Unemployed workers have a new tool to help them find the resources they need to get through difficult times.
Created in a partnership between the United Way for Southeastern Michigan and the School of Information, Neighbors4Neighbors is an interactive online program that uses social computing technology to connect unemployed workers with each other.
People who visit N4NMichigan.org can get and give advice on the things that matter when someone loses a job. The Web application has two components: an online discussion forum that lets people share advice with each other, and a “widget,” or online program, that allows users to add their own comments to partner Web sites that have information for the unemployed.
Neighbors4Neighbors is a project of Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm’s Keep Michigan Working Task Force. Michae Brennan, president and CEO of United Way for Southeastern Michigan, chairs the task force’s community outreach committee.
“Neighbors4Neighbors is a program that helps people help themselves right away — and eliminates the wait. This collaborative online resource and community discussion forum will be a catalyst for leading social change in the region,” Brennan says.
U-M and the United Way have developed an innovative way to tap informal networks, allowing unemployed workers the power to communicate with one another in real time. School of Information professor Paul Resnick is the primary architect of the Neighbors4Neighbors Web site.
The widget encourages all service and community-based organizations to add a “commenting feature” to the Web pages of their own sites.
“The widget is another rapid response to crisis from the School of Information,” says Martha Pollack, dean and professor in the School of Information. Michael Hess, an adjunct lecturer in the School of Information, developed the widget. School of Information master’s students Meico Whitlock, Jeremy Canfield and Kathleen Ludewig also contributed.
