Announcing the Launch of Service Match from Impact Labs
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, more than half a million people experience homelessness in the United States each year. This number is only rising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic hit, it was no surprise that when the Impact Labs team held an open call for social challenges that our community would like to tackle together, housing and homelessness was at the top of the list.
That’s why Impact Labs brought together a team of Community Fellows and Salesforce employee volunteers to work together to investigate ways technology could alleviate friction for people experiencing homelessness and strengthen the work of the service providers and organizations that support them. Salesforce.org Impact Labs believes that change doesn’t happen in a vacuum and requires cross-sector collaboration, which is why we put together this incredible cohort to collaborate on tackling such a complex issue.
Representatives from 17 San Francisco Bay organizations including the City and County of San Francisco, Hamilton Families, and United Way Bay Area collaborated for six months and identified three high-impact areas where technology can help combat homelessness. As a result, the Salesforce.org Impact Labs cohort co-designed and developed Service Match. Service Match is an open-source app that streamlines the process of finding, making, and following up on service referrals, freeing up a case manager’s time for more meaningful client interactions. Today, we are excited to announce Service Match is live and available for download on the AppExchange.
What is Service Match?
Service Match is an open-source app designed for case managers who connect people experiencing homelessness to vital human services. With a single click, case managers can generate a personalized list of services based on client data that they’re already collecting.
Case managers can use a single system to view client history, review potential service providers, send referrals and reminders to clients, and track referral outcomes.
Service providers are rated based on client feedback, which allows a case manager to easily refer clients to services they know will be helpful. Case managers can also maintain a list of preferred service providers in their system or retreive one from a service directory like One Degree (integration coming soon).
What Problem Does Service Match Help Solve?
Paperwork and crisis response leave case managers with precious little time to support long-term client needs. To make matters worse, finding services that match client needs is often time consuming and involves searching multiple systems, making phone calls, and tracking down paper flyers. Once a referral has been made, it’s hard to know if clients receive the support they need because large caseloads make manual follow up nearly impossible.
“Technology can play a role in solving some of these issues. Building a solution that will connect people to the services that they need in a more seamless and human-centered way makes a lot of sense.” – Kelly Batson, [SVP Community Impact, United Way Bay Area]
Service Match streamlines the process of finding, making, and following up on service referrals, freeing up time for more meaningful client interactions.
How can I get Service Match?
Service Match is an open source product which means it is free to anyone who wants to install it in their Salesforce instance. Another exciting feature for open source products is that the community can contribute to it by opening feature requests or submitting code changes to be incorporated into the app. Our goal is that over time, Service Match will continue to evolve through Community contributions, expanding its impact.
Want to get started? Service Match can be downloaded from the AppExchange. You can also learn more about Service Match in our demo video.
Thank you to all the organizations and pro bono volunteers who co-designed and developed Service Match:
Impact Labs Community Fellows: Nicole Anderson, Pamela Brown, Joshua Bamberger, Kelly Batson, Andrew Brannegan, Chris Callandrillo, Cheryl Curry, Theo Ellington, Tiffany Eng, Mitch Findley, Kendra Froshman, Darice Ingram, Amardeep Prasad, Nikka Rapkin, Barry Roeder, Matt Rosen, Richard Saunders, Brad Struss, and Amanda Wehrman
Impact Labs Pro Bono Fellows: Andrew Conn, Seb Costanzo, Lindsey Frierson, Alex Hanken, Bonny Hinners, Andrew Irwin, Elizabeth Khoo, Marci Kickliter, Alex Kruglyak, Ayesha McAdams-Mahmoud, Shane McLaughlin, Cid Mendizabal, Gavin Pham, Arup Sarkar, Eric Schultz, Tim Weeks, and Madison Zeller
About the Author
Stephanie is passionate about helping nonprofits and education institutions move their work forward through technology. As the Product and Solution Manager of the SFDO Impact Labs team, Stephanie works closely with the community and with pro bono staff to design and develop tech solutions for social impact.
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