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Resources & Updates

from the Organizing Team

A Weekend in Review

6/15/2020

 
As this weekend came to a close, our team reflects on what has been an incredible past few days. With thirty-six hours spent bouncing between webinars and workshops, buzzing virtual mentor "office hours," and our 24/7 help desk, the COVID-19 Policy Hackathon was an opportunity to learn for all parties involved. We wish to extend a hearty thank you to the people who made this weekend possible, especially our mentors, speakers, and judges, who volunteered their time to helping participants learn and hone their policy proposals. 

We also thank our amazing participants who approached this event with an open mind and the intellectual curiosity to explore the policy space in the context of COVID-19. We have been so impressed by the ideas teams developed, and we are pleased to highlight the following top three proposals in each of our four policy tracks. 

Track 1: Public Health
Addressing Sanitation-Related Disparities in the Navajo Nation by Team 33 (Rachael Deng, Rebecca Mak, Shilpa Sajja, Alyssa Sales)
Need for Care Navigation Program for Inmates within North Carolina Public Carceral Facilities by Team 19 (Raleigh Cury, Nikhil Rao, and Preeyanka Rao)
Reopening of Brazilian Public Schools in the Post-Pandemic World by Team 1 (Solange Melissa Severino de Oliveira, Lara Franciulli Teodoro de Souza, Ligia Oliveira Toscano de Melo, Luiza Diniz Vilanova)

Track 2: Firms and Workers
Income-Contingent Loan Schemes for Retraining Programs by Team 119 (Joshua Grice, Hugo Leo, Oliver Osei-Asibey, Ashmit Vyas)
Building Resilience within Small Businesses by Team 109 ( Bruce Liu Anlin, Nicole Chua Kai Ling, Marcuz Pae, Bernard Soh Yan Rong,)
Minority-Owned Restaurant Retention Pilot Program (MORRPP) by Team 75 ( Raymond Luo, Tanisha Sabhaney, Neerja Singh, Jyoti Singhal, Nina Wang)

Track 3: Trade and Immigration
A Proposal to Reduce the Burden of COVID-19 Policies on Immigrants in America by Team 126 (Martin Aquije, Lucas Jia, Daniel Kornbluth, Zachary Leventhal, Sean Swayze)
Keeping the Nation Fed by Team 135 (Kevin Awoufack, Shayne Estill, Thay Graciano, Samantha Maldanado, Fabian Velasquez)
Curbing the Spread and Financial Strain of Covid-19 by Suspending 287(g) by Team 128 (Geena Garcia, Gustie Owens, Roxanna Rasquier, Catherine Serianni, Jennifer Zhang)

​Track 4: Financial Policy
New Facility for Monetary Policy Targeting Municipalities by Team 165 (Darren Chang, Ayon Mitra, Matthew Simons, Michael Wang)
Firms and Industry Rescue Act by Team 190 (Choy Kai Kit Chester, Jerica Ng, Chun Jing Hui, Sia Yu Ting, Megan Chong Wen Xi)
How the United States Can Prevent Airline Insolvency And Avoid Moral Hazard by Team 195 (Jack Chan, Charles Chow, Jacob Hollander, O Hung Lung, Darren Tan)

We will be showcasing these proposals on our website shortly as we work to develop a database to make all submitted proposals open-source. There were certainly more than twelve potentially impactful ideas developed this weekend, and we look forward to sharing them all. Over the next coming days and weeks, our team will be working hard to disseminate ideas and continue the momentum we have started.

Thank you for following along with us for what has been a meaningful weekend and the beginning of an impactful collaborative effort. 
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19 Hours To Go!!!

6/12/2020

 
Hey everyone! All team formation emails and participant materials have been sent out today. We are super excited to get started this weekend on crafting innovative policy proposals and ideas. Participants should touch base today, set themselves up technologically and familiarize themselves with the participant guide. We look forward to a productive and inspiring weekend. A few updates: we are delayed in releasing the policy memo making video and will hopefully get that up as soon as possible!
LET’S GET HACKING!

Tracks and Schedules and Teams, Oh My!

6/9/2020

 
With the kick-off for the COVID-19 Policy Hackathon only days away, we have begun releasing preliminary information on our event's schedule and policy track prompts. With our application portal closing tomorrow, our team will conduct the team matching process over the next two days and will announce team assignments this Friday at 9AM PDT via email. Keep on eye on your inbox for your team number, teammates, track assignment, and Participant Guide, which will contain all of the information you need for kickstarting what we hope to be an exciting and meaningful weekend!

