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New Mexico

Posted on November 30, 2023December 3, 2023 by admin

AREA SERVED

Grant, Hidalgo, and Catron counties occupy the southwest corner of New Mexico and have a combined population of approximately 34,765 people spread over 14,343 square miles. According to the US Census Bureau, 20-25% of residents live below the poverty line.

BACKGROUND

The Grant County Pediatric Healthcare Collaboration (GCPHC) brought One Degree to the area in 2020 to better meet the needs of local people. GCPHC is a multidisciplinary group of healthcare, families, and service providers who work with youth across all systems. GCPHC formed in 2019 to evaluate service gaps and advocate for solutions. Members recognized that they were spending a lot of time looking up resources for patients/clients and making referrals across the entire age spectrum from infants to seniors.

As gatekeepers to vital resources, GCPHC wanted to empower people to find the information and services they need independently across all age groups. GCPHC discovered One Degree and realized it could help everyone move beyond outdated paper binders and the knowledge base of any one person. The One Degree platform provides a comprehensive database of free resources to any person, community organization, government agency, or nonprofit. This makes it easier to access care for one’s own family, and organizations to share and manage referrals for their patients and clients.

Amplified Therapy, Grant County, Western Bank, Janey Katz, Dr. Twana Sparks, Western Sky Community Care, ILN Consulting, Hidalgo Medical Services, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have generously supported the One Degree project in southwest New Mexico.

New York City, NY

Posted on November 30, 2023December 3, 2023 by admin

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New York City, NY, the “Big Apple” includes 5 boroughs where the Hudson River meets the Atlantic Ocean. It is the most densely populated city in the United States with population of ~8.4M+. 17.3% of the population – and 23.8% of children – lives in poverty. 48.7% of New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home, most commonly Spanish.

BACKGROUND

The New York City Chapter was launched by Fair Futures, a coalition of over 100 organizations and foundations advocating for all foster youth in NYC. This coalition aims to ensure that all youth have access to the coaching and robust support they need to achieve their potential. The Foster Care Excellence Fund invested in the infrastructure needed to scale the Fair Futures model across the child welfare sector in NYC, including supporting One Degree to launch a comprehensive directory of workforce training programs and alternative high schools that can be used by young people and adults citywide.

This initial phase of the NYC Chapter will be useful in helping Fair Futures staff, youth, and caregivers identify best-fit programs and opportunities, and it can be used by young people and adults citywide.

This chapter was expanded in 2022 in partnership with Benefits Data Trust, a national non-profit organization harnessing the power of data, technology, and policy to provide efficient and dignified access to public benefits, and a network of community-based organizations and social service providers who help New Yorkers access public benefits and services. This expansion was generously funded by Robin Hood.

Northwest Detroit

Posted on November 30, 2023December 3, 2023 by admin

AREA SERVED

The “Live6” area, located in Wayne County, Michigan, refers to the Livernois and McNichols intersection in Northwest Detroit which anchors four vibrant, active and socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods: Bagley, Fitzgerald, Martin Park and the University District. These neighborhoods are home to approximately 40,563 people, all within one zip code – 48221.

BACKGROUND

The Live6 Alliance, Marygrove Conservancy, and One Degree launched a pilot program focusing on providing easy access to social and health-related resources for those who live adjacent to the Livernois and McNichols retail corridors and beyond. This collaborative effort aims to build local community capacity through knowledge exchange and resource navigation, and serves as a human service layer that overlays a number of existing initiatives focusing on improving physical infrastructure of the area including the Fitzgerald Revitalization Project, Reimagining the Civic Commons and the Strategic Neighborhood Fund (SNF) Livernois-McNichols project.

The One Degree team worked closely with the Live6 Alliance to build a comprehensive directory of 1000+ community resources for the residents of Northwest Detroit. This directory is available for free to any block club group, community organization, government agency, or non-profit in Detroit. Practitioners across the city also have access to One Degree’s features for professionals, which enable them to make, manage, and track social service referrals.

This pilot project would not be possible without the generous support of the Kresge Foundation.

Gainesville, FL

Posted on November 30, 2023December 3, 2023 by admin

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Gainesville, Florida, is the county seat of Alachua County, with a population of approximately 129,394. According to the Census Bureau, an estimated 33.6% of Gainesville residents live below the poverty line.

