Louisville non-profits have launched a new website to help connect people in need of food, shelter and more.
Metro United Way and the Family Scholar House partnered to create LouieConnect, modeling it on a similar site created in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When someone uses LouieConnect, the web-based app asks for basic information and then lists applicable resources nearby — from food pantries to shelters to career centers to financial literacy programs.
Mayor Greg Fischer congratulated the organizations through a pre-recorded message at the website's launch Thursday, and said the app would give Louisville another tool toward being a compassionate city.
“Being a compassionate city — and we are — means working to ensure that everybody in every ZIP code, in every life situation, has the ability to reach their full human potential,” Fischer said. “LouieConnect is one more way that citizens can access the help that they need.”
Twenty-one year old Tazon Thompson said he struggled to find shelter, food and resources before joining the Family Scholar House program. Thompson said LouieConnect would help others who struggled like him.
“In my situation, a lot of kids turn 18 and they’re released from the state’s care. So they don’t any options — any money, any resources at all,” Thompson said. “In every aspect, food, shelter, anything that people need on a daily basis, this app helps.”
Cathe Dykstra, president and CEO of Family Scholar House, said signs for Louieconnect will be displayed in city buses — where there's also free Wi-Fi — to encourage people to use the app. She said “more is to come” to LouieConnect.
The app is available now atLouieConnect.com.
