In 2018, Cisco and Vacation spot: Residence launched into a partnership to sort out 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 expertise to enhance lives. Whereas not a panacea, expertise can play a essential function in serving to people experiencing homelessness entry very important sources, 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 establish 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 workers and purchasers, in addition to the necessity for techniques that permit people to entry providers and handle their very own info.
Based mostly on these insights, the evaluation advisable the event of a client-facing portal. The envisioned software would supply safe entry for e-signatures, appointment scheduling, doc administration, and direct communication between purchasers and suppliers. This laid the inspiration for what would finally change into 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 executed proper. Programs-level adjustments, equivalent to updating insurance policies round digital releases of knowledge on the County stage, had been needed earlier than implementation may start.
All through the design, growth and testing course of, the Vacation spot: Residence workforce persistently 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 info in actual time
- Observe upcoming appointments
- Add and entry private paperwork
- Entry essential sources, equivalent to meals and medical care info
- Signal and add key paperwork electronically
- Talk straight with case managers
- Observe their place within the housing queue
- Share their location with case managers through a “drop pin” characteristic
These functionalities save weeks of time, forestall missed alternatives, and expedite the journey to secure housing. For people experiencing homelessness, this implies staying related to important sources and help techniques. For service organizations, it means improved outreach and effectivity in delivering care.
The workforce continues to enhance the software by actively listening to customers and incorporating their suggestions into ongoing growth—making certain that MyConnectSV evolves to fulfill the wants of these most impacted.
The broader impression of expertise in homeless providers
The advantages of expertise like MyConnectSV prolong past time financial savings. It democratizes entry to info, making essential sources accessible to all, and is each replicable and scalable. In partnering with Readability by Bitfocus, a platform at present utilized by over 75 communities throughout the nation, we ensured that this client-facing module could possibly be simply adopted by Bitfocus customers throughout the USA.
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 executed, it is a reminder of how expertise, when designed with empathy and objective, can really enhance lives.
To be taught extra, take a look at Vacation spot: Residence’s newest e-newsletter, Breaking Down Limitations to Housing.
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