The White House said Thursday it is expanding the Opportunity Project and the launch of twenty-nine new digital tools built by companies and non-profit organizations to increase access to opportunity in communities across the country.
The President launched the Opportunity Project in March 2016 to catalyze the creation of new digital tools that use federal and local data to empower communities with information about critical resources, such as affordable housing, quality schools, and jobs.
Key components of the announcement include a commitment by the Department of Commerce to lead the Opportunity Project and create a lasting platform for technologists to collaborate with government and local communities using federal open data.
Organizations such as Great Schools, MapBox, Airbnb, the University of Oregon, and FitBit created digital tools that help unemployed Americans build skills and find jobs, increase transit accessibility in low-income communities, help families navigate information on the quality of schools, and tackle other pressing challenges using federal and local data.
Twenty-nine new digital tools built by non-profits, companies, and students, use federal and local data to address a set of national priorities identified by six federal agencies, specifically the Departments of Labor, Transportation, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Agriculture, and the Office of the Surgeon General with support from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
For instance, Fitbit’s tool helps policymakers understand the relationship between average activity and widespread health challenges in every state. It combines aggregated and anonymous activity data from over 10 million Fitbit users with data from the CDC on diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Mapbox’s “Neighborhood Opportunity” helps families searching for homes using a HUD housing choice voucher assess neighborhood amenities and housing affordability using HUD Fair Market Rent data and OpenStreetMap.
