Service mapping for Hackney
Our platform Hoop'd is transforming local Information, Advice and Support Services (IASS) systems in East London.
Our work with Hackney Council began in response to difficulties that had arisen in community and cultural signposting for older residents. The council’s capacity for administering their free membership and communication service for older residents, active since 2014, needed to be increased to ensure the quality of service could be maintained.
Designing new methods of communication
A new system was required for two reasons:
- to reduce the administrative burden in managing and onboarding users, and
- to reduce the workload in obtaining and disseminating appropriate communication of participation events and engagement opportunities to the membership.
Covid-19 had accelerated the significance in providing additional support in the communication of local health and wellbeing initiatives and a more integrated approach to signposting opportunities for older residents was identified as a strategic priority.
A platform for information and local area collaboration
Through a period of consultancy and co-creation with council members and users our platform Hoop’d was implemented to streamline these processes through digitalisation and automation. Hoop’d community management tools are now enabling community managers to update, organise and share information more efficiently with members, community partners and across the borough’s cultural network.
As a result the platform is now coordinating the acquisition and sharing of information from a growing network of CVS and cultural organisations and local businesses. Further integrations are being designed to share information and resources with the borough’s Arts and Health Network, its Finding Support Services platform, and between more localised community networks to aid the coordination of more targeted engagement and participation campaigns.
Combatting bias and asymmetry in systems of information and opportunity
The bespoke implementation of Hoop’d in Hackney is also enabling the development of features and functionalities specific to supporting communication with older residents.
This includes a focus on accessibility, and the provision of more equitable information, services and social opportunities for residents. The ability for community managers and users to specify their communication preferences, their support needs, and to personalise the filtering of content is driving the development of more tailored opportunities, campaigns and methods of information distribution.
As our partnership with Hackney Council evolves our geospatial mapping of participation and engagement opportunities lends itself to a more informed analysis of service provision, and increased potential for enhancing service provision and supporting local housing and health partners.
There is a world of difference between being introduced human to human and being sent an email. It’s human to human contact that changes peoples’ lives. Not services. ” CEO, CoLab Exeter