Initial Discovery and Motivation

• Speaker discovered article about 100,000 Detroit residents facing water shutoffs due to unpaid bills
• People surviving by collecting rainwater, walking to relatives for showers
• Families losing custody of children for inability to pay water bills
• Affected population: elderly, disabled, recently laid off, low-wage workers
• Personal connection: many affected were Black women, historical pattern of denying basic rights to Black Americans

Technical Solution Development

• Speaker: programmer and heavy social media user
• Tweeted to online community (activists, politicians, startup founders, investors, programmers)
• Skipped work to research Water Company website
• Found 400-page PDF of customers with undeliverable bills including account numbers
• Discovered "make payment" button accessible with account numbers
• Built website to connect people needing help with donors

Implementation and Results

• Simple process: donors log into utility website as account holders, make payments
• Donors send receipts to families for self-advocacy with water company
• First 40 days: paid over $100,000 in water bills
• Individual donations: $5, $10, $20 contributions
• Total impact: helped over 5,000 people with water bill payments

Community Response and Expansion

• City employees answered emails on weekends, drove people to appointments
• Mutual aid groups and nonprofits partnered to pay off full bills
• Donors included people previously in similar situations
• Community held bake sales for strangers they'd never meet
• Demonstrated "compassion is contagious" principle

Systemic Impact Achieved

• Major American city began offering more compassionate assistance
• U.S. Congress member reached out for constituent help
• Policy makers in 3 states used their data/knowledge/experience
• Partnerships with nonprofits prevented evictions and homelessness
• Helped families avoid losing children over water bills
• Speaker now works full-time helping utilities make water more affordable

Key Principles and Philosophy

• Start with simplest, most obvious solution
• Don't need perfect solution or all answers to begin
• Imperfect action attracts others to join and improve
• "Band-Aid" criticism addressed: provides healing opportunity
• Relief matters even without solving root causes (poverty, unemployment, bad policy)
• Small actions can have durable impact
• Quote from Lily Tomlin: "I always wondered why somebody wouldn't do something about that, then I realized I was somebody"