Jane Thor’s Post

🚀 Exciting News! 🚀 We're thrilled to announce a new grant from Splunk that will significantly accelerate the momentum of Pathfinder. With their support, we will bridge the data gap by empowering immigration advocates with detailed case information about asylum seekers stuck in court. Pathfinder's mission has always been about providing the necessary tools and insights to those working tirelessly for the rights of asylum seekers. Their support is a testament to the crucial work being done by the #TechForGood community, who ensure cutting edge and ethical AI tools are available to one and all. Please share this update to help us amplify our message. #ImmigrationLaw #LegalTech #DataForGood #SplunkGrant #Pathfinder #AccessToJustice

Open source has empowered citizens worldwide to make over ONE MILLION Freedom of Information requests. The Alaveteli platform, originally created by mySociety as part of the WhatDoTheyKnow project, has empowered citizens worldwide to make over a million Freedom of Information requests. Access to Information laws are pivotal for transparency and accountability, enabling citizens to uncover corruption and hold governments accountable. Civic tech organizations are using Alaveteli globally to facilitate these requests, adapting the platform to local conditions and languages. Find out more about the Access to Information Community of Practice, and how you could use a tool like Alaveteli, in our Fiscally Sponsored Project, Civic Tech Field Guide’s latest blogpost: https://lnkd.in/djpeXcvC #CivicTech #AccessToInformation #FOI #Transparency

A recent Understood.org survey found nearly six in ten people with a learning & thinking difference (60%) have no idea what accommodations they are entitled to in the workplace. Learn more about what you are entitled to. #inclusionmatters #neurodiversity #TSEClientWork

A recent Understood.org survey found nearly six in ten people with a learning & thinking difference (60%) have no idea what accommodations they are entitled to in the workplace. That's why in honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day we are launching the Workplace Accommodations & Support Hub.

This past week, we reached a major milestone at Mobile Pathways as our main analytics tool, Asylum Navigator, reached 100K views! 🚀 💫 ☄ Eighteen months ago, when I was an outside advisor for the MP team, we engaged in extensive discussions about the best way to utilize the rich and complex EOIR immigration data set…whether or not to build an #AI chatbot, leverage advanced #machinelearning algorithms, or build a complex mobile app. We chose to intentionally keep things simple. “Reduce the new” became our catchphrase. We wanted to build an analysis dashboard that anyone—attorneys, advocates, immigrants, or everyday people—could easily use to see that seeking asylum in the United States is like playing an unfair lottery. Where you are from and where you live make a big difference in whether or not you can find a new life of hope and peace. In the last nine months, our dashboard's reach has surpassed all our expectations. It has sparked new research and analysis reports, led to fruitful conversations with partners and funders, and inspired the development of new products to help asylum seekers find justice through our data-driven efforts.  Asylum Navigator continues to grow as we upgrade the capabilities, engine, and reach of the dashboard for new languages and audiences! A big thank you to all our incredible partners who’ve joined us on this journey provided fantastic feedback, and shared Asylum Navigator with everyone in the immigration community! Mobile Pathways #TechforGood #AsylumNavigator #DataDrive #SaveAsylum #HumanRights

For companies looking for how to realise the “S” in their ESG strategies, Community TechAid is an excellent example of a charity who are passionate and dedicated about reusing old enterprise tech to bridge the digital divide and support their local community in and around Lambeth and Southwark. Do you know what happens to your company’s IT assets when they are end of life and get refreshed? Check out Community TechAid’s latest impact report to see how your old laptops could make a meaningful difference to so many people. And how they can help you with your ESG and social value impact reporting. If you want to help make a difference with your company’s old tech, get in touch and I’d love to introduce you to the team. #circulareconomy #digitaldivide #digitalpoverty #communityimpact #partnershipforthegoals #reuse

🦋🦋🦋 This National Pro Bono Week, I’m thrilled to share Microsoft’s annual pro bono report, highlighting impactful initiatives and volunteerism. One project close to my heart is the DACA Copilot. Inspired by my immigrant journey, the DACA Copilot began as a hackathon project automating immigration forms with Python. It evolved into an #AI agent on Copilot Studio and now a web application that streamlines Microsoft’s monthly pro bono clinics and scales #DACA renewal efforts. Collaborating with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and a cross-Microsoft team, including Amae Kurre, Luis Luciano, Brissa Quiroz, PhD, & many others, we aimed to scale immigrant justice amid legal challenges to the DACA program. The DACA Copilot incorporates multiple layers of human oversight to safely expand pro bono volunteer efforts in preparing and validating DACA renewals. Importantly, DREAMers and volunteers have infused our stories into this tool, ensuring it reflects our experiences and aspirations. Luz, or light, is an AI agent in the DACA Copilot that amplifies workflows and represents the monarch butterfly, the immigrant experience, and the aspirations and sacrifices of the DREAMer community and our parents. This project is more than technology; it’s a lifeline to justice, particularly as we confront the possible end of the DACA program. Every day, I’m grateful to use my privilege as a member of Microsoft's Pro Bono Program to develop tech solutions that address the global justice crisis. In a time of division across the world, I am reminded through our annual report that pro bono work unites us. Finally, as Hossein Nowbar mentions in the product video, this is just the beginning. Our annual report shows examples of how we are digitally transforming diverse pro bono matter types. Together, alongside the broader #probono ecosystem, we will continue to build AI tools that responsibly scale access to justice for indigent communities across the world.

