Making child care vacancies accessible for british columbians

Published

June 9, 2024

Screenshot of BC Childcare Dashboard

This project leverages publicly available Government of BC’s Child Care Vacancies to identify and disseminate up-to-date child care vacancy across the province.

The system is implemented as an automated data pipeline that ingests a publicly available open data endpoint that refreshes daily, processes vacancy information, and distributes results through two public-facing channels:

  1. An interactive web dashboard that allows users to browse current vacancies in a centralized, accessible format.

  2. Automated social media reporting via a Mastodon bot that posts newly available child care vacancies.

Note

Note the Mastodon bot has been decommisioned due to the closure of the bots.in.space server in 2025. At this time, I have not yet looked for alternative hosting options.

The goal of this project was to deliver these resources while minimizing overhead and maintenance, ensuring longevity without overburdening operations.

The pipeline is orchestrated using GitHub Actions, enabling scheduled data retrieval, validation, transformation, and deployment without manual intervention. This ensures that published information remains current, reliable, and reproducible.

Dashboard

Last updated: 2025-03-20 (the source, but the data is updated every day)

Mastodon bot

Last updated: 2024-06-09

Tools & Technology

  • GitHub Actions – orchestrates the automated pipeline, including daily data retrieval, validation, transformation, and deployment.

  • Open Data Integration – ingests daily-updated CSV datasets from the Government of British Columbia, ensuring reliable, up-to-date information.

  • Web Dashboard – built using Quarto and R to provide an interactive, accessible interface for end users.

  • Social Media Automation – Mastodon bot (decommissioned) demonstrated automated content delivery and engagement.

  • Version Control & Reproducibility – all source code and workflow managed with GitHub, supporting transparent and maintainable operations.

  • Automation & Scheduling – minimal manual intervention required; system designed for longevity and low-maintenance operation.