Why are you an LLC rather than a non-profit organization?

a. Limited Funding

Most nonprofits are constantly scrambling to find sufficient funding from donations, foundation grants, and government funds. Registering as a business will allow us to access funding options that may not be available to nonprofit organizations. For example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant that we intend to pursue is not available to non-profits.

b. Scalability

Our ultimate goal is to scale with a sustainable revenue model by partnering with clinics/hospitals to reduce their hospital re-admissions. We hope to one day be in multiple states around the USA!

How do you ensure the safety of individuals offering and requesting support?

a. Remote & In-Person Options

We offer both in-person and remote ways of connecting with others locally. Easily switch between in-person, remote or both ways of offering and receiving support.

b. Staff Supervision

Trained staff are always on-call for support! You can call with questions or ask for guidance if you are unsure how to carry out a task, or anything else! You will actually speak with a human.

c. Community Care Teams

If you are receiving support, someone must request to join your care team. If there is someone you do not want on your care team, you can deny their request. For instance, if that weird ex-boyfriend wants to be on your care team, you simply click ‘Deny Request’.

d. Community Trainings

We will offer remote trainings to community members that want to learn skills! Example topics:

• Supportive Communication/Motivational Interviewing
• Mental Health First Aid
• Resource Finding You can also request trainings in topics we haven’t listed here that relate to community health.

How are you different from other volunteer organizations?

Most Volunteer Organizations…

• Difficult to find options that fit your schedule, interests, and comfort level.
• Usually in-person
• Regular 1x week commitment
• 6 months - 1 year commitment
• Limited options of tasks
• Can only offer support

Community Collaboratory

• Matching algorithm: easily find safe tasks that fit your schedule, interest and comfort level.
• In-person OR remote (remote only during COVID-19)
• Flexible schedule
• No long-term commitment
• Variety of task options
• Two-way relationship: you can offer and receive support

How are you different from Volunteer Match?

Volunteer Match connects you to non-profit organizations, while Community Collaboratory connects you directly with other community members.

How are you different from Next Door?

There are similarities and differences between us and Next Door. We are not mutually exclusive—we welcome you to use both!

We are similar to Next Door in our focus on:

• Building community/trusting relationships in neighborhoods.
• Making it easier to find information/resources in your neighborhood.
• Finding ways to connect people to share resources during the COVID-19 crisis.

We are different from Next Door in our:

• Focus on community members supporting each other to better access healthcare/social services.
• Matching algorithm.
• Community Care Teams.
• On-Call Trained Staff.
• Trainings in topics such as motivational interviewing, resource finding, and much more.
• Funding: Community Collaboratory is funded by community members, while Next Door is funded by venture capital, real estate firms, and paid advertising.
• Here are examples of the kinds of posts you might see on Next Door, but not on Community Collaboratory:
  • “Missing gray-striped cat. Has anyone seen her?”
  • “We’re having a neighborhood potluck this Saturday 4/25!”
  • “Two available cat-scratching posts for free if anyone wants them!”
  • “Police investigating shooting on Rainier Ave S. & Seward Park Ave. Did anyone see anything?”

How are you different from Mutual Aid Groups?

What is Mutual Aid?

Peter Kropotkin was one of the earliest authors to discuss the concept of mutual aid in his 1902 book "Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution". Mutual Aid groups are groups of community members that organize and support one another around a variety of issues, including COVID-19 support, housing affordability, labor rights, and disability rights.

There are over 720 Mutual Aid groups across the U.S. (https://www.usacovidmutualaid.org/) that organize community members to support one another. For example, Big Door Brigade is a Mutual Aid group in Seattle, WA that was launched in 2016 by a group of activists and organizers, including Dean Spade, trans-activist and Associate Professor of Law at Seattle University. Big Door Brigade offers an excellent explanation of Mutual Aid: https://bigdoorbrigade.com/what-is-mutual-aid/.

