WConnect

WConnect empowers women in shelters to pursue STEM and improve their mental health. The portal connects mentees with mentors, providing the necessary tools to help each woman create a better future.

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Inspiration

Approximately every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner (Statistics Canada, 2019). Does this surprise you? It shouldn’t. Gender based violence has become so desensitized in our society that we overlook the harms it has on everyone.

By creating divisions in what women are “allowed” to do, society is ignoring the great potential in more than half the population of the Earth. But also, by ignoring the women who have been traumatized in their life, we are completely excluding the talent that these women have. How do we leverage this talent? How can we help these women, not just with what they’ve faced, but also with the possibilities they could achieve with their skills?

What it does

WConnect empowers women and girls in shelters the tools they need to pursue STEM careers while maintaining their mental health. Our design helps women who are in need of mental support as well as a boost in their professional abilities to be able to support themselves. WConnect entails a mentorship program between an industry professional and a woman in need of support, with the guidance and aid of a mental health specialist. This vision stems from the violent events women faced that negatively harmed their mental health and self-confidence. It makes it difficult for them to believe a safer future is even attainable. WConnect's features include:

  • Login/Register: where users have the option to register or login as a “Mentee”, “Mentor”, or “Mental Health Specialist (MHS)”. Upon Registration, the user enters their profile details and interests which is information used for matching.
  • Dashboard: where users will be notified when they have a match. Once matched, their dashboard will be updated with their matched mentee/MHS/mentor’s profile depending on who the user is.
  • My Care Team: where users can communicate with their matched individuals by either texting, booking an appointment via Google Calendar (they’ll be able to see each other’s availability).
  • Resources Page: where users can access profile-based resources that could help them in their relationship.
  • Review Request Form: allows the user (especially a mentee) wishes to review their matched relationships. This will be reviewed by administrators and a decision will be made accordingly.
  • Escape Button: takes the user (mentee) to a dummy website if they feel that they are in danger while using this application.

How we built it

We built our application using React (CRA) for the frontend of the website. For the backend and database, we used Google’s Firebase to store the user’s information in the Firebase firestore as well as authentication with Firebase’s email-and-password authentication. Additionally, we used Google Calendar API to allow users to book appointments with the individuals they are paired with. Prior to building this application, we designed this web application using Figma!

Challenges we ran into

Our main challenge was being able to manage our time effectively because we had a lot of tasks to complete within a short time period. However, we ultimately able to accomplish most of our features through hardwork and dedication!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of being able to create an application that is making a meaningful difference in the world, while also bringing communities together. We believe that WConnect will encourage and empower women in STEM careers, while also removing systemic barriers to their advancement.

What we learned

We gained knowledge and experience with various development tools such as React and Firebase, as well as strengthened our UI/UX design skills by prototyping our web pages with Figma. Lastly, we learned that maintaining a positive mindset is crucial to completing an impactful hack!

What's next for WConnect

Something we wanted to try out is making this “mentorship program” more like a community where matched triplets can meet each other and share their stories. This is something worth exploring and would be a good development for our idea to bring communities together.

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