their dedicated staff ensuring a smooth experience for our users.

Project Status

We launched our app on June 13th as of now have 135 users worldwide. As of July 9th, we released v2.2.0, tackling many of the requested features and issues we got from user feedback. We’re also currently working on expanding partnerships with volunteer organizations through outreach

Current Challenges

Since we are completely volunteer-run, one of our biggest challenges right now is getting funding to sustain those working on the project and to provide for people in need of financial support for funding their food and medical supplies. If you are interested in supporting the project, we'd really appreciate reaching out via info@reach4help.org

How You Can Contribute

We're always open for volunteers to contribute to the project for global change! All skill sets are welcome, but we're currently in high demand for these roles:

• Project Manager
• Marketing/PR Strategist
• UI/UX Designer
• ReactJS Developer (Firebase experience also welcome!)
• Legal Advisor

Please reach out if you're interested in working on the project to info@reach4help.org or in a comment!