Website Development/Design

Project ScopeImplement and maintain a user-friendly web applicationWrite functional requirement documents and guidesImplementation of security and data protectionPerform updates and maintenance of live websitesWrite documentation for Visionaries partners for website development. Update web-based application for the StreetCard platform

Advocate for Police Reform

The Black Lives Matter movement has made clear that elements of policing are in dire need of reform, especially in situations where police employ lethal force. There are any number of common sense ideas that have been proposed, from community policing to diversity training and psychological testing. The most important of these ideas, however, is obvious, and yet, has seen almost no discussion in the public sector. Despite widespread coverage of police shootings of black citizens (and occasional investigations into those shootings), the police involved are almost never tested for drug and alcohol use immediately following these incidents. Frequently, the use of excessive force is written off as a consequence of an adrenaline “high.” While this may be a factor, in many instances there are powerful reasons to believe that the police involved were under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.I am looking for politically aware and motivated student interns (or a team), to help with advocating for these reforms. This student group will be continuing the work of a group of students from UAlbany who performed a considerable amount of research into legislation and media in support of the project. We are creating an Advocacy Document, which will be submitted to our elected representatives to be enacted. Additionally we are collecting contact information for members of the Albany County, New York State, and Federal government. And finally, we are designing a survey for polling of university students to get a clear picture of the level of support for the Reform program. It is hoped that if this proposal passes at a local level, then it might be expanded to New York State, and possibly adopted at the Federal level. I have attached a few documents below: the N-point program document, a spreadsheet with contact information, and some research into legislation performed by the previous group. Finally, I am pleased to be able to say, we are working in conjunction with Jeffrey Deskovic, an exonerated prisoner who founded The Deskovic Foundation, dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted. Jeffrey has recently received his JD, and has committed to working with us until the Advocacy Document is complete. I have included links to Jeffrey's Foundation webpage and Facebook page below.

Advocate for Police Reform

The Black Lives Matter movement has made clear that many elements of policing are in dire need of reform, especially in situations where police employ excessive or lethal force. There are a number of common-sense proposals, from community policing to diversity training and psychological testing. I have attached a document (13-Point Program for Police Reform) that enumerates these proposals.In discussion with a candidate for the Albany County District Attorney's office, it was expressed that many of these reforms are being adopted in different jurisdictions, with varying levels of success. Perhaps the most important of these ideas, however, is obvious, but as yet has occasioned no discussion in the press or among the public. Despite widespread coverage of police shootings of black citizens (and occasional investigations into those shootings), the police involved are never tested for drug and alcohol use immediately following these incidents. Frequently, the use of excessive force is written off as a consequence of an adrenaline “high.” While this may be a factor, in many instances, there are powerful reasons to believe that police involved in incidents of excessive or lethal force were under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.In order to implement the proposed reforms, I am taking a multi-pronged approach.To support the advancement of the 13-point program, I will need a team of students to perform literature research into each of the proposed reforms. This team will be researching legislation that supports the proposed reforms; looking at communities that have implemented any of these reforms and searching for follow-up studies done in those communities to assess their relative success.One team of students will be tasked with outreach to stakeholders. This would entail developing contact information for representatives of activist groups and other organizations seeking police reform. We will also need contact information for elected representatives; in particular, those who have supported police reform bills in their own districts. We are also seeking contact information for police unions, police officers, and community groups that interact with police. Ideally, this group would set up meetings between elected officials and police officials with the reforming group, for discussion on passing the reform legislation.One team will be tasked with outreach to law enforcement personnel themselves. We wish to avoid the impression of imposing these reforms on police officers, without taking into account their own training and experience. As the body most impacted by the proposed reforms, their own input will be invaluable, and will perhaps allow modification of the language of the reforms to be more acceptable to the police themselves.One team of students will be tasked with grassroots activism. This group will be doing outreach to fellow students (as many as possible), collecting signatures from students and other constituents in support of the reforms. I propose that signers to these petitions also commit to calling their elected representatives on a once or twice daily basis, for 30 to 90 days, to express their desire to see the reforms adopted.I am looking for politically aware and motivated student interns (or a team), to help with advocating for these reforms. I am overjoyed to have this project accepted by the student coordinators at UAlbany. It is hoped that if this proposal passes at a local or state level, then it might be expanded and possibly adopted at the Federal level.

StreetCard: Information Technology to Improve Services for Homeless Persons.

INTRODUCTIONI originally formulated the StreetCard program for implementation in the city of New York. New York City, despite being one of the wealthiest cities in the world, has a large population of homeless persons living on the streets. Every year, in February, the city sponsors an overnight HOPE (Homeless Outreach Project Estimate) count; even on the coldest nights of the year, the HOPE count records approximately 3,700 persons sleeping on the streets. If you ask a Homeless persons why it is they prefer not to go to a shelter, you will get a lot of different answers. First, the shelters are difficult to get into, and admission involves a lengthy bureaucratic process which is difficult to navigate, even for persons with above average organizational skills. Second, the shelters are dangerous, and residents frequently report being attacked or stolen from. Third, a street person will tell you that the shelters are a business," and corrupt supervisors get "paid by the head," which leads to a misrepresentation of the number of residents on any given night. Although NYC does offer a number of services for Homeless persons, a thorough examination of the system reveals defined points at which taxpayer money is profligately wasted. The StreetCard program is a is carefully reasoned and comprehensive program that promises to leverage Information Technology to eliminate the "cracks in the system" through which public funds are lost. ORGANIZATIONThe StreetCard is a photo-ID card with a QR code that will connect the bearers of the card to service providers participating in the StreetCard program. The StreetCard program is a web-based database that holds Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) data and Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The StreetCard is intended to be implemented in segments, representing three levels of services. The first level will connect StreetCard clients to Basic Needs Providers (BNPs). The second level is a programming interface (API) to access medical, psychiatric, and rehabilitative electronic health records on an immediate basis, diminishing time spent in hospitals and institutions waiting for those records to be laboriously faxed. The third level of services will allow a comprehensive application for all the benefits a Homeless person might be entitled to from local Departments of Social Services (DSS), in a single visit, from any of several service providers under the "No Wrong Door" approach.CURRENT PROGRESS - First tierAt this time, the first tier of services (for BNPs) is completed. CURRENT PROGRESS - Second tierA previous student group has begun work on the second tier of services, designing an API for the Homeless clients' EHRs. They have defined the roles of healthcare personnel who interact with the system, and started work on formatting the fields that will hold the EHR data. The students have created a github account that holds the codes for the StreetCard so far, and also contains comprehensive documentation the students have compiled to assist future groups with the project development. The second tier of services will enable networking of hospital systems to speed the collection of medical records for StreetCard clients, and minimize the amount of time they spend in hospitals and institutions. It is expected that implementation of this level of services will require the development of security solutions to ensure protection of Personal Identifying Information (PII) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Additionally, the EHR data will be classed according to HIPAA regulations allowing segregation of data into categories appropriate for the level of access of the health care provider.