Image Credit : Isaac O'Neill
Project Overview
The NSW government has an initiative to reduce homelessness by 50% by 2025, which is an objective affirmed by the Premier as part of the NSW Homelessness Strategy. The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) is part of the Stronger Communities cluster and runs an outreach program to support the government’s Homelessness Strategy, providing support for those most in need.
In September 2020, DCJ engaged partners Telstra and Concentrix Catalyst, intending to create a solution that would streamline processes, deliver efficiencies and value to frontline workers, and ultimately, provide better support to the NSW homeless community.
The outcome is JoH - Journey on Home. Released to frontline workers in May 2022, this client information management application for Apple iPad devices allows staff to observe, capture and report upon outreach activities, enabling better support delivery and client engagement. The JoH app is the first of its kind in social housing across Australia and transforms the way staff interact with people who are experiencing homelessness.
The reduction in manual data entry for reporting has ultimately meant that staff have more time to work with clients in a meaningful way and focus on providing the right support. Support services can then assist clients into long-term sustainable housing. JoH has, to date, reduced the time spent on reporting by approximately 80%.
Project Commissioner
NSW Government Department of Communities & Justice
Project Creator
Team
DCJ -
Lidija King
Jo Panizzutti
Nick Zervos
Alan Emerson
Diana Vo
Marina Vaemolo
Vaueli Madar
Daniel Hawwa
Concentrix Catalyst -
Sam Tanahan
Lachie Wallman
Amy Vijayakumar
Nicholas Lavi
Morris Mendoza
Jared Chidley
Jordan Hankins
Rajan Maharjan
Jared Wilton
Thamale Hettiarachchige
Jolene Tan
Damien Pascale
Gustavo Rodriquez
Mudasar Javed
Jeffery Chau
Tony Chen
Alphin Gold
Max Clarke
Jacob Vinu
Telstra -
Jorja Leroy
Matt Sumners
Project Brief
The purpose of DCJ is to help create a safe, just, resilient and inclusive NSW in which everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential. A key part of this is working to improve the way the NSW government prevents and responds to homelessness so that people are supported to live safer, more stable and happier lives.
The day-to-day management and administration of this program—Assertive Outreach (AO) - was largely manual and resource intensive, with no single system that allowed for the display and capture of a client’s information, referrals, tracking of a client’s journey, and matching of a client to a long term housing solution.
DCJ wanted to create a new efficient digital solution that delivered a vastly improved customer experience, allowed frontline workers to better support vulnerable people living on the street, and provide a pathway to stable long-term housing. The solution needed to assist vulnerable people into a housing outcome more quickly, linking them seamlessly with health, financial and well-being support and only requiring them to tell frontline workers their story once.
Project Need
The creation of the JoH app is hugely significant, being the first of its kind to be created for social housing across Australia, and has transformed the way staff interact with people who are experiencing street homelessness.
The AO program that DCJ supports is designed to be a purposeful and persistent approach used with people who do not present to and/or have difficulties engaging with housing, homelessness or health services. These people are among the most vulnerable in our communities, and there is often a distrust in the Government system.
The development of JoH has allowed the AO staff to have access to client history in real-time, enabling them to connect clients to services on the spot, which is critical when supporting people into more permanent accommodation.
By simplifying the engagement process and reducing the associated paperwork, the app allows frontline workers to focus more on their client interactions, and build the trust necessary to actively support their clients.
User Experience
Being the first of its kind, JoH was created in close consultation with key stakeholders at every step of the journey to ensure the final result was an intuitive, reliable solution.
Multiple workshops with district staff across NSW were conducted from the start of the project and ranged from planning through to delivering service with staff who conduct patrols, staff who provide reporting, as well as those involved with strategic planning.
The app features were decided and prioritised by staff who would be using the app, and by those who would use the data derived from the app, keeping in mind that the app must be fit for purpose.
The team created this custom iPad application for AO officers from the ground up, utilising the latest technologies and frameworks such as Swift UI. The team utilised a previously developed middleware layer called the Housing Mobile Platform (HMP) that provided web APIs and Windows services to secure communication with downstream systems. A suite of AWS services was also used to host the middleware and automate the release process.
The success of this approach was validated by feedback from staff who piloted the app, commenting ‘You can clearly tell this app was developed by current or former frontline Housing staff. It is very user-friendly & everything was relevant and current to what we do’.
Project Marketing
The JoH app allows for better engagement with clients by providing staff direct access to necessary client and support information in real-time, resulting in a better service experience, and removing the need for people to constantly retell their stories which can often be a barrier to engagement.
JoH has resulted in a huge amount of time savings for data entry. AO staff have advised that they now spend 50% less time on administrative work due to system integration into client management and record-keeping systems. This is a result of no longer needing to manually enter data into multiple spreadsheets for operational and strategic reporting. A frequent user of the app has said ‘The JoH app has transformed the way we deliver Assertive Outreach. It saves us at least 50% of our time in administration. Having the information we need at our fingertips has helped us engage with our clients.’
Since the commencement of the initial pilot in May 2022, it has been reported that over 1,664 patrols have been conducted, with over 2,443 engagements recorded up until February 2022.
Project Privacy
JoH was developed and delivered adhering to the strict guidelines and personal information handling, as recommended by Apple. User data is not stored in JoH and any sensitive information needed by the app is stored using iOS Keychain. Any sensitive data or keys that allow access to downstream systems are stored and managed using AWS Key Management Service. The HMP does not store any Personally Identifiable Information in its database and deletes any image data after it has been processed by other downstream systems.
Digital - Government Services
The provision of timely government services has been transformed as applications and sites are developed and implemented to either replace or complement previous methods. Be it the delivery of current and up to date critical information, compliance, community support and engagement, notification and registration or providing greater accessibility to government resources.
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