We also want to extend a hearty thank you to all of you for your patience as we navigate the event-planning process (there's always a learning curve).

~ The COVID-19 Policy Hackathon Organizing Team

Resources for BLM

6/7/2020

 
Educate. Act. Change.
Educate
Books​​
  1. The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein
  2. The Economics of Race in the United States - Brendan O’Flaherty

Economics Papers
On Race, Police Brutality & the Law:
  1. Delehanty et al. (2017): Militarization and police violence: The case of the 1033 program
  2. Fryer, Jr. (2017): An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force
  3. ​Harvey & Mattia (2019): Reducing Racial Disparities in Crime Victimization
  4. Miller & Segal (2019): Do Female Officers Improve Law Enforcement Quality? Effects on Crime Reporting and Domestic Violence
  5. Owens et al. (2018): Can You Build A Better Cop? 
  6. Rivera & Ba (2019): The Effect of Police Oversight on Crime and Allegations of Misconduct: Evidence from Chicago
  7. Yang (2013): Free at Last? Judicial Discretion and Racial Disparities in Federal Sentencing
On Race in Other Sects of Society:
  1. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (2020): Making Black Women Scientists under White Empiricism: The Racialization of Epistemology in Physics

Think Tank Articles
  1. Do Body-worn Cameras Improve Police Behavior? - Brookings Institution
  2. Race, Prosperity, And Inclusion Initiative - Brookings Institution
  3. Racial and Ethnic Disparities - Urban Institute

Podcasts
  1. At the Table and Dismissed - We Live Here
  2. Code Switch - NPR
  3. The Systems That Protect the Police - The Daily NYT
  4. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? - MPR News
  5. The Color Of Law' Details How U.S. Housing Policies Created Segregation - NPR

Videos
  1. Systematic Racism Explained by act.tv on YouTube
  2. Adam Ruins Everything (short series) on Netflix, Youtube TV and Google Play

Reports and Articles
  1. Police Use of Force Project
  2. Talking About Race - Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
  3. The median net worth of black bostonians - Boston Globe
  4. The Financial Crisis and the CRA - City Journal 
  5. Race, Power and Policy: Dismantling Structural Racism - Racial Equity Tools
  6. The Persistence of White Privilege and Institutional Racism in US Policy - Race Forward

Other Resources
  1. Reading List recommended by the American Economic Association
  2. Anti-Racism for Beginners
Act
Ways To Help
  1. Sign Petitions
  2. Text or Call
  3. Donate
  4. Protest

Other Resources

Black Lives Matter.

6/6/2020

 
“Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind” ~ James Baldwin​
As a global platform, we believe we have a duty to our team, our participants, our mentors and our communities to speak up. We stand in solidarity with the fight against systemic racism. 

Black Lives Matter.

We encourage participants to dedicate their time and energy to thinking critically about the issues surrounding racism in our society. Given our hackathon’s focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, participants are invited to examine systemic racial inequalities and how these differences have been amplified during this challenging time.
​
We hope that our event can serve as a platform for participants and mentors to unite in rising up against the injustices plaguing our world.

Some Stats

6/6/2020

 
Based on the 1000+ applications we have received so far, our data-analytics team churned out some numbers for you! 

Next Week...

6/5/2020

 
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We know that many of you are antsy to get a head-start on your policy hackathon preparation. We hear you, and we are excited that you are excited. Our team is working hard to finalize materials, compiling everything from detailed weekend schedules to track overviews to policy proposal guides. These materials will be made available early next week, so stay tuned for more information headed your way soon. 

To encourage setting up communication channels before our policy hackathon begins, team and track assignments will be released on Friday, June 12th. (And yes, if you listed your friends as desired teammates, then you will all be on the same team--but do make sure that they have submitted individual applications.)

~ The COVID-19 Policy Hackathon Organizing Team

Hello.

6/5/2020

 
COVID-19 Policy Hackathon Organizing Team here. 

With t-minus 8 days until kick-off, we are growing excited for what we anticipate being a weekend spent collaborating, creating, and advocating. Our world needs change, and that begins in the policy space. 
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Receiving over 1,000 applications from 60 countries, our team has been inspired by your collective drive to share your ideas. We hope that our event will provide a platform for thinkers around the globe to work together and create truly impactful policy proposals. In a time of isolation, connection is powerful.

We have also witnessed a tremendous amount of inequality and injustice ingrained deeply into our society. We ensourage you to spend the next week identifying the tangible and intangible problems that you and your community face. Think about what needs to be fixed. And come ready on June 13th to share.
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The COVID-19 Policy Hackathon 2020
  • Home
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