A decision aid that turns scattered public data into guidance residents can actually act on.
Most civic and government information already exists — it just isn't easily found. Residents looking for housing assistance, food resources or local policy updates must piece together answers from scattered websites, social media posts and word of mouth. The information is available, but finding trustworthy, up-to-date guidance can be difficult and time-consuming.
The challenge is not access to information. The challenge is transforming information into action. The goal is to create a scalable civic guidance platform that can evolve as community needs change.
First Step reorganizes public information into structured, readable, actionable guidance for residents of Wilmington, Delaware.
Rather than functioning as a traditional resource directory, First Step acts as a decision aid. Resources are organized into meaningful categories and presented in a way that helps users identify practical next steps.
Current categories include:
Housing Help Free / Low-Cost Essentials Seasonal Resources Weekly Updates
The application demonstrates how thoughtful information architecture can reduce friction between public information and real-world need.
Building civic tools for low-resource communities requires more than technical skill. It requires judgment about what information to surface, when and how. This project demonstrates that capacity: taking existing public data but channeling it into an application that is genuinely useful, without noise or unnecessary complexity.
Spring Boot REST API Three API endpoints Java model classes aligned with a defined schema Startup validation logging
Lightweight static frontend Mobile-first interface Screen-based navigation Resource filtering and detail views
Python preprocessing scripts Schema validation Data transformation and cleaning JSON generation for application consumption
The project was intentionally designed to support future growth.
Planned enhancements include:
- Spanish-language support
- Enhanced accessibility options
- Reusable JSON loading utilities
- Stronger filtering and ranking logic
- Expanded civic data sources
- Additional guidance workflows
- Improved abstraction and generic-based architecture
- Enhanced navigation patterns
"Messy public data can become usable decisions. This prototype shows how."
- Open demo: http://localhost:8080