Changing Children’s Lives With Less Code
Rise Above Foundation is a nonprofit organization that helps children in foster care, mainly in the Massachusetts area. They take requests from parents and social workers to help less privileged children get involved in extracurricular activities, whether it’s playing sports, learning an instrument or even covering prom expenses.
My wife and I had talked about volunteering many times, but with a new house and baby girl, finding the opportunity always proved very difficult for us. We often see things that make us realize how lucky we are with the life we have, and we wanted to find ways of giving back. Then, about a year ago, I was caught in the hallway by a senior director in my organization who told me about the Rise Above Foundation. They were looking for volunteers to help them with various projects, including revamping their website.
Sarah, one of the founders of Rise Above, and I scheduled a meeting to discuss what they needed. I really appreciated what they were trying to do, and it struck a personal chord with me. When I was growing up, I was given the opportunity to experience many different extracurricular activities, including soccer, piano, band and other things. I believe it was a vital part of my childhood. Even today, because I have 11 nieces and nephews and a two-year-old daughter, I think it’s critical that children have the opportunity to express themselves creatively, outside of the standard school curriculum. This is what Rise Above is all about, and that’s why I knew I wanted to volunteer and help if I could.
The website hadn’t been updated much in at least 7 years, so there was a lot to do. It definitely needed to be modernized; the request forms were not only too long and cumbersome, but they also involved submitting a lot of information in a bunch of plain text fields and hoping for the best. The applications were submitted with these long forms and entered into a database with a very basic and lightly secured UI on top of it. There was little to no workflow in the application process, and the whole system depended on a lot of manual work and hoping for an “honor system.” Even the mailing lists required manual work.
With over 800 requests per year, it was clear Rise Above needed something cleaner and more efficient. So, after a few discussions, we decided to investigate using OutSystems to build a new application system. I could quickly build out the required entities, web screens, roles and permissions, and workflows they needed to have a rock-solid application system. I had a fully functional proof-of-concept built for them in less than a day. Plus, since OutSystems is easy and straightforward to use, Sarah, coming from a basic Wordpress background, could feel comfortable managing it on her own without the need for a full-time developer. It was a great win for everyone.
It’s not finished yet, but I’m confident that with this great new website and robust application request system, the amount of donations will increase, and more applications can be processed for the children helped by Rise Above. I truly hope so; you only get to be a kid once.
