reRoot

reRoot helps people make more informed decisions on where is the best place to move in the United States, outside of existing networks and word-of-mouth.

Visit project

Time: Sep – Dec 2021
Location: online
Collaborators: Dr. Martha Lagace, African Communities Together; Jack Cushman; Karma Tarap; Lily Huang; Maria Sotnikova, Atlanta Regional Commission; Mier Chen; Nikolai Elneser Montiel, Neighborhood Nexus; Pranay Varada; Sabelo Mhlambi; The Opportunity Project; Thomas Zhang; United States Census Department; Yujie Wang
Labs: Harvard

During the 2021 fall semester, metaLAB (at) Harvard facilitated a student datathon in conjunction with The Opportunity Project (TOP) run by the United States Census Bureau’s Open Innovation Lab (for more on the datathon see TOP (at) Harvard). One of the projects was Community LifeRAFT by Mier Chen, Lily Huang, Karma Tarap, Pranay Varada, Yujie Wang, and Thomas Zhang with mentorship by Sabelo Mhlambi and Jack Cushman.

As social, economic, and climate landscapes change, individuals and families tend to move to where they can find a suitable community. Yet, moving is a huge risk that not many can afford to take, and not everyone is aware of what opportunities may even exist. reRoot is a migration support platform that uses the U.S. Census data to assist minority and disenfranchised communities within the United States to migrate and make more informed migration decisions outside of existing networks and word-of-mouth. reRoot debuted at The Opportunity Project Summit, a virtual event hosted by the Open Innovation Lab in December 2021.