BACKGROUND

Alisa Guthrie, a social worker in the city’s public defender’s office, founded the Gainesville chapter in 2016. Like many other social workers and case managers, Alisa used to spend a significant amount of time looking up resources for her clients and keeping her referrals up to date. She would come out of a day of meetings and find that a client had been waiting for hours to ask her for the phone number for a food bank or child care program. She had become a gatekeeper to these vital resources for her clients. She wanted to do better for them and for herself by empowering her clients to find the information they need on their own.

Alisa discovered One Degree and realized it could help her and her clients move beyond outdated paper binders and a mess of post-it notes of crucial resource information. She decided to start a One Degree chapter for Gainesville.

Over several months, Alisa organized students from the University of Florida and other community members to volunteer their time to add local resources to One Degree. One by one, they used One Degree’s Resource Editing Tool to build a database of resources that Alisa and hundreds of others now use and share with their clients. The entire community is now empowered to access resources directly thanks to the work of Alisa and her team.

Learn more: “How One Social Worker Improved the Safety Net for a Whole City”.

Summit County, Colorado

Posted on November 30, 2023December 3, 2023 by admin

AREA SERVED

Summit County is in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, about 70 miles west of Denver. A tourism destination for four world-class ski resorts and the towns of Breckenridge, Copper, Dillon, Frisco, Keystone and Silverthorne, Summit is also home to 31,011 full time residents. With beautiful scenery and an incredibly high cost of living, Summit residents experience both the challenges and rewards of mountain living.

BACKGROUND

The One Degree partnership was born out of a challenge to implement “one big idea” to serve Summit County’s at-risk families. Donor Paul Finkel brought together key partners from several nonprofit organizations, including the Education Foundation of the Summit, Family & Intercultural Resource Center, Keystone Science School, Summit Community Care Clinic, Summit Habitat for Humanity, St. Anthony Summit Medical Center and The Summit Foundation.

Together, the group discussed community needs and viable, innovative solutions. In many cases, while the resources were there, it was access that stood out as a barrier: there was no single place where families could find assistance for the services that exist in Summit County. Paper manuals and patient navigators with brains full of information existed in the community. However, the prospect of an online, user-friendly access point to housing, food assistance, childcare, mental health services and more was the missing link.

After many years in the making, we are proud to see that “one big idea” come to reality in the form of a centralized online resource network available in English and Spanish to everyone who lives and works in Summit County. We are grateful for the partners and donors who brought the project to reality and confident that One Degree will connect life-improving opportunities with our community members in need.

San Francisco Bay Area

Posted on November 30, 2023December 3, 2023 by admin

AREA SERVED

The San Francisco Bay Area is a combined area of 7,051,906 people across nine counties. The region has an average official poverty rate of 10%, and estimates indicate that 1 in 5 people are unable to meet their basic needs in some counties.

BACKGROUND

Rey Faustino was inspired to start the organization – and founded this original chapter – through his experience growing up in a working-class Filipino immigrant family in Los Angeles. While his parents worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, like many new immigrants, his family still faced the challenges of meeting their basic needs, such as health care, educational programs, and immigration services. Knowing where to go for help was simply too hard.

After moving to the Bay Area to work at a nonprofit organization serving low-income high school students, Rey saw that very little had changed in the social service sector in 20 years. While technological advancements and companies like Facebook, Google and Yelp were thriving, nonprofit and social services continued to use three-ring paper binders, and technology was not being used to benefit vulnerable communities. Rey founded One Degree to ensure everyone has access to the critical, life-saving resources he and his family needed.

Los Angeles County

Posted on November 30, 2023December 3, 2023 by admin

AREA SERVED

Los Angeles County, California, has a population of approximately 10,105,722 people, and an official poverty rate of 17%. An estimated 25% cannot meet their basic needs here in the most populous county in the United States.

BACKGROUND

The Los Angeles Department of Health Services (LA DHS) brought One Degree to the county in 2017 as part of its Whole Person Care program. The program is a five-year initiative that brings together health and social service providers across the county to build a more community-centered system of care. The One Degree platform makes it easier to coordinate care for low-income and at-risk Angelenos.

As a full-service chapter, the One Degree team worked closely with LA DHS to build a comprehensive database of 8000+ resources, which is also available for free to any community organization, government agency, or nonprofit in LA County. Practitioners across the county also have access to One Degree’s robust features for professionals, which enable them to make, manage, and keep track of social service referrals for their patients and clients. Learn more about full-service chapter packages.