In 2018 the Federal Reserve reported that 4 in 10 adults could not cope with a $400 emergency. In this crisis, 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment in a week—almost five times higher than any week in recorded history. Many Americans were without a safety net before COVID-19. What will happen to them, and to many more now?
Erine Gray is a Senior TED Fellow and the founder of Aunt Bertha, a Public Benefit Corporation. The company operates the largest platform for connecting people in need with government and charitable organizations across the US. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, they spun up findhelp.org, where anyone in the US can find free and reduced-cost programs helping them cope with the crisis in their zip code. With 3 million users and a network of 355,000 social service program locations, they have unique insight into what people are looking for every minute of the day, how that differs in this pandemic, where they’re finding help, and where they’re not.
What could we do if we knew what people were actually looking for? What could we do if we knew the places they were going for help? What if we had a way to peer into all the ways that neighbors are helping neighbors? Where then would we put our resources, our energy, and our support? In this session, we’ll investigate these questions as we explore data that might have answers for how we respond now, and how we build for the future.