U.S. Digital Response, one month in
4,500+ volunteers offer free assistance to governments amid COVID-19 crisis
Without question, the COVID-19 epidemic has meaningfully impacted all of us — whether it’s changing how we work and spend time with loved ones, or facing the front lines as a healthcare worker, or experiencing great loss both personally and financially. We’re seeing the impacts of this epidemic across all sectors, from public health and logistics to small businesses and hospitality.
The impact on government systems and services due to this crisis has been enormous — many operations have had to move online for the first time, and we’re seeing unprecedented levels of requests for crucial services like food benefits, small business loans, and unemployment insurance. Demand for services is growing at rates as high as 10,000% over pre-crisis numbers and increasing weekly, straining old systems and putting government teams in crisis mode.
One month ago, Jennifer Pahlka, founder and former executive director of Code for America, reached out to ask if I wanted to join some COVID-19 response efforts, and within hours I was on a group call with Cori Zarek and Ryan Panchadsaram. We realized there was a real need, at the minimum, to connect government teams, at all levels, to share information and get help to where it was critically needed.
That’s why we founded U.S. Digital Response.
WHO WE ARE
U.S. Digital Response (USDR) is a non-partisan service offering free assistance to governments who need support, powered by a team of volunteers who are experts within their domains. In our first month, over 4,500 volunteers have raised their hands to offer their services and skills, including in engineering, data science, healthcare, content, operations, supply chain management, marketing and more. So far we’ve placed volunteer help on over 80 government projects, with more volunteers being matched daily.
Our founders bring significant government experience: Cori Zarek, Jennifer Pahlka and Ryan Panchadsaram were all previously U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officers. Many of our initial team members — including myself — are tech veterans who’ve helped teams and systems scale in chaotic environments. Today the core team is a roughly 50–50 mix of people with government and tech backgrounds, and this has helped us execute rapidly even as we take the time to work within existing government systems and constraints.
From our core team to our volunteers, we bring depth of experience and the ability to move fast. We provide quality assistance to all government entities across the country at “the speed of need”; if we can help, we will.
WHAT WE DO
When we first started, “USDR” was just a Google Form (used to recruit volunteers) and an email list (seeded with government contacts the team knew personally). We starting reaching out to understand governments’ needs and begin matching them with volunteers who were ready and able to help. USDR quickly grew — both in terms of volunteer capacity and governments in need of assistance — and we began seeing common themes and requests across states, counties, and cities. The simple form gave way to what now looks like a small tech startup. With a website, structured intake process, heavy use of tools, and behind-the-scenes team effort, we’re able to respond to any government request within one day, and often get them help within hours.
Our services have started to fall into a few areas: direct staffing, knowledge-sharing, and building open-source tools. When we embed volunteers, a government team can operate as if they’ve grown overnight, and move faster to update systems under unprecedented strain. As we work across governments, we identify opportunities to share best practices and implement tools we’ve already seen work well in other jurisdictions. When we see a gap that’s not yet filled by an existing service, our volunteers build open-source components that are free, extensible to any locale and accessible to anyone who wants them.
Regardless of the specific method, we’re here to help any way we can — we’ll also continue to change how we work if it means getting help out there faster.
WHERE WE’VE HELPED
USDR volunteers have partnered with various governments and organizations to get fast help to problems posed by the COVID-19 crisis. In just a few weeks, volunteers have:
- Provided drop-in help in areas ranging from epidemiology, workflow management, mainframe/COBOL engineering, hospital design, and content translation.
- Automated hospital data collection in Pennsylvania to make better decisions on capacity and PPE needs, saving dozens of hours a week. (GitHub)
- Helped New Jersey build a healthcare professional call to service site, soliciting 5,000 volunteer signups in just one day.
- Built websites to help people understand their eligibility for federal stimulus funds.
- Worked with the City of San Rafael to digitize HR and finance forms as they transitioned to remote work.
- Connected governments with existing tools like Covid Act Now that help states model and map infection data
As projects wrap up, our team will share more examples of the collaborations and work from our volunteers and government partners.
WHAT’S NEXT
We see and are hearing the challenges that are coming at governments as a result of COVID-19. And while there’s no stand-in for the critical work being done in the frontlines, USDR has a team of eager and experienced volunteers ready to assist however we can.
If your government team needs help responding to challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis, request assistance by completing this form and our Government Partnerships team will be in touch within 24 hours.
To learn more about us, visit www.USDigitalResponse.org or contact info@usdigitalresponse.org.
