The Challenge

For decades shelters, food kitchens, and churches across Central America and Mexico have provided life-saving aid to refugees traveling to the U.S. border. But new migrant protocols implemented by the United States and Mexico are placing increasing pressure on this network of support. Humanitarian aid workers and volunteers are increasingly playing the role of social worker/paralegal for asylum seekers forced to navigate complex application processes. Additionally, they confront the growing urgency to document the numerous abusive patterns and practices committed against asylum seekers by multiple state and private actors across Latin America.

Unfortunately, humanitarian aid workers and volunteers often lack data intake and management tools. Tools for data management are important for tracking efficacy and keeping track of the thousands of refugees they serve. But they can also play a vital role in telling the stories and even in helping asylum seekers fight their case.

The Solution

Streetwide is working with organizations at the border to help them develop data intake and management systems which can be used to manage cases, keep track of their work, and generate reports to keep their oragnization and stakeholders abreast of a rapidly changing situation. We are using a combination of commodity CRMs and some custom components to create a system that implements a pattern which can be adopted broadly by other shelters at other points of the migrant's journey.

The Impact

This program will be launching in the spring of 2020.