Community Collaboratory's aims are similar to those of Mutual Aid:

• Increase social connection and create trusting/supportive relationships between community members
• Address unmet social, economic, and health needs of individuals and families
• Reduce loneliness in our communities
• Increase access to healthcare, social services, and education

However, we are not calling ourselves a Mutual Aid Group because we do not want to appropriate or claim the term ‘Mutual Aid’. We are trying to uplift and scale the kind of community support that Mutual Aid groups offer, but because we are a small business, we cannot call ourselves a Mutual Aid group. We hope that our work can support existing Mutual Aid groups: most Mutual Aid groups use Google doc/spreadhseets (see examples below) that are organized by a few individuals. This is difficult to scale. We want it to be easy and reliable for thousands of community members to easily find ways of supporting each other. Community Collaboratory is attempting to provide that scalable model for thousands of community members to easily find ways of offering and receiving support.

Will you use existing resource gathering sites (e.g. Go Fund Me, Buy Nothing, etc.)?

Yes! We will certainly use resources like Buy Nothing, Go Fund Me, and other networks or resources that are already in place.

How is Community Collaboratory funded?

We have several strategies for funding our work:

a. Health Insurance & Post-Acute Healthcare Settings: While our tool can be used by any community members, we hope to focus particularly on individuals/families that struggle with chronic health conditions. We hope to show through data collection and clinical trials that our services will reduce annual costs & re-admissions for health insurers and healthcare entities (e.g. Skilled Nursing Facilities). If our services can create these savings, we hope healthcare entities will form paid partnerships with us.

b. Grants: We are also actively applying for grants that focus on social entrepreneurship, healthcare, and small businesses.

c. Membership: You! We have an OPTIONAL membership. This is a community-powered venture: for our communities, by our communities. We hope people will love Community Collaboratory and want to incorporate it into their lives. Join because our work aligns with your values: because you care; not because you have to.

Many organizations require a paid membership to access their best features. That would be weird here…only paid users can access the best ways of offering/receiving support? That doesn't make sense!

Funding will support…

• Expanding Community Collaboratory into a nationwide (and eventually) worldwide tool!
• Keeping the website/app running smoothly
• Providing a living wage/benefits to staff (community health workers)

Will you partner with non-profits, hospitals, etc?

Yes! Patients/clients are in desperate need for the kind of long-term social support and community safety net that we can offer at Community Collaboratory. With a larger user base and more staff, we can build a network of partnerships to improve public health. We plan on having partnerships with local organizations, such as:

• Hospitals
• Social service agencies (e.g. DSHS)
• Nursing facilities
• Child welfare agencies

What is the future of Community Collaboratory?

Let your imagination soar!

Imagine if...

• Every time we heard a firetruck/ambulance siren, we knew that the person receiving that emergency call would get follow up support from Community Collaboratory staff and community members.
• When a teenager is discharged from the hospital for depression, that teenager returns home to a social network of community members that will check-in on them.
• When someone suffers a Traumatic Brain Injury or Spinal Cord Injury and has to completely change their lifestyle, they have dozens of community members to offer support during this difficult transition.

Imagine creating thousands of new jobs in communities...

As more jobs become automated, we need new jobs in our communities. Additionally, there is an increasing need for Community Health Workers (CHWs). As Community Collaboratory expands, we could create thousands of new CHWs positions in communities around the U.S. We could also create paid opportunities to train teenagers as CHWs, like the [Morehouse School of Medicine Community Health Worker Training Program for High School Students & Young Adults].

Interesting Research/Articles on CHWs: "Community Health Workers Can Reduce Hospitalizations by 65 Percent and Double Patient Satisfaction with Primary Care"

Imagine creating a community fund…

What if we created a fund that you could draw from when offering and requesting support? For example:

• A community member needs a car repair so they can continue commuting to work and not lose their job, but it’s going to cost $1,000. Four local community members cover $200 and our Community Fund covers the rest.
• A family needs $4,000 to help pay for their child’s medical expenses from a recent surgery (which insurance has refused to cover…). Twenty community members cover $1,200 and our Community Fund covers the rest.
• A parent needs to pay for childcare, but it will cost $2,000 per month A Community Fund powered by community members within an entire city. We think that sounds pretty amazing. Don’t you?

That is the kind of world we want to live in. Don’t you?

Who are Community Collaboratory Staff?

Community Collaboratory staff are Community Health Workers (CHWs). CHWs are, “a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of and/or has an unusually close understanding of the community served” (American Public Health Association, 2020).

Community Collaboratory staff are CHWs. We will visit you in your home, at your health clinic appointment, and much more. We go to you. Not the other way around.