Chantal Guadarrama, member of Leadership Park City class 30, had the initial idea for an app as the group’s capstone project, drawing from her own experience. “I’m a daughter of immigrants,” said Guadarrama, “and I remember having to figure out every service and everything that my parents needed, and I can only imagine that still hasn’t changed. Nothing has changed, from the time I was young to now. I work with the youth, so I see our kids doing the same — having to interpret for their parents, find the resources for their parents, you know, navigate the world for their parents, while they are also learning to navigate the world (for themselves).”“And I want to make it in any way easier for them,” continued Guadarrama, “having that access, for their parents to be autonomous, or be able to have that independence to do it themselves and give the kids back a little bit of their childhood.” So the Colectiva app was born, aiming to address the challenges Guadarrama faced as a kid.“We’ve learned that our people, our community, they trust us and they will go to what we know and what we invite them to, but if they don’t know what’s going on, then they don’t know what’s going on,” said Gaudarrama.Aiming to create a space where Spanish speaking residents can easily access community information and find available resources, Colectiva brings all available community resources into the palm of their hand, ensuring they know exactly what is available, where to go, and how to access those resources.A launch event held Sunday afternoon marked the culmination of hundreds of hours of dedicated work, volunteering and creativity. Now, class 30 members said, it’s up to the public to make it work.“Increased downloads, particularly from Android users, will enhance testing and development efforts,” said Roberto Olivares, Class 30 member and the apps main developer, “The team is running tests with app stores to gain acceptance for the app. Once it is publicly accessible, anyone who downloads the app via the QR codes will receive an email notification.”The information it holds will depend on contributions from local businesses and organizations. When information is uploaded to the app, it will be translated and posted in both Spanish and English, a process the group hopes to automate in the future for quicker turnaround.Currently in a web app format, Colectiva is not yet published in the app stores, however it is still fully functional and ready to be used. Users can download it through provided QR codes (see right) and add it to their mobile home screen.The app is available for free to everyone including both users and contributing organizations, it supports both Spanish and English, and with a successful launch, there are plans to add additional languages in the future.Olivares emphasized the importance of not only creating a useful app but integrating effective marketing strategies to increase awareness of it.“We can make the most beautiful thing in the world,” said Olivares, “the most useful thing in the world, but if we cannot market the software or services or other programs It will come to nothing.”Colectiva is truly communal and will require local buy-in for long-term success. All organizations that have information or resources to share with the Spanish-speaking community are urged to join the app and start contributing.Miriam Nieto, a class 30 member, encouraged organizations to take part in the apps success.“We really believe in this community. We really want the Latino community to feel safe, to feel welcome, to feel like they belong, and this is the way to do it, working together with amazing people that can make this place an amazing place and a welcoming place for everyone. So hopefully your organization’s going to be part of our app,” she said.Olivares also spoke about the need for collaboration among organizations to promote the app and contribute to it by adding their resource information.While progress has been made in securing partnerships, the group invites anyone with connections to interested organizations to reach out via the official email, [email protected] may encounter bugs in the app at first, so Olivares asked for patience as they continue to develop Colectiva and add helpful features to increase usability.“Help us spread the word,” said Olivares. “Without marketing, people won’t find this app, you won’t hear about this app and there’s so much information on there and it will be so helpful to people that we really need to spread the word.”“I had this idea and now it’s tangible and physically visible, so it’s scary,” said Guadarrama. “I’m very happy about it, and I’m grateful for everyone that helped bring this vision alive … I just hope that it does work for our community. I want to make sure that we can evolve it, and make sure that it keeps working and changing to cater to their needs, to help them, not just some random project that we put together and forget about, I want it to keep going.”The post Leadership Park City class 30 launches Colectiva app appeared first on Park Record.