There is a particular pleasure in using data to help truly deserving organizations accomplish their mission. I recently did one project like this for Serenity Living Transitional Home (SLTH) of Pittsburgh, a non-profit that helps young women, who are homeless or leaving foster care, find success as adults.
Since 2017, SLTH has offered housing to women 18 to 23, along with workforce training, community support, and life skills training. As a coach with the Forbes Funds, I was asked to help Ashley Moorefield , Executive Director of SLTH, to improve her data collection and tracking to find more volunteers and connect with girls that need help.
I recruited a colleague, web content writer Alison Conte, to help Ashley redesign and edit her website. We held 12 team meetings, during which Ashley explained her needs. I coached Ashley through applying for Google Workspace, and once, she was approved, on using the features and updating the forms.
Ashley now has two sophisticated web-based forms that will collect and process referrals and volunteers, and a website that is easier to use and understand.
A free tool for non-profits
To meet her goals, I introduced Ashley to Google Workspace for Non-Profits. With this free tool, specifically for non-profits, I showed her how to develop:
- Google forms that collect specific volunteer information and record it in a data base.
- Data bases that track and coordinate referral requests, and financial donations.
- A Google shared drive to connect staff and volunteers and allow them to record case notes.
- Google Workspace as a domain host, and Google Search Console for search.
After her initial training, I continued to adjust the data base and forms as needed, fulfilling my commitment to use technology for good.
Time to update the website
To create a more professional website for SLTH, Alison revised the website design and content. These revisions:
- Made it easier for users to make a referral, a donation, or to volunteer.
- Improved the look, structure, and usability of the website.
- Reorganized the news blog for consistency and readability.
- Added SEO data and keywords to improve search results.
- Connected the website to the new forms.
The Story of Serenity Living Transitional Home
In 2017, together with her husband, Shawn, Ashley Moorfield turned the home they lived in for 10 years into a transitional home for 18 to 23-year-old females at risk for homelessness.
SLTH can now house 4 girls at a time, and is renovating a building that will provide housing for 8 more. The young women live in SLTH housing for a year to 16 months while they learn life skills. SLTH mentors guide them to the point where they can live, drive, study, or work as independent adults. More than 21 girls have graduated from the program. SLTH uses volunteers to teach life stabilization skills and mentor young women at risk.
