By Elise Greve and Ben Fields
Originally published in the AWS Mobile Blog.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, Orange County United Way quickly identified that many local residents could face economic hardship, impacting their ability to pay rent. The organization knew that without assistance, certain populations may face the horrible reality of homelessness. In response, Orange County United Way mobilized their team to provide pandemic financial assistance through the nonprofit’s Homelessness Prevention Program.
Orange County United Way’s Homelessness Prevention Program is supported by the Pandemic Relief Fund; created to assist low-income individuals and families at imminent risk of homelessness, the current Orange County population experiencing homelessness, and vital social and human services. In order to distribute the funds, Orange County United Way designed an ‘application-to-approval-to-fund’ process, however with limited staff and resources, they sought out solutions to more swiftly manage the multi-step process. Orange County United Way wanted to harness the power of technology to serve more people and faster, so they called on AWS. The team at Orange County United Way collaborated with AWS to build a web and mobile application so individuals can submit requests for financial assistance through the nonprofit’s Homelessness Prevention Program.
Chris Ticknor, Chief Transformation Officer of Orange County United Way, describes the situation, “We exist on fundraising, which sometimes means we can’t easily scale our call center. We felt that seeking out an application development solution with AWS was the best way to deliver help quickly. AWS proposed using AWS Amplify as the best path to create a web and mobile application that our team could quickly deploy and feel confident that it’s secure, reliable, and scalable.”
To continue reading, click here to see the original blog post in the AWS MobileBlog.
