Bridge project description
Barry Roeder
Hi Team,
Jonathan asked me for an update project description, which I provided in long and short form. Have a look and see what you think.
Cheers,
Barry
LONG
The Bridge project advances the mapping (and communication) of the complex ecosystem of services to homeless/indigent populations in San Francisco, and offers a new open architecture technology platform that improves efficiency and service quality to clients, and transparency and information sharing among providers.
Through extensive research, including numerous stakeholder interviews, pilot partnerships with service providers, and leading participation in an on-going city-sponsored community conversation on how to improve shelter access (“SAW”), Bridge has determined that beyond simply technology or political constraints, the shelter problem is much more complex:
· Almost 90 shelter-related providers, including government agencies, resource centers, community-based organizations, faith-based providers, stand-alone shelters, and other independent providers, all of whom operate without a shared system of real-time (or otherwise, in some cases) available services or shared-client data;
· Multiple sources of clients including health and correctional systems, and special-need contingencies (and their advocates) such as elderly, veterans, mentally- or physically-challenged, recovering substance users, couples, and families with children;
· Shelter restrictions such as beds only for particular populations, such as specific program participants (i.e. Care Not Cash), sober-only, gender-specific; some inaccessible beds for some physically-challenged individuals, and finally some shelter locations that are simply inaccessible to clients due to inadequate transportation resources (MUNI tokens/MAP services);
· Heavy dependence on inefficient non-real time legacy systems that have very limited reporting capacities, and as noted earlier, no transparency between providers; and lastly
· Entrenched stakeholders (by no means all) with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, including an aversion to transparency.
Consequently, an understanding of the shelter ecosystem escapes professionals with years in the field, and without sufficient understanding of the environment, approaches to improve the system have fallen short. In fact, there currently are other projects in other cities working to improve service problems with technology solutions, but those proposals are unlikely to do better without an ecosystem-informed strategy. Where Bridge differs of course is in its strategy to a) gather and digest a comprehensive scope of ecosystem data, b) publish the resulting understanding using creative models that allow stakeholders and others to see the big picture, and c) use an informed consensus to drive system changes.
The Bridge technology solution, while neither conclusive nor comprehensive, for reasons made clear above, allows for the full inclusion of all ecosystem participants and the incorporation of on-going learning through a flexible service module based architecture that creates transparency and a robust exchange of real-time information via multiple channels. It’s effectively a “better clicker,” referring to a rudimentary means of counting beds/clients, meaning it creates a sufficient platform from which to gather the data necessary to strategize a more comprehensive solution, both at the technology and ecosystem-wide levels.
SHORT
The Bridge project advances the mapping (and communication) of the complex ecosystem of services to homeless/indigent populations in San Francisco, and offers a new open architecture technology platform that improves efficiency and service quality to clients, and transparency and information sharing among providers.
Through extensive research, including numerous stakeholder interviews, pilot partnerships with service providers, and leading participation in an on-going city-sponsored community conversation on how to improve shelter access (“SAW”), Bridge has determined that beyond simply technology or political constraints, the shelter problem is much more complex, and that an understanding of the shelter ecosystem escapes professionals with years in the field. Without sufficient understanding of the environment, approaches to improve the system have fallen short. In fact, there currently are other projects in other cities working to improve service problems with technology solutions, but those proposals are unlikely to do better without an ecosystem-informed strategy. Where Bridge differs of course is in its strategy to a) gather and digest a comprehensive scope of ecosystem data, b) publish the resulting understanding using creative models that allow stakeholders and others to see the big picture, and c) use an informed consensus to drive system changes.
The Bridge technology solution, while neither conclusive nor comprehensive, for reasons made clear above, allows for the full inclusion of all ecosystem participants and the incorporation of on-going learning through a flexible service module based architecture that creates transparency and a robust exchange of real-time information via multiple channels. It’s effectively a “better clicker,” referring to a rudimentary means of counting beds/clients, meaning it creates a sufficient platform from which to gather the data necessary to strategize a more comprehensive solution, both at the technology and ecosystem-wide levels.
Heather Sparks
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Barry Roeder
Gee, I don’t actually know what he wanted for the research report. This was just a request for an updated description, and I decided to put the work into it.
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Heather Sparks
Kari Gray
Sorry, Barry, I think you put too much work into it.
He needs a description for the Evenbrite invitation to the event on the 15th.
One or two sentences. See http://cr8c.eventbrite.com/ for an example.
k
415-786-9935 cel