In 2018, Cisco and Vacation spot: Residence launched into a partnership to deal with homelessness in Santa Clara County. Whereas our major focus was on the event of supportive housing and homelessness prevention, we additionally noticed a possibility to leverage know-how to enhance lives. Whereas not a panacea, know-how can play a crucial position in serving to people experiencing homelessness entry very important sources, and may improve the effectivity and repair supply of the organizations serving them.
Assessing know-how wants in Santa Clara County’s supportive housing system
We started with a know-how wants evaluation of Santa Clara County’s supportive housing system, which aimed to determine alternatives to leverage information and know-how to strengthen the system of care. The findings had been insightful: each homeless service suppliers and folks receiving companies expressed a necessity for higher communication between employees and purchasers, in addition to the necessity for programs that permit people to entry companies and handle their very own data.
Primarily based on these insights, the evaluation advisable the event of a client-facing portal. The envisioned software would offer safe entry for e-signatures, appointment scheduling, doc administration, and direct communication between purchasers and suppliers. This laid the muse for what would finally grow to be MyConnectSV.
Constructing MyConnectSV: A collaborative effort
Constructing MyConnectSV was not fast. Vacation spot: Residence adopted a considerate and inclusive course of to make sure it was completed proper. Methods-level adjustments, resembling updating insurance policies round digital releases of data on the County stage, had been needed earlier than implementation might start.
All through the design, improvement and testing course of, the Vacation spot: Residence crew persistently engaged service suppliers and folks with lived expertise of homelessness to assist create an answer that would actually meet their wants.
The end result? A safe, user-friendly platform designed to empower people and streamline service supply.
Key options of MyConnectSV embrace the flexibility to:
- Replace contact data in actual time
- Monitor upcoming appointments
- Add and entry private paperwork
- Entry crucial sources, resembling meals and medical care data
- Signal and add key paperwork electronically
- Talk straight with case managers
- Monitor their place within the housing queue
- Share their location with case managers through a “drop pin” function
These functionalities save weeks of time, stop missed alternatives, and expedite the journey to steady housing. For people experiencing homelessness, this implies staying related to important sources and assist programs. For service organizations, it means improved outreach and effectivity in delivering care.
The crew continues to enhance the software by actively listening to customers and incorporating their suggestions into ongoing improvement—making certain that MyConnectSV evolves to fulfill the wants of these most impacted.
The broader influence of know-how in homeless companies
The advantages of know-how like MyConnectSV prolong past time financial savings. It democratizes entry to data, making crucial sources accessible to all, and is each replicable and scalable. In partnering with Readability by Bitfocus, a platform presently utilized by over 75 communities throughout the nation, we ensured that this client-facing module might be simply adopted by Bitfocus customers throughout the US.
What started as a neighborhood initiative in Santa Clara County is now a replicable, impactful answer with the potential to make a distinction nationwide. And whereas there’s nonetheless a lot work to be completed, this can be a reminder of how know-how, when designed with empathy and objective, can actually enhance lives.
To study extra, take a look at Vacation spot: Residence’s newest e-newsletter, Breaking Down Obstacles to Housing.
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