We believe that communities have the power, will and the assets to lift themselves out of poverty. We also believe in the potential for innovative disruption with the growing technological trend of free and democratized information. Our idea is to connect low-income families to poverty-fighting resources with an online “Yelp” for nonprofits and an in-school resource desk.
1. Web Platform
We are developing an innovative web platform that aggregates information about community programs and allows users to provide feedback on them, similar to a Yelp for non-profit, governmental and community resources. The web and mobile applications will allow anyone to access, review, and share information about local services, like job training centers, health clinics, and afterschool programs. By providing open access to information, One Degree will revolutionize the way “middle-men” (like teachers, counselors, non-profit workers) and end clients (low-income families and individuals) get up-to-date, user-generated information about social services. Additionally, we hope to shift the power to low-income communities and dramatically improve the way governmental and non-profit services are run by providing direct feedback from clients on social services.
2. Adoption Strategy: Resource Desks
We believe that building a great web application is not enough. Just providing a web-based tool for low-income communities does not ensure that we will grow a user base and generate content. To aid the adoption of our web application, we are placing trained community volunteers within schools. The volunteers will operate a resource desk in each of the high poverty schools, which will provide an offline connection to the web platform. Resource Desks will provide the human connection to ensure that families trust the information and follow through with the proper support services. Families can access the Resource Desk in their local school to get a tailored set of supports.
