Strong communities are an important source of social connection. Participating in a community bonded by attitudes, values, and goals is an essential ingredient to having a healthy society. With regards to relations between civilians and police offciers, the relationship centers around a complex and deeply rooted social contract, that takes willful and concentrated efforts to maintain and thrive the relationship. Too often citizens only interact with police officers during a personal tragedy or a traffic stop. Neither of these events create an opportunity for officers to be seen as members of the community.
Which creates a need for offering other ways for the community to engage with their police force free from those in usual scenarios. Social media is a great opportunity to engage each other and build trusting relationships between police officers and the community.
The HeyBlue App Project is a sustained effort that facilitates moments of meaningful connection between police officers and members of their community by offering intentional opportunities for individuals to meet and share positive experiences. Inspired by the extraordinary acts of heroism displayed by both individual community members and first responders during 9/11, EcoSchool co-founder, John Verdi, wanted to build a platform that could bring police officers and communities together with a shared purpose.
These positive interactions turn into points that the individual can use to purchase items and the police officer can donate to a non-profit or family in need. If police officers across the United States simply connected with 5 community members per day, the result would be 1.2 BILLION connections in a year, starting a larger movement to create an awareness of our shared humanity.
Note: Our work here is inspired by previous winners since this is the first time we have participated in this event: TheMarmots (https://github.com/TheMarmots) and The Archangels (https://tekiegirl.github.io/Archangels/).