Serebral.org: Creating Solutions for Organizations Serving the HomelessEric W. Etchill MPH, Sergio E. Hernandez BS, Sandra Truong BS, Tess Bailey BA, Anna Goodheart BS, Bradley End BS, Yoav Karpenshif BS, Matthew R. Kesinger BS, Gary Ciuffetelli, BA

Who Are We?

How Are We Doing This?

What Have We Done So Far?

Our Next Steps

What Are We Doing?

Why Did We Create Serebral?

References

Serebral aims to provide a free, easily scalable web application that facilitates inter-organizational cooperation through easy to use online tools. Simply, we aim to be A Central Hub for Organizational Cooperation.

We are developing a platform to support patient-centered care, the coordination of care across transitions in care settings, and common health information to improve quality of care.

Serebral is creating intuitive and easy-to-use applications centered around a community map that offers organizations the ability to make direct, trackable, real-time referrals and offers them solutions to volunteer management and recruitment. These community-based applications will allow organizations that serve the homeless to collaborate.

NationallyDozens of studies show underutilization of mental health services and substance abuse services across the country by the homeless. (Kort-Butler 2012)National Health Care for the Homeless study looking at 5 types of health needs, 78% of respondents reported at least one being unmet and believed that lack of referrals plaid a part. (Travis 2010)Underutilization of some services (e.g., food services) is associated with underutilization of other services (e.g., basic medical care). (Weiser 2013)In a 2010 Census, 5% of shelters were nearly empty (surveyed 6,602).Of 1007 free clinics, only 420 clinics report making referrals for other services. In Allegheny CountyIn Pittsburgh there are at least 170 organizations that serve the homeless population and the ratio of the homeless population to independent organizations that provide services to them is 20:1.40% of free clinics made referrals, food bank data, excess food banksThere is a lack of services that use internet technology for record keeping and referrals; In Pittsburgh, 30% of the SNAP allotment (food stamps) was unused in 2012, but not because of lack of needWhile shelters have very high capacity, there are many running at 60%

1) National Portrait of Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Underutilization of Services: Relevance to Early Intervention Journal of Early Intervention Summer 1993;17: 283-297,2) North, CS, et al. A systematic study of mental health services utilization by homeless men and women. SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHIATRIC EPIDEMIOLOGY Volume 28, Number 2 (1993), 77-83,2) Hatton, DC, et al. Homeless Women's Access to Health Services: A Study of Social Networks and Managed Care in the US. Women & Health Volume 33, Issue 3-4, 20013) De Rosa, Christine J., et al. "Service utilization among homeless and runaway youth in Los Angeles, California: Rates and reasons." Journal of Adolescent Health 24.3 (1999): 190-200.4) Kipke, Michele D., et al. "Street youth, their peer group affiliation and differences according to residential status, subsistence patterns, and use of services." Adolescence; Adolescence (1997).5) Sachs-Ericsson, Natalie, et al. "Health problems and service utilization in the homeless." Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 10.4 (1999): 443-452.6) Lisa A. Kort-Butler, Kimberly A. Tyler, A cluster analysis of service utilization and incarceration among homeless youth, Social Science Research, Volume 41, Issue 3, May 2012, Pages 612-623.7) Weiser, S., A. Hatcher, et al. (2013). "Food Insecurity Is Associated with Greater Acute Care Utilization among HIV-Infected Homeless and Marginally Housed Individuals in San Francisco." Journal of General Internal Medicine 28(1): 91-98.8) Baggett, T. P., J. J. O'Connell, et al. (2010). "The unmet health care needs of homeless adults: a national study." Am J Public Health 100(7): 1326-1333.9) Travis P. Baggett, et al. The Unmet healthcare needs of Homeless Adults: A National Survey

•Emergency Shelters•Transitional and Long term housing•Drug/and alcohol detox and rehab

•Geriatric Health•Women’s health

•Ob/Gyn and pediatrics•Case management

•Food banks•Clothes

•Mental Health services•Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid•Emergency and long term daycare

•Vocational training

•Battered Women’s Shelters•Storage Lockers

•Faith-based services•Job Placement

•Counseling Services•Legal Services

•Showers and Laundry•Transportation Services

•PTSD care•Continued support for newly housed individuals

•Severe weather shelters

Complete Needs Assessment (in progress)

Funding Drive. Partner with 6-10 orgs in PGH for beta test

(6 months)

Complete Functional Development (12 months

Beta Test (24 month)

Go Live with Full Functionality and Roll Out in Multiple Counties (36 months)

Continually optimize Serebral

Who Will Use Serebral?

