VA offers cash prize for app to help the homeless
Published: March 20, 2012
WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs officials are hoping a $25,000 prize and the backing of rocker Jon Bon Jovi will help spur developers to create a mobile app for homeless veterans and advocates.
The program, dubbed project REACH (real-time electronic access for caregivers and the homeless) aims to find “a free, easy-to-use Web and smartphone app that provides current information about housing, health clinics and food banks.”
The initiative is a collaboration with officials from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, launched by the rock star to provide assistance to families in economic need.
Details of the contest are available at www.challenge.gov.
The top five developers in the contest will receive $10,000 and a chance to test the app at the JBJ Soul Kitchen restaurant in New Jersey. The top developer will receive an additional $25,000.
Officials said the goal is to “create a national platform that enables health clinics, food kitchens, housing services and shelters to update availability of key services automatically on the Internet.” The winners will include programs which easily navigate local VA services, employment support, crisis hotlines and local legal assistance resources, along with nearby housing resources.
The contest also follows the VA’s efforts to end veterans homelessness by 2015.
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