In 2018, Cisco and Vacation spot: House launched into a partnership to sort out homelessness in Santa Clara County. Whereas our main focus was on the event of supportive housing and homelessness prevention, we additionally noticed a possibility to leverage expertise to enhance lives. Whereas not a panacea, expertise can play a essential function in serving to people experiencing homelessness entry important assets, and may improve the effectivity and repair supply of the organizations serving them.
Assessing expertise wants in Santa Clara County’s supportive housing system
We started with a expertise wants evaluation of Santa Clara County’s supportive housing system, which aimed to determine alternatives to leverage information and expertise to strengthen the system of care. The findings had been insightful: each homeless service suppliers and other people receiving providers expressed a necessity for higher communication between employees and shoppers, in addition to the necessity for techniques that enable people to entry providers and handle their very own data.
Based mostly on these insights, the evaluation really helpful the event of a client-facing portal. The envisioned instrument would offer safe entry for e-signatures, appointment scheduling, doc administration, and direct communication between shoppers and suppliers. This laid the inspiration for what would finally develop into MyConnectSV.
Constructing MyConnectSV: A collaborative effort
Constructing MyConnectSV was not fast. Vacation spot: House adopted a considerate and inclusive course of to make sure it was finished proper. Methods-level modifications, corresponding to updating insurance policies round digital releases of knowledge on the County stage, had been crucial earlier than implementation might start.
All through the design, improvement and testing course of, the Vacation spot: House workforce constantly engaged service suppliers and other people with lived expertise of homelessness to assist create an answer that would actually meet their wants.
The consequence? A safe, user-friendly platform designed to empower people and streamline service supply.
Key options of MyConnectSV embrace the power to:
- Replace contact data in actual time
- Observe upcoming appointments
- Add and entry private paperwork
- Entry essential assets, corresponding to meals and medical care data
- Signal and add key paperwork electronically
- Talk instantly with case managers
- Observe their place within the housing queue
- Share their location with case managers by way of a “drop pin” characteristic
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 assets and help techniques. For service organizations, it means improved outreach and effectivity in delivering care.
The workforce continues to enhance the instrument by actively listening to customers and incorporating their suggestions into ongoing improvement—guaranteeing that MyConnectSV evolves to fulfill the wants of these most impacted.
The broader affect of expertise in homeless providers
The advantages of expertise like MyConnectSV lengthen past time financial savings. It democratizes entry to data, making essential assets obtainable 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 america.
What started as a neighborhood initiative in Santa Clara County is now a replicable, impactful resolution with the potential to make a distinction nationwide. And whereas there’s nonetheless a lot work to be finished, it is a reminder of how expertise, when designed with empathy and function, can really enhance lives.
To be taught extra, try Vacation spot: House’s newest publication, Breaking Down Limitations to Housing.
Share:
