By Dan Israel, Vice President and General Manager, Vlocity
This is a time of year when many around the world reflect on giving back to those less fortunate. This year, Vlocity is honored to reflect with Salesforce on a community project we started work on at the end of last year with WoodGreen Community Services, a local non-profit in the Toronto area. WoodGreen had been tasked by the City of Toronto with creating an application to help Syrian refugees find and access the housing and other assistance their families needed. WoodGreen partnered with Salesforce, Vlocity and Deloitte to provide a tool to connect refugees with the local community’s offers of housing, jobs and much more.
This year, Canada took the world stage on the refugee crisis and welcomed twenty-five thousand refugees, all within a short span of time. These refugees arrived in Canada with little or no belongings, shelter, or employment. The rapid deployment of WoodGreen’s H.O.M.E. (Housing Opportunities & Marketplace Exchange) portal made a big difference for those newly arrived to the Toronto area get the support they needed to begin their lives in Canada.
“The need to connect people with much-needed assistance presented a perfect opportunity to leverage the relationship and service capabilities of our Vlocity Public Sector apps to help others,” says Dan Israel, Vice President and General Manager, Vlocity Public Sector. “One of Vlocity’s core values is ‘We Give Back.’ Our pre-built industry cloud application designed to manage the delivery of social assistance programs allowed WoodGreen to quickly deploy the portal when time was of the essence.”
Vlocity’s easy-to-use application connects refugees with housing, jobs, household goods and a range of donated services. Donors, sponsors and refugees are guided through the simple and efficient process of enrolling, listing, and searching for available housing and other services.
The H.O.M.E. portal is powered by Vlocity Public Sector, built on Salesforce’s world-class Customer Success platform. WoodGreen deployed the application within weeks to be ready upon the refugees’ arrival. Today, the platform still connects donors and refugees, giving them access to clothing, electronics, housing and much more. Several refugees have even found employment through the portal.
As the world grows more connected, we all need to support one another in new and innovative ways. The H.O.M.E. portal recently won the prestigious best “Application of New Technologies” award at the annual ISM (IT Solutions Management for Human Services) Conference. Vlocity is proud to provide the tools that are connecting refugees with the assistance they need in the local community. Watch the video to learn more.
For more information about Vlocity’s app for Public Housing, or the Salesforce HHS Case Connect app, please contact Dan Israel at disrael@vlocity.com.
Vlocity, the Industry Cloud app leader and one of Salesforce’s top strategic ISV partners, has put the world’s #1 customer success platform to work in Canada, helping Syrian refugees find housing and other supports as they begin their new lives in Toronto.
Originally posted: November 29, 2016
