PureConnect: A Localized Social Media System to Increase Awareness and Connectedness in Environmental Justice Communities
Omar Hammad, Md Rezwanur Rahman, Gopala Krishna Vasanth Kanugo, Nicholas Clements, Shelly Miller, Shivakant Mishra, Esther Sullivan
TL;DR
PureConnect tackles uncertainty and social disconnection in Environmental Justice Communities affected by the C70 construction by deploying a localized Slack-based social media workspace integrated with Dialogflow and COTrip data. The system, developed with active community engagement across four EJ neighborhoods, provides Q/A, discussion, translation, and timely construction updates, and is evaluated through two cohorts alongside the PurEmotion wellbeing app, totaling 69 participants. Findings indicate increased engagement, generally positive sentiment, and a correlation between PureConnect usage and improved wellbeing, with stronger effects observed after reducing channel complexity. The work demonstrates the viability and practical design considerations for hyper-local digital interventions to bolster awareness, connectedness, and social capital during major infrastructure disruptions. It offers a model for deploying EJ-focused, community-centered digital tools to mitigate stress and support resilience amid planned disruptions.
Abstract
Frequent disruptions like highway constructions are common now-a-days, often impacting environmental justice communities (communities with low socio-economic status with disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects) that live nearby. Based on our interactions via focus groups with the members of four environmental justice communities impacted by a major highway construction, a common concern is a sense of uncertainty about project activities and loss of social connectedness, leading to increased stress, depression, anxiety and diminished well-being. This paper addresses this concern by developing a localized social media system called PureConnect with a goal to raise the level of awareness about the project and increase social connectedness among the community members. PureConnect has been designed using active engagement with four environmental justice communities affected by a major highway construction. It has been deployed in the real world among the members of the four environmental justice communities, and a detailed analysis of the data collected from this deployment as well as surveys show that PureConnect is potentially useful in improving community members' well-being and the members appreciate the functionalities it provides.