In 2018, Cisco and Vacation spot: Dwelling launched into a partnership to deal with 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 know-how to enhance lives. Whereas not a panacea, know-how can play a important position in serving to people experiencing homelessness entry important sources, and might 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 have been insightful: each homeless service suppliers and folks receiving companies expressed a necessity for higher communication between workers and shoppers, in addition to the necessity for methods that permit people to entry companies and handle their very own data.
Based mostly on these insights, the evaluation beneficial the event of a client-facing portal. The envisioned instrument would supply safe entry for e-signatures, appointment scheduling, doc administration, and direct communication between shoppers and suppliers. This laid the muse for what would ultimately grow to be MyConnectSV.
Constructing MyConnectSV: A collaborative effort
Constructing MyConnectSV was not fast. Vacation spot: Dwelling adopted a considerate and inclusive course of to make sure it was carried out proper. Techniques-level modifications, akin to updating insurance policies round digital releases of data on the County degree, have been needed earlier than implementation may start.
All through the design, improvement and testing course of, the Vacation spot: Dwelling workforce 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
- Observe upcoming appointments
- Add and entry private paperwork
- Entry important sources, akin 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” function
These functionalities save weeks of time, forestall missed alternatives, and expedite the journey to secure housing. For people experiencing homelessness, this implies staying linked to important sources and help methods. 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—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 lengthen past time financial savings. It democratizes entry to data, making important sources accessible to all, and is each replicable and scalable. In partnering with Readability by Bitfocusa platform at the moment 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 an area 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 carried out, this can be a reminder of how know-how, when designed with empathy and objective, can actually enhance lives.
To be taught extra, try Vacation spot: Dwelling’s newest publication, Breaking Down Boundaries to Housing.
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