Our panel today at the #SIDUSConference focused on the growing recognition that internal displacement is a development challenge, not just a humanitarian one, and that securing durable solutions to displacement is essential to peacebuilding and conflict management in fragile and conflict-affected environments. Internal displacement is at its highest level in modern history with a record number of #IDPs worldwide; a number that drastically exceeds that of refugees. Our discussion explored how #InternationalDevelopment programs can effectively engage IDPs as peacebuilders and change agents in their communities, drawing on examples from Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine. Below, we share key takeaways: ✨ IDPs can be #SparksOfHope when they are truly part of a community and not thought of or seen as “others.” It’s imperative that that we work to reduce tensions created between IDPs and host communities. We, as development partners, need to understand the trigger points of these tensions and develop programming that doesn’t exacerbate those tensions. 🤝 Programming shouldn’t just focus on IDPs but should include the host community as well. Integration isn’t a one-way street and including both sides will help to build social cohesion and foster peacebuilding. 👉 We should look for ways to incentivize local authorities to see IDPs as constituents that they can, and must, provide services to. 👩💻 We can empower entrepreneurs through capacity building initiatives, as well as with micro grants to support transitions into new business spaces where they contribute to not only their own communities but to those where they have relocated. 🏥 Providing psycho-social support and medical health services is critical – healing from trauma is a journey, so these services should be ongoing. 🫶 Working with empathy will go a long way in helping to make change happen. When members of host communities and we as international development practitioners can see ourselves in IDPs' shoes, then the focus can shift to what we can all do together to prevent and recover from conflict. Thank you to all of our panelists and to our moderator, Andrea Wegner! If you’re registered for the conference, but missed this discussion, be sure to check out the recording on SID-US’s TechChange platform for the virtual breakout session “Displacement and Development: IDPs as Change Agents to Build Peace”. #WeAreDTGlobal #GlobalDev #BeASpark Society for International Development, United States (SID-US) Nazik Elmahi Hillary Proctor Michelle Thompson 

📣 We’re excited to launch a new series of Disinformation and Civil Society Regional Mapping Reports focusing on findings and trends across four key regions: the Visegrad Group, the Baltics, the Black Sea, and the Western Balkans. What are the latest regional developments in this respect? What are the key difference and commonalities across 13 European countries? Get ready for an in-depth look at the challenges and successes of the civil society members countering disinformation and supporting their communities. 🌍 Many thanks to TechSoup and to regional partners (NIOK Foundation, Funky Citizens, Metamorphosis Foundation, Civic Resilience Initiative and Sdružení VIA). Prepared within the #DigitalActivismProgram with support from Google.org. #MappingReports #DigitalActivismProgram #TechSoupGlobalNetwork #HiveMind #GoogleOrg #CounteringDisinformation #CivilSociety #CSO #NGO

Our mission to fight crime in Townships has become clearer. Co-ordinating unreported activity in underserved communities is a distribution pivot we recently made. Creating a digitised data set in the public safety domain, across the LSM stack, is a mammoth task. No one entity can achieve this without the support of stakeholders in the ecosystem we want to participate in. A collaborative, non-combative mindset is really important here. Engaging with public and private entities with radical transparency has unlocked an unbelievable amount of value. If you have good intentions, there is zero downside to this approach. IQ and tech are not moats anymore. EQ and distribution could be. On a side note: I’ve torn up our dev roadmap as Mike keeps overshooting. Our minimal viable feature set is locked in. You can now send Wolf a voice note. Create notification areas. All within WhatsApp. In any language. Still for free. ————————— Think about that. ————————— The original idea of creating anonymous virtual witness statements for underserved communities in South Africa has evolved at pace. We are at point where tech moats are being dissolved in front of our eyes. Anything and everything will be disrupted. Maybe speed is everything… Michael Houghton Community Wolf 🐺