Well done
Congrats Christina and JumpStart Ge, I would be quite proud if I were you, not just because you’re raising awareness on the issue, but more so because you are taking it into your hands and actually doing something to change this. At Edgeryders we very much take pride in forstering a culture of “doing” instead of wishful thinking, so I guess you’ve landed the right spot 
About the open data, some similar initiatives community members were/are involved in are projects like Tweet your MEP, an app developed by Spaghetti Open Data (a grassroots action group) to get citizens in direct interaction with their European political representatives. [Alberto] here is quite involved in this and can tell you more about it.
Others in the unMonastery community (Edgeryders hackers residency project) in Matera, south Italy, are trying to put local hot spots on Open Street Maps. Think dumped rubbish, disused buildings or broken street lamps. To do they are throwing mapping parties to get the locals on board. I think [piersoft] or [elf Pavlik] can tell you more about it.
Anyway, there’s plenty of time to catch up and figure out what are some opportunities for collaboration with JumpStart. Welcome again!
PS I love the visualisations on feradi, can’t imagine something more useful for a general audience that is not trained to read raw data and sometimes boring reports.