Birmingham Hackathon

BIRMINGHAM’S BIG HACKATHON – Creating IT solutions to support migrant communities 

Breaking barriers, preparing communities for the Clean Air Zone

WHY

Poor air quality remains the single biggest environmental public health challenge facing England. In Birmingham alone, unhealthy air quality contributes to around 900 early deaths each year. It also significantly influences long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes and heart diseases. Furthermore, polluted air has a disproportionate impact on the young, the old and people living in deprivation. To help tackle this issue, Birmingham will launch a Clean Air Zone in 2021.

The demographic makeup of the city entails significant challenges regarding communication and compliance of the new regulations within migrant communities. Migrants have the right to know about key services in Birmingham City Council that impact their lives on a daily basis, including travel within the host city. The Clean Air Zone website is perceived as unclear and the current navigation complicates access to necessary information and requirements. Without awareness and understanding, migrants can face not only unanticipated penalties when they travel, but also remain uninformed of their rights to receive support and financial assistance.

Enabling citizens to gain confidence in communicating with public organisations and exercise their rights to services is essential for ensuring equal, diverse and respectful societies. Let’s join forces to provide the needed support and missing tools to empower migrant communities for this purpose.

THE ORGANISER

The Hackathon builds upon the necessity of finding solutions for the struggles of the migrant community interacting with public services and measures. The introduction of a Clean Air Zone results in new procedures and regulations which all citizens should understand, adopt and become familiar with, yet they give rise to questions, uncertainty and confusion. For example, if a driver enters the Clean Air Zone with a non-compliant vehicle they need to pay the zone charges. However, they may be entitled to a temporary exemption from charges if they live or work in the city.

For migrant communities, these new policies cause an additional layer of pressure related to language and bureaucracy barriers. When interacting with the Clean Air Zone online service, migrants are lost in the navigation process, face language barriers and encounter digital divides. Consequently, their slow responses and interaction with the system translates into tedious and lengthy transactions and
communication activities. Applying for financial incentives in relation to the Clean Air Zone is a series of intricate procedures, unfathomable website scrutiny, and unwelcoming formats.

During the challenge, you will try to find solutions that make the process of interacting with the Clean Air zone more accessible* and transparent, and shape the service in order to make sure that migrants understand all the aspects of the process (permissions, boundaries, signage, time zones, exceptions).

* Improving the accessibility of the service refers to the channels that provide the access (even when the migrant does not have an e-mail address), but also alludes to the clarification of procedures, the recognition of migrants’ native languages, the offer of encouraging and enticing formats that resemble softwares and technologies they are already familiar with.