Impact Story
How Enclude worked with Dublin Simon to digitise and enhance street outreach
The Challenge
The Dublin Simon Community Outreach team work with people who are sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin. They receive emailed rough sleeper alerts via the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) in two different formats.
The Outreach team alert must follow up within a certain timeframe and further follow up work is required depending on the context of each alert.
Tracking the alerts response times and contact attempts is complex and takes a lot of time. It is difficult for the Outreach Manager and staff to coordinate and check contact attempts and responses. Training new staff on the Outreach team to track and respond to the alerts properly is difficult and time-consuming.
Staff spend a lot of time on administration which could be spent helping those sleeping rough. Reporting to the DRHE takes a lot of time and effort for the Outreach Manager.
The Solution
As part of an overall Salesforce Simon 360 CRM digital solution for Dublin Simon Community, Enclude developed an app in partnership with the Outreach team. This works in the office and on mobile phones, so can be used as the Outreach staff are on the streets or in the office.
All of the alerts from the DRHE come automatically into the Simon 360 CRM and can be viewed by the team on their mobile phones. A colour-coded traffic light system shows the status of each alert.
Outreach staff can see where the rough sleeper is, respond to the alert and update the contact attempt status while they are out and about or in the office.
The Outreach Manager is easily able to check that Dublin Simon Community have responded to all alerts.
The Outreach Manager can report easily on all alerts and contact attempts to the DRHE and on its work to Dublin Simon Community Management.
The Impact
Staff spend less time on administration and more time engaging with and supporting people sleeping rough.
It is quicker to teach new staff how to view and update the alerts.
It is easier for staff to see the status of an alert.
There is improved communication between team members on alerts.
The Outreach Manager spends less time checking staff have made contact attempts for all alerts.
The Outreach Manager can easily run reports for Dublin Simon Community and the DRHE.
What’s next?
The Simon 360 system continues to be developed and rolled out to all services in the Dublin Simon Community including the Outreach team.
This will allow the Outreach team to make referrals and create support plans with service users.
The work done by Dublin Simon Community to help people experiencing homelessness and sleeping rough in Dublin will be recorded in a secure, consolidated environment that facilitates reporting for internal and external purposes.
About Dublin Simon Community
Dublin Simon Community offers services and support to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. They serve Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan. They were founded by a group of Trinity and UCD students in 1969, who began by providing much-needed soup and sandwiches to people who were sleeping rough in Dublin city centre. For information on their services visit their website.