What a great story - the incredible difference that technology can make to nonprofit organisations when time and money are so limited.
This story submitted to DonorTec below is a wonderful example of how the generosiy of companies donating the latest technology products and services can change the level of hope for workers striving for social justice to help people in great need. For more information on the technology available through DonorTec click here.
Our story - Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project, Melbourne
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution"
Emma Goldman
First day, first impressions.
Four women and one man, all about 30, sitting close in the upstairs bedroom of a two bedroom flat in North Melbourne. Their clothes explore the whole range from charcoal to black. The room is dim. The blind is down to stop the glare through the large northerly window.
I would later come to know them as an amazing team of caseworkers who had helped about three hundred asylum seekers to escape destitution and homelessness in the previous 12 months. Workers with incredible skills who had walked alongside vulnerable people while they waited for their case for protection to be assessed - children and adults, who had known flight, trauma, detention, isolation, illness, hunger and heartbreaking delays – this team had helped them to find a way through all the barriers raised against them - language, policies, laws, authorities, utilities, and all those call centres. In the end, some were given visas and could stay, while others were sent away from Australia. For those who were refused, the patient workers crowded in this room had helped them to gather as much readiness as could be managed before they set off again in search of safety and life. For all of them, as one man said, Hotham had been hope.
What a great story - the incredible difference that technology can make to nonprofit organisations when time and money are so limited.
This story submitted to DonorTec below is a wonderful example of how the generosiy of companies donating the latest technology products and services can change the level of hope for workers striving for social justice to help people in great need. For more information on the technology available through DonorTec click here.
Our story - Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project, Melbourne
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution"
Emma Goldman
First day, first impressions.
Four women and one man, all about 30, sitting close in the upstairs bedroom of a two bedroom flat in North Melbourne. Their clothes explore the whole range from charcoal to black. The room is dim. The blind is down to stop the glare through the large northerly window.
I would later come to know them as an amazing team of caseworkers who had helped about three hundred asylum seekers to escape destitution and homelessness in the previous 12 months. Workers with incredible skills who had walked alongside vulnerable people while they waited for their case for protection to be assessed - children and adults, who had known flight, trauma, detention, isolation, illness, hunger and heartbreaking delays – this team had helped them to find a way through all the barriers raised against them - language, policies, laws, authorities, utilities, and all those call centres. In the end, some were given visas and could stay, while others were sent away from Australia. For those who were refused, the patient workers crowded in this room had helped them to gather as much readiness as could be managed before they set off again in search of safety and life. For all of them, as one man said, Hotham had been hope.
A’ had her computer monitor on its side because some time ago the screen flipped and nobody could flip it back. They were waiting till the volunteer computer guy could be imposed upon, again!
S’ was editing a letter and I watched as her cursor followed her mouse like a dog that knew it was in charge of the pace of the walk.
But the caseworkers would have to wait. An application deadline was only hours away. I joined my two co-workers in the support crew bedroom next door. The computer was open and the pressure was on. Bless those who created Open Office, but to me it was like hauling out the toolbox to find someone had pinched the Allen key, that there were only bull-nosed plyers, and that my favourite hammer has gone. I fumbled.
Back to the casework room.
“Can you guys give me figures on the numbers of kids we helped last year, what countries they came from, and how many we housed in our donated properties? I need it this afternoon for an important funding application.”
“Yeh, no worries,” they said because they’re lovely people and hey, I’d flipped A’s screen back to horizontal. I had no idea that the pits of their stomachs tightened another notch because they knew their workload had just gone from impossible to whatever comes after impossible. A’ rubbed her neck.
3 o’clock. The application had to fly. I went back into the case room and found J counting as he poked at lines on the computer screen. He had pieces of paper with tallies the others had given him…!
The next day I asked C if we were members of DonorTec. “Yeh, yeh I think so”, she said “actually, we were getting to that, you know.. something happened”.
The caseworkers showed me the client management database software we’d gotten on the cheap (by getting a version of something created for someone else). It was designed so that the caseworkers could enter “visit” notes after any interaction with a client. There were a few built-in reports but it couldn’t produce the statistics that I had naively ordered the day before.. that is.. unless… that “auto-export data to Microrosft Access” button at the bottom of the Report menu, could be made to mean something?!
The rest of the story is about software keys arriving, in very little time, at very little cost from DonorTec! We got Microsoft Office Professional for everyone and the upgraded server software we needed. We now produce accurate statistics that have helped us to succeed in funding applications, produce better reports for our supporters and the media, and better evidence when advocating with government for policy improvements. Outlook erased all those boring agenda items about double bookings and failed coordination, and the planning charts streaked with the remains of errant permanent markers came down. We built a contacts and donor management database. Donors get thanked; people who want mail get it and those who don’t don’t.
Our stress dropped, our effectiveness lifted.
We wear colours on Thursdays.
There is dancing at this revolution.
MICHAEL SMITHERAM
Fund Development Coordinator, Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project
The Asylum Seeker Project (ASP) works with children, women and men who are lawfully awaiting an outcome on their refugee or humanitarian protection claim, but who face destitution without community support! ASP provides housing, professional and volunteer support, advocacy, monthly cash relief, and help with emergencies.
PLEASE HELP BY DONATING AT: https://www.givenow.com.au/hothammission
