One Stop One Story Hub pilot program is live
Thriving Communities Partnership (TCP) alongside Funding Partners, Co-design and Participating Partners across the Essential Services Ecosystem are incredibly proud to announce the official launch of the One Stop One Story (OSOS) Hub Pilot Program.
The OSOS Hub enables frontline workers in corporate and community organisations to connect and refer their clients to a range of supports through a single access point. This process aims to make it simpler for people to navigate support offerings, reducing the burden and complexity involved in contacting each individual support program.
Co-funded with AGL, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, Transurban, Sydney Water and Yarra Valley Water, and built by technology partner Infoxchange, this world-first digital platform aims to ease the burden for people experiencing vulnerability by helping them to connect and access the wide range of support services and programs available.
The OSOS Hub portal was co-designed by a wide range of organisations across corporate and community sectors collaborating on a new way of working to help humans by putting ‘humans at the centre and leaving competition at the door’. Community organisations Brotherhood of St Laurence, Financial Counselling Network, Financial Counselling Victoria, QCOSS, Uniting Vic Tas, WEstjustice and WIRE, alongside cross-sector members of the Steerco and Advisory Group, have made invaluable contributions to the co-design process of the OSOS Hub pilot program by providing expertise from their industry/sector and are proud to launch and endorse the program.
“It’s really rare to have this many organisations across so many sectors come together and unite around a common cause. It’s really inspiring to see, and I share in everyone’s excitement to see the Hub going live.” Tim Costello, Chief Advocate, Thriving Communities Partnership.
“Having to repeat your story multiple times can cause people to relive shame, embarrassment and trauma. Only having to tell their story once will be a huge step for simplifying processes for people and will ease the burden of accessing support through multiple, complex channels.” – Gabby Sundstrom who is leading the OSOS Program for TCP.
Despite 35.5%1 of people in Australia currently just getting by or struggling, we know that many people are still not accessing the support they are entitled to. Some of the barriers to this include a lack of awareness around what assistance is available, mistrust of organisations and embarrassment about having to ask for help.
In Australia, recent data has also shown that over the past 12 months there has been a decline in financial wellbeing with up to 6.3% decrease in the indicators of financial wellbeing.
“The OSOS Hub is a groundbreaking step forward in collaborative support for people experiencing vulnerability and financial stress. COVID-19 has increased the need for holistic support and the Hub will allow these people a chance to access support they may not even have known existed.” - Pat McCafferty, Chair, Thriving Communities Partnership.
“We’ve developed a new way of working to help humans by redesigning and simplifying the system for humans instead of trying to get humans to fit into our complex systems. People’s issues do not occur in silos, so our response should not either. We want the ecosystem to wrap around them and are looking to create a better practice approach for the future.” - Ciara Sterling, CEO, Thriving Communities Partnership.
The initial pilot will focus on supporting members of the community impacted by Family and Domestic Violence and has been co-designed with community partners and people with lived experience. This scope was chosen for the pilot due to the complex nature of Family and Domestic Violence, ensuring that the important privacy and security requirements were a key focus during the co-design phase. Additionally, we know that COVID-19 has exacerbated experiences of Family and Domestic Violence and the need for support is growing.
The OSOS Hub also has flexibility, allowing the scope to be broadened to other members of the community experiencing vulnerability in the future.
“Financial counsellors will be delighted to see the launch of One Stop, One Story. The name says it all really. This is about making it easier for people to interact with companies. And making it easier for companies to interact with people and community organisations. We will look back on the launch of the Hub as a huge step forward. Congratulations to the foundation companies involved and thank you to TCP for having the vision and will to make it happen.” - Fiona Guthrie, CEO, Financial Counselling Australia.
The OSOS pilot will run from October until June 2022 and involves the following Participating Partners: Anglicare WA, Anglicare Victoria, Brotherhood of St Laurence, CBA, Financial Counselling Network, Infoxchange, Telstra, The Salvation Army, Transurban, Thriving Communities Partnership, Sydney Water, WEstjustice, Yarra Valley Water and Variety - the Children's Charity.
“There has already been great interest from a huge range of corporate and community partners to extend the scope of the project and we’re incredibly excited about the opportunity this presents.” - Gabby Sundstrom, Head of Innovation, Thriving Communities Partnership.
To learn more about the OSOS Hub or if you are an Australian business looking to join the growing number of participating organisations, you can find out more at thriving.org.au .
