Outdated tools💾 pit people needing help & caseworkers against each other👊🏼, force people to tell their story again & again & again🔄, & burns out workers🔥.
The root of the problem is a retroactive, top-down, disconnected approach to program reporting/evaluation. Updating social service infrastructure to reduce strain and better engage marginalized + diverse populations is necessary, but prohibitively expensive for individual organizations. It’s essential for the sector’s funders to invest in systems change.
These problems cost billions💰 in turnover, wasted time & service failure.
Modernizing social service infrastructure is an opportunity for funders to support better outcomes, foster better collaboration, gain deeper insights, help service organizations better serve diverse populations, and reduce burnout. These change can’t be driven by organizations in isolation.
Societal shifts – a diversifying and more tech savvy population, AI, expectations for data security/mobility, OCAP etc are complex and require new approaches. Thankfully, solutions are within reach.
We’ve spent the last four years using trauma informed design to develop a client centred💗 system for intake📋, scheduling📆, case notes✍🏼, referrals🫱🏾🫲🏿, dynamic communication💬, & rich reporting📝
Our bottom-up ‘people-first’ approach, prioritizes empathy❤️, streamlines workflows🛠️, automates reporting🤖 & advances data justice⚖️.
We did this for social service/purpose organizations (especially frontline workers), the clients they serve… and, yes, you funders 🙂
Table of Contents
Frontline burnout is a design choice.
Flourishing Systems exist to unlock the superpowers of frontline workers & help the most vulnerable in our society. We improve access for people with multiple barriers, reduce administrative burden, deliver meaningful impact reporting & make the lives of frontline workers + those they serve better.
Flourishing Systems aims to be the leading solutions company for frontline workers & funders that is sought out for solutions to pernicious problems.
We do this through thoughtfully designed accessible tech. We do it for a sector that is forced to spend $100s of millions on sloppy, antagonistic & out of date software.
Flourishing Systems is a subsidiary of IslamicFamily, a social services charity.
Flourishing Systems’ first product is Transform.
Intake, assessment, case notes & reporting for social service agencies are extractive disconnected processes that are retroactive and funder focussed.
Data’s purpose is to secure funding. This causes frontline workers to burnout and people to face repeated hardship and retraumatization by having to tell their story again and again and again.
Learn what inspired us to transform frontline workers lives [Video]: People-First Infrastructure for Social Change
8 minutes
Transform is a complete solution for intake, assessment, case notes, messaging, referrals, reporting & more. It uses compassionate design to reduce trauma, make data collection a win, motivate frontline workers, dramatically reduce reporting and open new pathways for service.
Transform is centred on clients (those looking for help), trauma-informed case management tool with a profound purpose. More than just software, Transform was developed to uplift social service agencies' ability to support clients with respect, empathy, and true efficiency.
Transform is in use today by multiple paying agencies. Transform comes out of five years of practical research & collaboration with some of the worlds best tech companies. Transform is designed by/for frontline workers, & built on Indigenous data justice principles. We’re ready to scale & looking for investment to expand our team & answer demand.
Bouncers ⇢ Guides
Funders
Funders pay: 10%+ for reporting & evaluation.
Funders Want…
- See (if) people progress across programs
- People to find help based on their needs, rather than the luck of who they see
- Identify service gaps, find trends & support planning
- Understand impact – meaningfully stay connected with people and observe longitudinal outcomes
- Reporting to be easy to collect, understand & meaningful
Funders Get…
- Retroactive Data to justify past/continued funding, difficult to obtain & hard to use
Why funders need to invest in new infrastructure…
The needs, size & diversity of marginalized, Indigenous & newcomer groups are increasing. We need the right infrastructure to meet the challenge.
Investing in service modernization needs to be on par with investment in governance, research, training & auditing.
Data is the foundation of social infrastructure. Data investment improves efficiency📊, saves time⏳, money💰 & frustration😌.
DATA is Advocacy
DATA is Research
DATA Drives Outcomes
How Transform Benefits Funders…
- Better Insights
- Better Return on Investment
- Meaningful Outcomes Reporting
- Stronger Sector
Transform Advantages/ Key Features
Flourishing Systems leverages over 30 years of non-profit expertise in the social services sector to offer an impactful, unparalleled solution designed to enhance organizational efficiency, effectiveness and impact. Here’s how Transform stands out:
- Best in Class User Experience: Our deep integration in the social services sector allows us to create empathic experiences that resonate with users. Unlike generic software tools, Transform is specifically designed around workers and those looking for help. This ensures that services are tailored to individual needs, enhancing both client and worker engagement/ satisfaction.
