Everywhere I turn I see people working on socially minded technology projects. 

I first saw the energy lifting in New Haven last year when Matt Kelley(Change.org blogger), Ben Berkowitz (SeeClickFix.com Founder), Jarad Duval (Author of Next Generation Democracy: What the Open Source Revolution Means for Power, Politics, and Change), and myself got together for beers to talk about how we could get more people to embrace the public benefits of changing technology. We hoped that by pooling the brains of the nerds of New Haven we would discover oportunties to work together for positive social change. We decieded that the place to start would be just providing a place for those with the technical skills and interest to explore ideas and innovation without focusing directly tasking out action. We called our group "Social Change and Technology". Our gatherings where and still are informal conversations over pizza and beer. 

While working with others to organize this group, I have been introduced to a surprising number of people working on ideas that will create a positive change in our community. 

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Let's do more of what works.

And in health care, three years ago the CT legislature asked HUSKY (Connecticut's Medicaid program to provide health care coverage to low-income children and adults) to pilot a program called Primary Care Case Management (PCCM) that has demonstrated significant cost savings in other parts of the county.  The idea is simple: remove private insurance companies and instead people on HUSKY covered by PCCM receive care coordination through their primary care physicians.  The state pays providers $7.50/month to cover the cost of coordinating care, and patients get the benefit of working closely with their doctors and not facing limits on care based on health insurance providers trying to manage their costs.

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When users visit the seeclickfix.com/New-Haven homepage, they will be greeted with a United Way banner asking New Haven residents to get involved in opportunities to Give, Advocate or Volunteer in Greater New Haven.