Caravan Studios

We build apps that help communities organize, access,

and apply local resources to their most pressing problems.

WHAT WE'RE WORKING ON

These are the tools that we are working on right now.

Member agencies of the Safe Shelter Collaborative benefit from a technology platform they use to seek shelter for clients and to alert supporters to donate the cost of hotel stays when shelter is unavailable. Members have access to training opportunities to build capacity and better serve their clients. The Safe Shelter Collaborative helps members find and fund shelter faster and expand services to those who need it most.

Safe Shelter Collaborative

Expanding shelter options for survivors of human trafficking.

Find out more about the Safe Shelter Collaborative.

The Safe Shelter Collaborative supports the Sustainable Development Goals.

The idea for this app was generated by Animal Welfare and Food Rescue groups who spend an inordinate amount of time managing time-sensitive volunteer tasks. 4Bells helps organizations by shifting some of the process from white boards to the volunteers. Volunteers are notified about tasks and can claim and check them in, reducing time spent on the phone and tracking activity on white boards.

4Bells was built, pro bono, by JayStack. The effort is also supported by a generous grant from Microsoft Citizenship.

4Bells

Deploy known volunteers to complete urgent, time-sensitive tasks.

Find out more about 4Bells.

4Bells supports the Sustainable Development Goals.

SafeNight

Funding alternative shelter for a safe night.

SafeNight provides staff members at domestic violence and anti-trafficking service organizations a secure way to crowdsource funding from supporters who have downloaded the SafeNight app.

When an individual is in urgent need of shelter, a qualified staff member at a domestic violence service organization can initiate a request for hotel room funding. Supporters who have downloaded SafeNight receive a notification that an individual is in need and have an opportunity to immediately cover the cost of the hotel room as a tax-deductible donation. SafeNight is part of the Safe Shelter Collaborative,

Find out more about SafeNight.

SafeNight supports the Sustainable Development Goals.

Public Good App House

Apps for social good

The Public Good App House provides an opportunity to learn through in-person and online events about technology that increases the social good.

Find out more about Public Good App House.

Made at the Library is a collaboration with library staff and library users to develop mobile apps using open government data. Working in two capital cities, Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais) and Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), library users and library staff from nine libraries participated in community events that sparked creativity and spurred development of three distinct projects that solved local problems.

Find out more about Feito na Biblioteca.

Feito na Biblioteca

Creating tools with library users at libraries in Brazil.

During the summer, millions of youth eligible for free and reduced meals lose the place -- school cafeterias -- where they ate lunch. These meals move from cafeterias to community based organizations across the country, making them harder to find. Range is a tool trusted adults who work with youth can use to quickly find the nearest place where free meals are served and where youth can find a free place--a library--to engage in information and programs.

Meal sites for summer appear in Range in June of each year until the school year starts in your area.

RANGE

Help youth find free meals and the nearest library this summer.

Find out more about Range.

Range supports the Sustainable Development Goals.

Worker Connect

Empowering workers to provide feedback.

In close collaboration with migrant workers, worker welfare staff, and support networks in the Persian Gulf, Worker Connect is a mechanism for migrant construction workers to learn about their rights, share information about their experiences, and provide anonymous feedback to worker welfare supervisors. The service includes a mobile app for use by construction workers to report feedback on their living and working conditions, and a dashboard where supervisors can analyze anonymous data to highlight areas of concern and intervene when necessary.

Find out more about Worker Connect.

Worker Connect supports the Sustainable Development Goals.

Generate + Design + Select projects

Community-generated problem-solving concepts

We facilitate two-day Generate + Design events where communities identify the problems they face, learn how technology might solve them, and design concepts that illustrate their imagination and aspirations for the product they hope to see built. These concepts become the cornerstone of the Select community-centered feedback process, where a broader public audience is invited to weigh in and contribute their ideas.

Please get in touch if you're interested in collaborating with us.

Find out more about Gen+Design projects