This Wish List Donation App Could Change Homelessness Forever
Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a world where everyone had a roof over their head, food in their stomachs and clothes on their backs? Well, with inventions like the StreetChange app, this could become a reality.
The StreetChange app lets users make small donations to the wish lists of homeless people in their area. And before you ask: homeless people don't need a smartphone to receive the items on their list.
According to Mashable, to enroll in the program, a homeless person needs to have a caseworker and complete a survey that identifies their long-term housing goals and 10 to 15 short-term material needs which are then put into a registry.
They are then given a Bluetooth beacon which allows StreetChanges users to find them and donate.
Here comes the amazing part: app users can see and read about the StreetChange person they're helping before donating an amount as low as $1 toward an item in a person's wish list.
"We put the services and the funded item in the same location to increase engagement," Siegel told The Philadelphia Citizen. "[The person] can refuse services if they want, but the idea is that we're making it more likely the engagement will happen.
"I can't look for work hungry and dirty," Marcellus says in the video.
"These things right here," he says, holding up the beacon, "they're working. And, hopefully, y'all can put them in more hands."
Watch this awesome video below and tell us, do you think we should have something like this here in Ireland?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31negUyYfBs