The Salvation Army Data
Collection Project
Salvation Army Cambridge Corps
Homeless Shelter and Drop-In Center
Ben Leong
15 September 2003
BRIEF HISTORY
 Sep
2001: Graduate Student Volunteer
Day
 Jan 2002: Formed team + initial design
 March 2002: Design completed, but funds
needed
 May 2002: IDEAS Competition – 3rd Prize!
 July 2002 – August 2003: Development
and testing of system
 end-August 2003: System Deployed
PROBLEM

To automate the collection of data for
services rendered to client


Why?




shelter stays, meals, showers, laundry, clothing
HUD needs it for funding purposes
To develop strategies to improve service delivery
or outreach
For planning/budgeting
Solution: To issue clients barcoded cards & to
scan them with a PDA (Handspring Visor)
RESOURCES/SPONSORS
– $2,000
MIT Community Service Fund –
$1,500
DELL Corporation
– 2 x P4-1.7GHz
Arthur Blank Co. – 1,000 cards
IDEAS Award
OUR TEAM
DROP-IN CENTER
THE PAST
Introducing…. The Salvation
Army Preferred Client Card
PALM APPLICATION
AT MEALTIME
APPLICATION SERVER
SHELTER OFFICE
WEB APPLICATION
WEB APPLICATION
FEATURES

Full client information database
 Integrated with barcode scanner
– shelter stays, meals, shower, laundry,
clothing
 Bedlist management
 Automatic Report Generation
 Statistical Analysis
 Volunteer Management
 Customizable Answers for most fields
 Full Access Control & Audit trail
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
LEARNING POINTS
 PSC
did not like our idea at first
 Can use existing project
 Helps to raise funds, CSF probably
wouldn’t have given us $3,500
 If you win, you will have to keep
coming back!
 IDEAS not about winning; It is about
serving the community
 YOU can make a difference!
FOR MORE INFORMATION
 Project
Homepage
http://web.mit.edu/benleong/www/salvation
 Development/Demo
Server
http://18.26.2.82/salvation
 Contact me: benleong@mit.edu
THANK
YOU