USAII Global AI Hackathon 2026 — Community Support: Making Help Visible
Team: Spurs In 6 · High School Track
New Leaf is a conversational application that assists people in crises, helping them find support in the community. Users describe their situations, and the AI generates a personalized step-by-step plan with relevant local resources and financial support. Users can also be redirected to help by the government and other potential partners.
One-line pitch: An AI-powered solution that helps people in crisis access community support services and get personalized guidance so they can get help faster and advocate for themselves.
People in crisis struggle to find the right support services because information that can help them is scattered across many websites and programs. They often don't know where to start, causing delays in getting help.
An example: a student whose family is struggling to pay rent and doesn't know what housing or food assistance programs are available.
If this stays unsolved, people miss urgent support like food and housing services, leading to worsening crises, stress, and financial and emotional harm — preventable through our application.
AI can understand a person's real situation in natural language and instantly match them with relevant local support services, explain eligibility in simple terms, and generate step-by-step guidance that search engines just won't be able to provide.
AI capabilities used: Natural Language Processing · Recommendation Systems
Risk: The application may recommend incorrect, outdated, or irrelevant community resources, or fail to recognize urgent situations where immediate human assistance is needed, potentially delaying critical help for vulnerable users in crisis.
How we reduce it: We use verified and regularly updated resource databases and clearly label recommendation uncertainty when information is lacking. We prioritize official hotlines and human support for urgent situations instead of relying solely on AI output. We also hope to work in tandem with governmental associations — having them vet our responses as reliable.
Humans remain involved in final decisions about eligibility for services and in any situations involving high-risk circumstances such as housing loss, food insecurity, or mental health crises. The AI only guides and organizes options, while users or trained support workers verify information and make the final decisions.
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