In cities and counties across the country organizations that serve the poor and the homeless make referrals for their clients by thumbing through a collection of papers and advertisements that have been collected over years. This method is not searchable, not up to date, and highly limited to pre-existing connections. It became apparent to us that:

1. The homeless population tends to have many and diverse needs2. There is a vast sea of organizations that have capacity to serve many of those needs3. Though there is often a resource gap, we may be able to use what we have in our own communities better

With this in mind and the goal of better utilizing the services already in our own community, a group of students and young working professionals created Serebral in their spare time.

Serebral is a tool that connects organizations that serve the homeless population in a community. It is open source and free to use. We hope Serebral will allow organizations to serve their clients more effectively by being able to serve them more completely.

Doing More with What We Have

26.5% of adults volunteered in 2012,

41.6 percent of volunteers became involved with their main organization after beingasked to volunteer, most often by someone in the organization. About 42.1 percent becameinvolved on their own initiative--that is, they approached the organization.

Improving Volunteerism

* The Severe Weather Shelter is open Dec through Mar. in 2011-2

Serebral aims to be the cement that can fill the cracks in our community.

There are organizations in almost every county who are passionate about serving the homeless population. Many organizations wish they could do more for the people they serve but simply lack the resources. The continuum of care is limited by the capabilities of a single organization. The solution to this is collaboration between organizations. As there are often hundreds of organizations in a given area, Serebral functions to facilitate collaboration for the ultimate goal of ending homelessness.

Serebral is Open Source and being developed in Pittsburgh. Our vision is to develop this tool in communities around the country for FREE.

• Patient-centered care strives to achieve complete care• We can’t always control the resources directly at our disposal• But we should be able to optimize what is in our community

Serebral is a community-centered referral system that is trackable, up to date and searchable by any need, language, location, transportation, and reviews by patient and referring organizations. Serebral is licensed under a General Public License which allows free distribution and modification. For most users, this means there are no limitations on Serebral's use.

The implementation necessitates working closely with diverse organizations. We have identified over 100 organizations that serve the homeless in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh, PA) in some capacity, including healthcare groups, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and faith-based organizations. We are currently conducting a needs assessment of organizations and volunteers to understand how to best develop our platform to connect underserved individuals and the organizations that serve them. We are working with the community at every step of the design and implementation process.

We have a team-based structure and have paired with the Street Medicine Institute. Our overall team is composed of a granting team, a public relations team, a development team, a Serebral board of directors and a liaison from the SMI board.

We are currently completing a needs assessment with community partners, applying for grants and securing funding, building relationships, and obtaining community and organizational buy-in within Allegheny County.

For more information, email: contact@serebral.org

Serebral is in the development phase. What you see at Serebral.org is a proof of concept. Once we secure enough funding to make Serebral a reality, we will run a beta pilot test with several organizations throughout Allegheny County to maximize functionality prior to live release.

Serebral is open source and thus anyone with some time and dedication can contribute directly to building the web application.

We want Serebral to be used across the world. Anyone can make their own improvements and share them with the community. In this way, we build a tool greater than could ever be produced individually. 26.5% of adults in the United States volunteered roughly 8 billion hours in 2012

(BLS).

41.6 % of volunteers became involved with their main organization after being asked to volunteer 42.1 % became involved on their own initiative--that is, they approached the organization.

Primary barriers to volunteering include the lack of knowledge about volunteer opportunities or obstacles that could be addressed by Serebral (knowing where to apply skills, how to sign up, timing, etc.)

Serebral increases volunteerism and builds experience for future professionals interacting with underserved individuals.

Organizations• Advertise available opportunities• Manage previously scheduled opportunities

Volunteers• Search and find available opportunities• Filter search by type, location, time, day, etc.• Receive reminders about upcoming scheduled volunteering through a calendar

interface• Completed experiences will automatically populate a resume-like document

Serebral can facilitate several points in the volunteer-organization interactions, strengthening volunteerism and reducing risk factors for volunteer drop-out.