- Reduced trauma for those looking for help
- Less burnout for workers
- Client Centric Data Model: Almost all of the products on the market are based on funder centric data models that focus on program reporting rather than improving client interaction. Our work is grounded is data justice & OCAP principles. (OCAP is the First Nations principles of ownership, control, access, and possession –it asserts that First Nations have control over data collection processes, and that they own and control how this information can be used).
- Data mobility for clients
- Enhanced collaboration
- Real-Time Analytics
- Unparalleled Insights & Reporting: Client centric data model allows for aggregation across multiple services leading to new insights that allow for better collaboration and service delivery.
- Faster, more meaningful reporting
- Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) Capabilities
- Collaboration & Communication
- Multi-lingual, multi-platform communication: connect with clients in their language, over voice or text, and on the platform that’s best for them – all from one place
- Work as a team: share notes and information across teams and organzations based on clients customized consent
- Interoperability, Customization & Security
- Connect with existing systems
- Easy to customize
- Best in class data security, compliance with leading industry standards
Status quo vs Transform
Oppressive | Enhancing |
Retroactive Tells you what happened months ago. | Interactive Actively helps staff work with clients & dynamically identify tailored choices. |
Siloed / Repetitive Data about an individual resides in multiple disconnected places. ex A case worker has to ask for a birthday for Funder A & date of birth for Funder B. | Connected Data follows a person between programs/agencies - becoming richer and more meaningful, while reducing steps for frontline workers. This requires consent based data gathering and shared measurement standards. |
Clunky Built using tools designed to sell widgets (ex Salesforce or Microsoft). High error rate, high training cost, cheap to start but expensive to maintain (by design). Made for corporate. | Elegant Designed to delight and motivate a frontline worker. Recognizes that exceptions are the norm when serving vulnerable populations. Made for social work. |
Results in data collection being frustrating, disconnected, repetitive & traumatizing for workers and clients. | Strengthens collaboration, reduces time spent collecting data, provides realtime sector trends, opens up opportunities for longitudinal data. |
Data Warehousing & Transform
A “Data Warehouse” is like the Dewey Decimal System, “Transform” is like your local library where you can take out books. A Data Warehouse is a concept and set of principles about where and how to store data. Transform is a product – that's in use – that’s helped shape the principles and ideas for a social service data warehouse. Transform is focussed on how to collect data in a trauma informed, client-centered way – it has the ability to store data in multiple ways.
Sector Needs & Trends
- Demographics: Populations are diversifying, spoken languages, literacy, and communication have changed.
- Tech adoption: Average service user, even if they are illiterate, likely uses a smart phone regularly.
- Data Security, Data Sovereignty, & Data Justice: Culture is changing, increasingly society, the sector, funders and those looking for help are demanding clarity on where/how data is stored, the right to see/use that data, and for that data to benefit them and their community in direct ways.
- Data Management: Social services organizations increasingly require robust data management systems to handle large volumes of client data, ensure compliance with regulations, and improve service delivery.
- Client Management: Effective client management solutions are essential for tracking client progress, customizing services, and optimizing resource allocation.
- Analytics & Reporting: Advanced analytics and reporting tools are crucial for measuring impact, identifying trends, and making data-driven decisions to enhance program effectiveness.
Flourishing Systems Impact
❤️ We measure impact by improvements to frontline service…
- Improvements to client and frontline worker satisfaction
- Hours reallocated from repetitive administration to frontline service
- Improvements to frontline service outcomes measured through quantitative improvements to clients lives as measured by the Lifeworks Self-Sufficiency Matrix and progressive sentiment analysis of client communication
Our Progress
- Presently in-use by 6 agencies: Creating Hope Society, Operation Friendship Seniors Society, Ummah Society, Amity House, Candora Society, & IslamicFamily
Waiting List: YWCA, CMHA, MyEncompass, ARC, and more
- Average of 40% decrease in amount of time organizations spend on reporting, 20% decrease in time to complete an intake
- Frontline satisfaction score of 80%
Transform is easy to navigate & more efficient.
—Samantha Vaux RSW, Clinical Team Lead
The City of Edmonton is an early investor in Transform because we're committed to supporting innovative, sector-based solutions for client-focused outcomes measurement.
—Mayor Sohi, City of Edmonton
It’s the first time that the tools i use aligned with the trauma informed approach i learned about in school.
—Nuha Dhooma, Case Worker
Transform is super simple to use.
–Said Abdalla RSW, Case Worker
Sustainability & Growth
- Direct sales generated through outbound sales, word of mouth
- Funder supported adoption - where cities/foundations support local agencies to purchase
Future spending will be directed towards…
💡 Sector Education
Increase digital literacy, data justice awareness & capacity in the social service sector.
