Helping agencies that help people
Benetech links with Bay Area social services
One listing says a soup kitchen opens at 5 p.m., but people who eat there say you have to line up an hour earlier to make sure you get in. Another listing says a shelter is for seniors but doesn’t say whether pets are allowed.
Such details can be critical to people on the streets seeking a lifeline. But maintaining the patchwork of databases and printed directories that track social services is time-consuming and tedious — and each agency that makes referrals usually does its own updating, so there’s a lot of duplicated effort.
Benetech, a Palo Alto nonprofit that harnesses software for social good, is seeking to address that issue with a program called Benetech Service Net. It’s almost halfway through a six-month pilot with six Bay Area social-service agencies to collaborate on maintaining their crucial databases of local resources through an open-standards data exchange.
At a time when anyone can use Yelp to find nearby places serving gluten-free pizza, Benetech wants to extend that same speed, reach and relevance to social services.
“Service Net’s ecosystem is about better referrals,” said Betsy Beaumon, Benetech’s executive director. To do that, it’s working to build “better plumbing” to connect the disparate databases of nonprofits so that if one agency updates a listing, they all get the fresh information.
The problem of keeping data accurate weighs down cash-strapped agencies. More than 20 Bay Area groups offer significant data on social services; most make phone calls to update their own lists, often dedicating several people to the task, Beaumon said.
“We want to be more responsive and better serve people in need,” said Kelly Batson, senior vice president for community impact at United Way of the Bay Area, which operates 211 in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Marin, Napa and Solano counties. The free helpline, which handles 40,000 calls a year, provides information and referrals to connect people in need with community services, including crisis support, food and shelter, health care and finding work.
Her goals in participating in Service Net mirror those of the pilot itself: improve the overall system, share the data United Way collects, stop duplicating efforts and make it easier for service providers to enter information.
“Why are we all updating the same resources?” Batson said. “The platform Benetech is creating lets us look at each other’s data, and see when a change has been made so we’re not all trying to update the same records.”
Collaboration will also ensure that records are more comprehensive. For example, four of the agencies in the pilot had a listing for a San Francisco shelter for youths age 18 to 24. But each of the records had different descriptions of the application process and only one explained about its curfew and waiting list policy. Two of the agencies didn’t explain that it also offered career counseling and mentoring, while one didn’t have its website address.
Other important information that not all records now cover for shelters is whether they accept personal belongings, only accept women and children (not allowing sons over age 18), are wheelchair accessible, have upper bunks requiring the ability to climb a ladder, or require state photo ID.
Despite the benefits of working together, some agencies may be leery of sharing their hardearned data.
“It’s blood, sweat, tears and some of their crown jewels,” Beaumon said. “There’s a trust factor to work through before we get to the point where (data) would be fully shared. We say, ‘It’s your data but we will provide a way to connect it to others’ data.’ ”
Issues around governance are still to be thrashed out. After the pilot concludes in four months, Benetech hopes to bring Service Net to the whole Bay Area and expand farther.
“This is a ubiquitous problem,” she said.
Health care providers such as Kaiser and Dignity Health, both among the pilot’s funders, are particularly interested as they need accurate information on resources for their patients. For instance, California’s SB 1152, which took effect this year, requires hospitals to make post-care arrangements for homeless patients, discharging them to a residence or social services provider.
San Francisco’s ShelterTech, another pilot participant, created a portal called AskDarcel.org, funded by the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, to identify all local services available for homeless people. It seeks to continuously vet and update its data, which previously was available through a biannual print resource guide.
It sponsors frequent “datathons” at which volunteers from tech companies work alongside paid community representatives — people who are currently or recently homeless — on verifying the information.
“There’s the street knowledge aspect that can only be provided by people who have experienced homelessness,” said Bill Soward, executive director. “That makes it far more relevant.”
Service Net meshes well with his agency’s open-source approach.
“This is not a time to be proprietary,” he said. “Working across a number of different organizations to share data and updates, and identify where there are mismatches in information, will help improve quality and reduce redundant work across organizations.”
The other Service Net pilot participants are
“Why are we all updating the same resources?” Kelly Batson, vice president, United Way of the Bay Area
Eden I&R (which runs 211 for Alameda County), Health Leads, Legal Aid Association of California and San Mateo County Human Services.
Founded in 2000, the 80-employee Benetech has experience with complex projects. It created and maintains the world’s largest library of accessible books with more than 700,000 titles in Braille, audio and e-book formats. It adds about 5,000 books a month from 850 publishers that release books to it electronically the same day that Amazon gets them.
Called Bookshare and largely funded by the U.S. Department of Education, that initiative brings in $9 million a year, a big chunk of Benetech’s annual $14 million revenue. The rest is from donations and grants from individuals, corporations and foundations.
Benetech is building on Bookshare to develop better ways for people who are blind, dyslexic or have other disabilities to interact with mathematical and scientific information. It’s creating a tool called Mathshare to allow students who can’t work with a pencil and paper to use a keyboard or audio interface as they solve complex problems.
“We try to be a bridge between Silicon Valley and the social sector,” said Beaumon. “Having one foot in each camp helps us build credibility and gives us real-world knowledge about where some of the issues are.”