Block The Pill

Find us at https://www.OurSafePlace.online NOTE this is also our submission for best domain registered with domain.com (for the domain OurSafePlace.online).

Inspiration

Currently, there are countless Canadians who are facing hard times due to the opioid crisis. Many don't have a safe place online or otherwise where they can share their feelings and connect with others. Therefore, we wanted to create something to help people meet and support each other in the fight against the opioid crisis under a safe place online.

What it does

Block the Pill is an online platform where people who are facing the overdose crisis in Canada can anonymously post their stories regarding their struggles with overdosing. This helps support others who may also be going under the same thing with a fellow perspective.

This is what we are currently working on as an additional feature

Users can login and video chat with other people in the same situation, or video chat with a registered professional for guidance and advice.

How we built it

The front end of the application was built using HTML, CSS, JS, JQuery, and Bootstrap. The back end of the application was started using Rocket (Rust) and SQLite We are hosting the application on Google Cloud. We set up an TLS Server using a certificate from letsencrypt.

Challenges we ran into

We had trouble implementing the MongoDB to store login information, connecting WebRTC to our front-end and back-end for live video chat, as well as using cryptography to create a user authentication system that is secure. In the end, we didn't end up being able to connect the front end and back end, though this is something we will be able to do in a short amount of time.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of our ability to work remotely with a team across 2 time zones, and create a layout for a project that users can use in their fight against the overdose crisis. We are proud of the mobile-responsive UI and dark theme in the front end as well.

What we learned

We learned a lot about the current overdose crisis that Canadians face, and how we can try to reduce potential harm in our community.

Challenges

Best Domain Registered With Domain.com

We submit the domain OurSafePlace.online for the best domain prize. We believe it is a clever use of the .online TLD, and it ties in with our mission of harm reduction.

Harm Reduction

Our app was created and designed around this particular idea. The purpose of our app was to allow people in hard times due to the opioid crisis to connect with others in a safe environment, hopefully resulting in less overdoes and less harm done to themselves. If we can help just one person with our application, it will have been worth it.

Best use of Google Cloud

We hosted our app on Google Cloud, and managed the platform through that.

What's next for Block the Pill

Expanding it to more platforms, such as Android, and iOS, and to cater Block the Pill for more of the demanding issues and problems that society faces. Moreover, we plan on fixing the issues we currently have, such as implementing a crypto-backed user authentication system and anonymous posting. We plan on increasing features, such as including the ability to have video chat.

Contact Info

Jeremie Bornais jeremiejbornais@gmail.com jeremie@bornais.ca jere_mie#9432 (Discord)

Built With

• bootstrap
• css
• firebase
• google-cloud
• html
• javascript
• letsencrypt
• rocket
• rust
• sqlite