Stamford Interactive

Game of HomesConcept pack

Draft at 1 September 2015 Karl has just turned18, and was

forced to leave his State carearrangements.

Legislatively, there is no obligation on theState or Federal Government to providefor Karl after he is 18. He was living with afoster family (his tenth family in hislifetime); however, without funding thefoster family was no longer able tocontinue to support Karl, and Karl wantedto move back with his mum.

Karl was born into homelessness, by ateenage mother with a history ofsubstance abuse and violence. Karl wasput into State care at the age of 3.

Karl could not afford a rental bond afterhis mum kicked him out and withoutknowing who to speak to about housingoptions or who to ask for financial aid, hisonly access to housing was to becomehomeless. To date, Karl has been able tosleep on friends’ couches but he doesn’tknow how much longer this can last.

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Game of HomesA game, that young people at risk of homelessness (between 16-25) can play to earn points, andthose points are tradable for rewards that are meaningful to them.

Socialissue

Every year, approximately 800-900 young people exit the State Care system in Victoria.Every year, approximately 200-300 of those young people will become homelessbecause of inadequate support and access to relevant programs and opportunitiesduring the transition to independence.

Problemwithcurrentstate ofaffairs

The problems are twofold:1. Currently, it is difficult for young people (both in the State Care system, and that

have recently exited the State Care system) to know what services and programsalready exist to assist their transition to independence, and how to access thoseservices and programs. The government and not for profit systems are verydifficult to navigate.

2. Young people can obtain income via welfare payments or employment, but there isno middle ground mechanism to earn income to support a young person’s accessto goods, services and opportunities.

Solution To create an innovative digital marketplace (the Game of Homes) for young people toaccess assistance to aid their transition out of State Care, to prevent youthhomelessness and provide a third, or “middle ground”, option for young people to payfor the goods, services and opportunities relevant to their needs and wants.

Stage ofsolution

• CEOs of main NFPs in youth homelessness sector are aware of and supportive ofconcept (Launch Housing, Berry St Institute, CHP, Melbourne City Council).

• Berry St Institute has completed initial review of first version of paper prototypesdrafted by Joni Pirovich, with input from Tom Brunzell of Berry St Institute (currentlyundertaking a PhD in the application of positive psychology to vulnerable groups insociety).

• Workshops will be held with high schools students at Berry St campuses in Morwelland Noble Park throughout September, whereby the students will be taken throughthe paper prototypes to test the concept as well as obtain insights on what services,opportunities and rewards the young people would play for.

• Feedback meeting with the Simon Benjamin, Director of Care Services atLighthouse Foundation will be held in September, to obtain insights on whatservices, opportunities and rewards the young people are receiving throughLighthouse Foundation.

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Game of HomesWhat is involved in the game?

Purpose GoH is designed to promote connectedness and inter-dependence and is based on theconcept of having local community groups and suppliers support its youth at risk.

Engagement with the game is intended to improve the mental health and employabilityof youth at risk of homelessness by providing a safe, fun and engaging environment thatteaches autonomy and self-sufficiency – all via a smart phone, which the majority ofyoung people at risk of homelessness already have!

Overviewof keyfeatures

The game has four stages:1. Struggling, everything is going wrong;2. Stable, but some things are really hard;3. Ok, but numb and not excited about much; and4. Starting to become interested in things.

Basic points are earned by players progressing through game pathways by:• answering questions about feelings, state of physical health etc; and• participating in various learning-based opportunities via the digital interface

(education in bite size bits).

Bonus points are earned by players:• participating in various skill-based opportunities away from the digital interface

(e.g. sports, the arts, science and technology, personal finances);• entering “diary entries” (the data obtained would allow insights to be gained, which

would be coded into the game pathways and allow services, programs andopportunities to be pushed to the player through the game - as and when theplayer reaches the appropriate stage of the game the services, programs andopportunities can be claimed); and

• Demonstrating positive behaviour (such as creating and maintaining positiverelationships; resilience; and gratitude).

Extracts from “Struggling” sequence of the game

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Game of HomesHow players claim rewards

Rewards Will range between essential and non-essential goods, services and opportunities.

Some rewards will be available via the game pathways whereas other rewards will onlybe claimable via the points trading platform (think, a combination of gumtree and aFacebook newsfeed – an example of what the “Rewards feed” might look like isdepicted to the right).

Valuepropositionof suppliersof rewards

Coles could potentially provide:• goods;• paid or unpaid work experience and / or employment; and• opportunities to participate in induction / health and safety training (which might

be transferable to other like organisations).

Coles could fund those goods and opportunities via either or a combination of:• subtracting a percentage of profits from every transaction;• adding a premium to certain products – it could be different each day/week/month

– to be determined by the Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility teams; or• alternatively, Coles could provide the work experience / opportunities as an unpaid

offering, via the game pathways (rather than a reward that can only be claimed bytrading in points) to build skills and encourage positive work behaviour.

Benefits to Coles include:• increased customer loyalty – customers know that the funds from their grocery bill,

or the products they have paid a premium for, are going towards supporting theyoung people at risk of homelessness in their local area;

• increased staff engagement (and retention), as the staff may need to be involved inbringing the opportunities to life and would be helping improve the lifecircumstances of the young person; and

• Attraction of new customers – the young people shopping at Coles (via tradingpoints) would actually be contributing revenue to Coles.

Extracts from “Rewards” sequence of the game

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Game of HomesNext milestones

SteeringCommitteemeeting on 5October 2015

Collate feedback from student workshops and meeting with Lighthouse Foundationinto a report to be shared with the Steering Committee in October 2015 (October2015 Report), including a recommendation as to whether to proceed with technicalbuild of the Game of Homes pilot app, or if other avenues should be pursued.

Resolution ofcritical issueof “supply”

Availability of opportunities in order for the player to earn points, and availability ofmeaningful rewards.

Possible steps to resolve critical issue of “supply”:• If the recommendation of the October 2015 Report is to proceed with a

technical build for a pilot app, we would need to identify and secure a selectnumber of opportunity providers and reward providers.

• The identification of reward providers will depend on the young peopleselected for the Bosch trial (i.e. $75,000 provided over 3 years to testeffectiveness of a diminishing rental subsidy), as this group of young people willlikely be the first user group to engage with the pilot version of the app.

• Notwithstanding that the pilot app would be tested on the group of youngpeople selected for the Bosch trial, the types of goods, services andopportunities built into the pilot app would ideally be useful and meaningful forthe majority(at least 70%) of the target users.

The ask Initial feedback on whether this concept would align with your strategic direction,operational factors of implementing this concept and specific terms on which youwould be interested in further involvement (if any).