Projects

The Challenge

Community fridges and free food resources exist across East Flatbush, but there is no easy, mobile-friendly way for residents to find what is open, stocked and nearby. Information lives scattered across social media, word of mouth and static lists — and the people who need it most are the least likely to find it.

What I Built

FridgeFind is a lightweight web app that maps community fridges and food resources so anyone can locate the nearest option, check basic details and get directions. It is designed for quick use on a phone, with clear calls to action and minimal friction.

My Role

Solo project — I defined the problem, researched existing resources, designed the user flow, wrote the content and built the site using Lovable. I also gathered real location data and community context to make the tool useful from day one.

Skills Used

UX Research · Community Mapping · Visual Design · Content Strategy · Web Development (Lovable) · Product Thinking

Impact

Published as its own live website during EcoPower '26 and presented at the Community Report Back. Next up: FridgeFind pop-ups across the city.

The Problem

BKLVLUP is building Brooklyn's first Community Resilience Hub on Utica Avenue — open year-round for emergency support, food, shelter, water and programming. Most hub surveys are English-only, written by professionals for professionals, and never reach the people they claim to represent. Before construction, before programming, the community had to be heard.

Research Foundation

We grounded the work in the six-pillar resilience hub framework — programs and services, information and connectivity, built and natural spaces, power and backup, operations, and accessibility and transportation — layered with Flats-specific data from the NYC Heat Vulnerability Index, DOH Heat Risk dashboards and the NYS Disadvantaged Communities tool. One finding reset the whole project: heatstroke is the leading environmental cause of death for NYC seniors.

Survey Design & Deployment

BKLVLUP's first Community Resilience Hub survey, built and tested in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole by Operators who speak them — designed for reading level and format accessibility, not just translation. We also collected feedback in person at National Night Out at the Shirley Chisholm Center.

My Role

I led community-needs research: shaping the questions, connecting local heat vulnerability data to hub design priorities, running in-person collection and synthesizing responses into takeaways the team and community partners could act on.

What's Next

The survey is live in three languages. Next is expanding in-person collection as the Hub moves from concept to construction.

The Problem

The Flats holds a 40-year-old Caribbean market, a playground with roots in the 1990s, substations serving thousands of residents, green spaces and institutions people walk past every day without knowing what they are. When gentrification comes for a neighborhood, it comes first for the things nobody wrote down.

Mapping with Ground3D

On the Felt platform we mapped energy infrastructure (National Grid and ConEd substations), local institutions, green spaces, historical sites and community resources — several Operators working live in one shared map. Every point was annotated in full narrative sentences so someone could pull it up on a phone and get a story, not coordinates.

Street Interviews & Fieldwork

The Community & Civic track ran street interviews near Brooklyn College; the script took rounds of practice, because you can't open with 'do you live here?' in New York City. We walked the route on foot documenting shade cover, water access and flood risk, and began identifying corridor businesses for a community pact.

My Role

I contributed to the interview script, route research and the GIS map itself — researching locations, dropping and annotating points, and helping shape the tour so a resident could follow it from a phone.

What We Built

The Green Book: Energy Resilience Edition — a published interactive web map with 11 stops across East Flatbush, Remsen Village and Canarsie, hosted by Ground3D, plus a community pact business list feeding the Flats Rising Communication Strategy.

What's Next

The map is live and published. The next phase is community pact outreach to corridor businesses willing to be designated climate emergency resources.