AID_GRID

Decentralized Mutual Aid & Volunteer Coordination Engine

Built for MLH Global Hack Week.

AidGrid is a lightweight, terminal-styled platform for spinning up and coordinating community mutual aid efforts in real time — food rescues, climate action, free education drives, and general mutual aid — pinned to a live map.

What it does

• Spawn a coordination anchor — broadcast a new community action (title, category, volunteers needed, operational details) in seconds.
• Live geospatial feed — every broadcast event is dropped onto an interactive Leaflet map centered on your current location (or a fallback view if location access is denied).
• Active intervention log — a running registry of all broadcast events, color-coded by category (Mutual Aid, Climate Action, Food Security, Free Education), showing volunteer fill status at a glance.
• Geolocation-aware — one-click "use my current location" button recenters the map to where you actually are, so new events spawn near real coordinates instead of a hardcoded default.

Tech stack

• Astro — page/component structure
• Leaflet — live map rendering (MapArena component)
• Vanilla JS + browser localStorage — event state, no backend required
• Share Tech Mono (Google Fonts) — the dashboard's terminal/HUD aesthetic

Getting started

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/aidgrid.git
cd aidgrid
npm install
npm run dev

Then open http://localhost:4321 in your browser.

How it works

1. Fill out an Event Action Title, pick a Category Axis, set Volunteers Required, and write your Operational Directives.
2. (Optional) Click USE MY CURRENT LOCATION to center the map on your real coordinates via the browser Geolocation API.
3. Hit BROADCAST EVENT TO LOCAL SPACE — the event is saved to localStorage, dropped as a pin near your map center (with a small randomized offset), and added to the Active Community Intervention Logs below.

All event data persists locally in the browser via localStorage under the aid_grid_broadcasts key — no server or database needed for this prototype.

Why we built this

Local mutual aid efforts are often organized ad hoc — a group chat here, a flyer there — with no shared, visual way to see what's happening nearby or how much help is still needed. AidGrid gives organizers a fast way to broadcast an action and gives volunteers a live map of where they're needed most.

Roadmap / what's next

• Persistent backend (currently localStorage-only, so data doesn't sync across devices/users)
• Volunteer sign-up flow (currently tracks a target count but not individual registrations)
• Event expiry/archiving
• Shareable event links

Built with

Made for MLH Global Hack Week 🚀