NYC Mesh partnership with Mil Mundos and Bushwick Ayuda Mutua

Introduction:

Mil Mundos en Comun is a mutual aid and community resources space located in Bushwick. They run a non-profit bookstore and community space, along with assisting with other mutual aid organizations in the area.

Bushwick Ayuda Mutua is a mutual aid group providing essential goods, translation, healthcare, rental assistance and services in Bushwick. They aim to support low income and marginalized families who need assistance by organizing and distributing donations of goods and referring those in need to other organizations who can help.

Partnership Overview:

NYC Mesh is working with Bushwick Ayuda Mutua to provide no cost installs and internet access to members in Bushwick. We install internet for families who currently do not have internet, or who cannot afford their current internet providers cost.

Mil Mundos is helping to provide translation and outreach volunteers who assist with processing the requests received from BAM. Mil Mundos also provides storage for equipment at Mil Mundos Books. Mil Mundos has also provided funds to cover the costs of the equipment being installed as well.

BAM AirTable:

BAM uses AirTable to manage their information and requests. This is their primary method of data storage and sharing.
 Lydon and Willard have accounts to be able to access and update data in the AirTable.

For Mesh's work, all the data we need is in the "Assistance Requests Main" sheet. To see internet requests use the "Social Services" > "Social Services - Low Cost Internet Access" view. This contains all the data we need and filters out a bunch of extra stuff that doesn't need to be shown.

As this data is shared with BAM, we are required to follow BAM's Privacy Guidelines, which is also the reason why there's only a few people who have access. BAM data is shared with NYC Mesh for the purposes of this project and shouldn't be shared with others per the privacy guidelines.

On the mesh side, we follow our standard data privacy measures, including only sharing personal data (addresses, phone numbers, emails) in private channels on our slack and in private DM chats. Data stored in our database is stored in the same fashion as other private mesh member data.

Outreach and Install Process:

This install process is specific to BAM/MM installs. It is not representative of the process for "normal" mesh installs received through our join form.

This diagram outlines the full process an install follows after being received by MM through completion of the install by NYC Mesh.

Opening the request:

The process starts by someone filling out the request form at https://bushwickayudamutua.com/request/.
This creates a row in BAM's AirTable, which is used for tracking all of their data. If a user requests "Low cost internet at home" and that internet access is too expensive or inaccessible to them, then BAM will work to assist them and refer them to us.

Outreach and collecting information:

Mil Mundos volunteers will reach out to the user and ask them several questions to ascertain their level of need and confirm their address and if they have roof access. (If someone doesn't have roof access, NYC Mesh may not always be able to help, however sometimes unique solutions can be found to work around this.)

Mil Mundos volunteers will then pass the request to NYC Mesh by setting the Mesh status to "Texted About Mesh". They will also notify Lydon or Willard that there are pending requests to log into AirTable and look at.

Checking by Mesh volunteer:

Make sure you are in the right view! To see the requests use the "Social Services" > "Social Services - Low Cost Internet Access" view. This contains all the data we need.

Once the row (request ticket) is passed over to NYC Mesh, our volunteers will take a look at the information provided. We will use the "Case Notes" left by the Mil Mundos volunteers to confirm that the user is still interested, has a need and has access to their roof.

The mesh volunteers will then look at the address and confirm via Google Earth or Panos from nearby nodes whether LOS exists to another NYC Mesh node and that connection is possible: 

• If its not possible to determine LOS without panoramas, the mesh volunteer will reach out to Mil Mundos to once again conduct outreach with the user and direct them through the process of taking panorama photos and sending them to us.
• If it's obvious that the install isn't possible, either due to lack of roof access or being too far/no LOS from nearby nodes, then the mesh volunteer will mark the Mesh status as "Mesh cannot install". The request will remain in that state for 6 months in case the situation changes, after that point it will time out and be discarded.
• If the install is possible, then the process continues...

Adding to MeshDB/Creating install number:

Once the install is confirmed as being possible, the mesh volunteer will add the request's information into MeshDB. This will be done with the welcome email bypassed and not sent, as most of the people requesting support won't respond to the email anyways and we don't want to confuse people further with an email they may not understand. A lot of requests also don't include an email address, so a placeholder will be used if needed.

Once an install number has been created for the install, that will be updated in AirTable so that communication between our organizations can be facilitated with a shared ID number for each request. (This is entered in the "Mesh Install Number" column.)

Scheduling an "Installathon":

With the goal of fostering community involvement (as mentioned above), we aim to group BAM installs together into a day and have multiple installs being done at once. This allows opportunities for Mil Mundos and other partners to provide chances to advertise this date for community members to become involved in the install process.
We attempt to schedule an Installathon every quarter, so every 3-4 months.

As requests come in, we group them into the next scheduled Installathon. This is tracked in the #bam-installs private channel on Slack. (To join the channel, fill out form pinned in #volunteer and then reach out to Lydon or Willard)

Once the Installathon happens, we attempt to install as many people as possible. Any installs that cannot be completed due to scheduling, access or other reasons get bumped to the next Installathon. We bump installs twice, then if the install still hasn't happened it gets discarded as there are new requests waiting their turn.

Once install has been completed:

The mesh volunteer closes the request in BAMs system by marking the following fields:

1. Mark "Mesh Status" as "Mesh Installed"
2. Set "Low Cost Internet Access Delivered  - MESH" on the row, which will remove it from the view.

Support:

Support for Mil Mundos installs is handled via our usual processes. Members are given the NYC Mesh support information in case they need to reach out to us.

In the event that translation needs are required, Mil Mundos can provide volunteers to handle communication with the members.