For someone in recovery, a support-group meeting can be a lifeline, a point in the future they can depend on for the help they need. The nonprofit Ithaca Community Recovery (ICR) hosts more than 200 such meetings a month – and managing the calendar has been no small task for the all-volunteer board.
After two years of collaboration, students on the Cornell Engineering project team Hack4Impact delivered to ICR a tool that will streamline scheduling and make the calendar more reliable for those in recovery who rely on it.
“It’s such a bad thing to have a meeting advertised, and it doesn’t happen,” said Scott Sherwood, a former president of ICR, who worked with the students on the project. “But trying to keep a good schedule is a really difficult thing, and then to communicate that out in a way that automatically updates – it’s something we really need.”
ICR hosts meetings for around 35 groups that provide support for those recovering from substance abuse, gambling addiction, domestic violence and more, with an estimated 30,000 points of contact with people in the community every year. Many of the meetings are held in-person at ICR’s downtown location, but there are often hybrid or online options as well. A volunteer for ICR makes sure there’s no overlap in booking the spaces and the organization’s four Zoom accounts, and ensures public-facing calendars are up-to-date; it’s one of the group’s most important, difficult and time-consuming roles.
The new app will make it much easier to assign and see the location and Zoom link associated with meetings, and it will automatically update the website when changes are made. The calendar will be broadcast on a monitor, bought with funds from the Rotary Club of Ithaca, that is visible through the front doors of ICR’s building at 518 West Seneca St.