Software

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

The Community Success Institute collaboratively designs sustainable software and is committed to open infrastructures that present data to end users in meaningful and actionable ways. 

Community of Trust software projects include the following:

COMMUNITY MAPPER

Identifying and delivering the right services to the right students at the right time is critical to the success of the Klondike Smokey City’s improvement goals. 

Gathering comprehensive information from students, families, and Klondike Smokey City community members about students’ home conditions is an established practice, but there has so far been no standard way to capture, assess, and code those recorded needs. Community organizations require a way for their field staff to efficiently collect and analyze accurate data using mobile devices. They also require ways to deliver interview guides and other types of guidance via mobile devices, and need access to dashboards with appropriate permissions and security layers in place. 

Furthermore, service providers require a technology-enabled Needs Assessment and Community Mapper that gives them the ability to add or modify questions for different types of respondents, depending upon which trusted partner organizations are involved (e.g., law enforcement, faith-based organizations, neighborhood councils, etc.). 

INFORMED CONSENT PILOT

In communities like Klondike Smokey City, gathering informed consent from parents so that schools can share student data with community-based service providers is a thorny issue that ties together complex legal, technical, and human considerations. For schools and community organizations to share data, parents and legal guardians must provide informed consent for any student under the age of 18.

Currently, more than 30 Klondike Smokey City community organizations work with youth who attend local schools, and master data-sharing agreements exist so that service providers and schools can assess the outcome of interventions. These organizations manage an unwieldy and inefficient paper-based system that they would like to move to an online, central data store that houses permanent, verifiable, and traceable permission slips and consent forms signed by legal guardians. Capturing informed consent from parents and families would enable community partners to access student-level outcome data to coordinate efforts, and to determine the efficacy of different community programs. 

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES PROVIDER DATABASE

The education and service-provider database aims to create a uniform, trusted, and comprehensive directory of social service providers for Klondike Smokey City. The database will provide a mechanism for ad hoc and periodic updates from providers, community members, and professional data collectors. Klondike Smokey City community members who have access to an interoperable directory will be better able to find, trust, and use services that meet their needs.

While service provider directories exist and community members can use search engines to locate resources, the newly designed database will include information about the relevance and effectiveness of different interventions for needs, augmenting the way families make decisions about where to turn to for help. This may include mechanisms by which service providers can update their information and an editorial workflow to incorporate changes that must be reviewed before publication.