Need ~2 new hires
Increase digital literacy, data justice awareness & capacity in the social service sector.
Need ~2 new hires
👩🏽💻 Developers
Hiring developers, security experts & designers.
Need ~3-4 new hires
Hiring developers, security experts & designers.
Need ~3-4 new hires
🫶🏼 Customer Support
Providing excellent onboarding & ongoing support.
Need ~2 new hires
Providing excellent onboarding & ongoing support.
Need ~2 new hires
About Us
Flourishing Systems is a an innovation company focussed on positive impact and combatting systemic inequity through thoughtfully designed tech. We sell software as a service (SAAS) & offer consulting to social service agencies & government.
Transform, our flagship product, is rethinking of social work tools that is focussed on clients and social workers. It reduced the trauma of repetition, opens new pathways for communication, simplifies reporting & much much more.
Amplify, a local digital currency, that keeps wealth circulating in a community, while addressing food insecurity.
Embark, an automation system for refugee sponsorship that completes tedious work in half the time. It saves on average a 1000+ hours of admin time per year.
We have been a part of spectacular failures & incredible growth. Flourishing Systems was spun out of a multi-award winning social services charity in 2022, to enable the work to stand on its own, and attract investment not possible within a charitable structure.
Our innovation was born out of earlier failures, helping build SROI (Social Return on Investment) Alberta, a system that aimed to do for the charities what ROI does for business – provide an objective measure to compare organizations. SROI failed because it was retroactive, funder-focussed and didn’t tackle the underlying problem of antagonistic data collection. Our drive to build better tools arose from the unmet promise for meaningful measurement and our drive to improve the day to day lives of frontline workers and the people they serve.
Our journey has included validating our assumptions through over 200 interviews with social workers, executive directors, and funders. We’ve co-built our product with leaders in UX (Metalab.co), telephony (Twillio.org) and AI (AMII).
The parent, IslamicFamily, is an Imagine Canada & Great Places to Work™ accredited charity, the winner of the Government of Alberta’s Inspiration Award for its work combating domestic violence (2020), the Canadian Mental Health Associations Professional Service Award (2020), Justice Innovation Award (2022) for work related to the Justice system, APPI (Alberta Professional Planners Institute) Award for affordable housing research (2024), & YEG Startup Community Award (2022) for tech innovation.
- Government & Foundations: City of Edmonton, United Way, Muttart Foundation, Stollery Foundation, ECF (via CFC)
Provided guidance, expertise and financial support.
- Frontline Workers
200+ interviews with Executive Directors, 5000+ hours of engagement/co-design with social workers
- Social Researchers: University of Alberta, NorQuest, Dialogue in Action
Experts in evaluation, and engagement. Helped design and support our first long-term client study that led to Transform.
- Tech Companies: Metalab & Twillio
The designers of Slack, Facebook Messenger & Coinbase. Accepted us as their first Community Investment. Supported user research, and interface design.
The backbone provider for programmable communication - SMS, voice, email, etc. Twilio provided capital and consulting support to help build out our messaging and translation features.
- Accelerators: CSW + AlchemistX & GrowthX
Top accelerators for social impact ideas worth scaling.
Our lived experience, as children of immigrants, and workers in tech + social services has allowed us to imagine and build new ways of working - to reimagine social work through our own worldviews, what we would want to experience and what we know is possible.
- Deep Sector Knowledge: With a rich history in the non-profit social services sector, Transform brings unparalleled insights and understanding of the unique challenges and needs faced by organizations. This deep-rooted experience informs every aspect of our platform, ensuring it is truly tailored to the sector.
- Proven Track Record & Reputation: Our long-standing presence in the sector demonstrates a proven track record of driving meaningful change and delivering high-quality services. Transform builds on this legacy to provide a reliable and effective solution.
- Mission-Driven Approach: Transform retains the mission-driven ethos of our non-profit origins, ensuring that our technology remains focused on maximizing social impact rather than just profits. This alignment with social goals resonates strongly with organizations in the sector.
Omar Yaqub ICD.D DSL MBA BSc: Non-profit sector leader, University professor & 10+ yrs management consultant.
Shaista Ali: ML & Product Advisor. PM Director of 5+ in the AI/ML space.
Raj Rajakumar: Previously co-founded a VC-backed startup backed by Mark Cuban & Jeff Holmes. App Store's Top 40.
Pedro Duarte: 20+ years in developing software and having sold startups.
We use a global approach to growing our team and finding talent. We apply B Corp principles to hiring. To fulfill existing demand we need to double the amount of developers, and bring in 1-2 onboarding specialist. We also need to hire staff for outbound sales.
Get in touch…
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