An update on our homeless assist project
We have received amazing support and encouragement for our work to develop a web app to help people who are homeless and those at risk of homelessness find food, shelter, health and other support services.
Infoxchange’s Homeless Assist project was a winner in last year’s Google Impact Challenge, a competition in which Google supports non-profits using technology to tackle problems and transform lives.
We are pleased to report that work on the Homeless Assist project is progressing well.
Our team recently got together with the Council for Homeless Persons in Victoria for homeless awareness training, which was a valuable experience and very insightful.
We have started the project by talking to people about what they want from a web app and what they would use.
This work is being done by a collaborative team from Infoxchange, Navy Design, which is a design consultancy specialising in digital products, and Swinburne University’s Centre for Design Impact.
This user research phase will last until early May and then we will start designing the app, which will draw on information from Infoxchange’s Service Seeker database of community support services.
We have also started branding work with not-for-profit communications specialists Disruptive Media. This month we will test this branding work with people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness and workers in the sector.
As part of this work, we will give careful consideration to what to name the app. Thank you to everyone who entered our recent “Name the App” competition.
There were two winners, Bettina Schieferstein from The Salvation Army, Australia Eastern Territory, and Louise Wilcockson, from Marist Youth Care, both of whom received a Google smartphone or tablet.
We were thrilled when Bettina (pictured) told us she gave her prize to a pensioner, Garry (also pictured), who did not have a phone and resides on a housing estate after spending more than 10 years living on the streets.
Find out more about Homeless Assist