The Adopta app is a web-based application that was originally built by Code for America fellows for Boston. Its first use case was for adopting fire hydrants. It then expanded to Chicago (adopt-a-sidewalk), Honolulu (adopt-a-siren), and is being deployed in other cities. At a high level, it's an inventory system for city assets that allows citizens to "adopt" the asset. It could be a park bench, sewer drain, sidewalk, hydrant, bus shelter, or other city-owned assets.

Adopt A Shelter screenshot

In Raleigh, NC, a group of volunteers from CityCamp Raleigh has deployed the Code for America Adopta app to complement the City of Raleigh's adopt a (local bus) shelter program. The adopta-a-shelter app provides an interactive interface for citizens to complement the existing program. Citizens can browse the city's inventory of bus shelters and sign up for a one-year commitment to adopt a bus shelter.

Code for America Race for Reuse 2012 campaign

A small team from CityCamp Raleigh has organized a Code for America brigade and entered the Race for Reuse. Here are a few details about the campaign and project timeline:

  • Submit URL by November 6, 2012 - done
  • Set campaign metrics by November 16, 2012 - done (see below)
  • "Engagement day" and Civic-a-thon on December 1, 2012 - done (Pictures on Facebook)
  • Campaign ends on December 8, 2012 - final days to adopt-a-shelter (CityCamp Raleigh blog post)

If you would like to help, see our to-to list and technical notes: adopt a bus shelter. Please contact Jason Hibbets (jhibbets at gmail.com) if you would like to be invovled with the project. We are looking for Ruby on Rails developers to volunteer some time to help with bug fixes and feature requests.

Project pages

Press about Adopt-A-Shelter

Race for Reuse campaign success metrics & milestones

Metrics

  • Drive awareness of the program by reducing staff time of 3-5 minutes per phone call explaining the program and looking up shelters available for adoption
  • Reduce time to adopt a shelter by allowing citizens to complete the adoption process online and notify city staff of new adoptions by email
  • 20 new bus shelter adoptions by December 8, 2012

Milestones

  • Press release announcing the project on November 13, 2012 - completed
  • Host an awareness civic-a-thon event on December 1, 2012
    • Ceremonial posting of Adopt-A-Shelter decal on at least one bus shelter in downtown Raleigh - completed
    • Group decoration of at least one bus shelter in downtown Raleigh (need permission from city to do this)
    • Availability to sign-up citizens who want to adopt a bus shelter - completed
    • Create at least 25 TriangleWiki page for adopted bus shelters - did not complete
    • Commit at least 10 bugs / feature enhancements to GitHub repository - did not complete
    • Document production update process - did not complete
    • Create "adopt this bus shelter posters" for at least 10 shelters - did not complete
  • Present project and campaign process to Raleigh City Council on December 4, 2012 via citizens petition - completed

More about the origins of Adopt-a-hydrant.

"Adopt-a-Hydrant is an app that maps the locations of fire hydrants so volunteers can find and dig them out during snow storms" according to the Code for America Brigade page.

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