Voice of the Customer

Upbring

Binti is a mission-driven company founded to serve child welfare. We believe every child deserves the care and support of a loving family.

Our CEO, Felicia Curcuru, saw the challenges of the foster and adoption process after her sister struggled with the process of adopting two children, and knew that technology could empower agencies to close the gap between the lack of foster/adoptive parents and the demand for safe and loving homes. She built a team of both child welfare professionals and leading Silicon Valley engineers to create a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for both families and agencies to simplify and facilitate the licensing and placement processes.

Sr. Innovation Program Strategist

Upbring is a Texas-wide organization implementing generational innovation to advance child wellbeing and secure a future free from the damages of abuse. That means sustainable change resulting in positive shifts across generations. Upbring Innovation Labs (UIL), a division of Upbring, was created to explore innovative solutions in business, technology and data to shape better childhoods.

Kyle Kerrigan

Director of Data & Analytics

UIL uses data and analytics to measure the impact technology and other initiatives have on Upbring staff and the children and families in its care, and have partnered with Binti since early 2020 to optimize its program’s foster family licensing process. We sat down with Kelsey Driscoll and Kyle Kerrigan from UIL to further understand Upbring’s innovative work and how Binti has supported this initiative.

What was the goal in establishing Upbring Innovation Labs (UIL)?

The industry itself is reactive by design. Historically, the responsibility of child welfare agencies has been to address child maltreatment after it happens, not before – even though the benefits of prevention services are well-known and documented. In other words, the industry has not yet adopted the predictive tools to forecast the needs of children and families before traumatic events happen.

Amazing! And how did Binti come into the picture?

Since a key part of UIL’s mission is to use data to make better decisions, it was critical that social workers and foster families utilized modern, mobile-friendly tools to not only add some convenience to their lives but also to acquire that necessary data. After some research, we decided that Binti’s Recruitment and Licensing Module was the perfect solution—it empowers potential foster families to complete the application process online, including the ability to upload all required federal documents and electronically sign forms directly in the system. Not only was this helpful for the families, but Upbring staff is able to track and monitor families’ progress in real time, and easily look at high-level trends and metrics in this process to see where we could improve.

Now, having used Binti for a year, how has this improved these processes?

Prior to implementing Binti’s Recruitment and Licensing module, foster family applicants were required to complete the verification process on paper. That means, potential foster families had to complete and submit nearly 60 different pieces of documentation in an assortment of ways such as emails, scans, faxes, and actual paper. This process created confusion, disorganization and delays for both applicants and staff. Upbring recruiters and caseworkers spent their time tracking down and organizing documentation, while applicants spent their time locating and completing often redundant paperwork. Moreover, without the infrastructure to capture the necessary data points throughout the recruitment and verification process, it was a challenge for UIL to isolate process pain points, identify trends, or draw any reliable insights to audit and refine the.

Family Application Portal

The portal provides a centralized digital platform for families to track and complete the verification process online—they can log-in and out at any time, save their progress and see any outstanding items they need to complete. This process streamlines and minimizes redundancy and confusion for potential foster families and ultimately expedites the verification process.

Agency Dashboard

The agency dashboard allows Upbring to easily track and follow up on applicant caseload, which reduces administrative delays to verify foster parents and place foster children sooner. As a foster family completes the application process, Upbring can also track the progress of each family in real time. For example, Upbring can see the percentage of completed family forms, the number of training hours and background checks completed as well as what still needs to be completed.

Open API for Customized Reporting

In addition to the reports that exist within the system, Binti’s open API has allowed UIL’s Data Analytics team to pull any data from the platform to analyze and customize into our own reporting. This capability is key for identifying pain points and trends over time across the program, organization and industry at large.

16% Savings in Time for First Placement

What metrics has UIL used to measure the success of this program?

Time to First Placement

As mentioned above, in addition to Binti reporting, we’ve Using the Recruiting and Licensing Module, Upbring utilized Binti’s open API to pull data into our own Power BI also observed a 16% reduction in the time (days) from verification of the foster family to the first placement in terms of custom reporting such as comparing foster family recruitment data with website traffic, measuring the impact of families alongside client intake/discharge information, analyzing foster family referral sources, and more.

Yearly Approvals

Using Binti has demonstrated measurable, positive results for Upbring. In a year comparison, from 2019 to 2020, Upbring saw a 21% increase in the number of foster families approved. Binti and Upbring look forward to continue working together to provide measurable, positive results for families and children.

19% Faster Avg Time to Approval (Days)

Average Time to Approval

Over one year (2019 to 2020), Upbring reduced the average time (days) for verification by 13%. In fact, when Upbring compared both 2020 families approved using Binti’s module vs 2020 families approved through Upbring’s legacy verification process, Binti families were approved 19% faster.

Binti is proud to be partners with Upbring and we thank them for their contribution to this case study.

For more information about Upbring Innovation Labs visit innovate.upbring.org or contact innovate@upbring.org.

For more information about Binti visit www.binti.com or contact partnerships@binti.com.