January 2022 seems a very long time ago, but around the beginning of the year, the team at Kanndoo had a series of meetings where we agreed to refocus the project. It was felt that the whole project had become, if not quite bloated, then perhaps overwrought: with too many facets to provide a simple answer to exactly who we were and what we were doing.
We decided to focus on a single app that listed amenities that would help homeless people and our aim for 2022 was to build that app and soft launch it in Norfolk (the county of the UK where we are based) and gauge reaction.
During the first half of the year we redesigned the website to reflect this single purpose and our development partners at RWD devoted a significant number of development hours to building an effective app with map and list functionality linked to a database of local support.
When we took it out to show people working with the homeless, the response was incredible. We spoke to charity and council representatives that confirmed that they had already envisioned a tool like this, but theirs was likely years away from completion. And here they were looking at the prototype of something that could be the answer to their problems.
Almost universally, these questions were asked, ‘Could it be bigger?’ ‘Could it help more people?’ The tool we had initially created to help homeless people was being considered as a way to help all people affected by the cost of living crisis.
Our project was always intended to be scalable, so we were able to answer ‘Yes’ to these questions honestly. And we’ll be entering a new phase of the project next year: looking for funding to help us adapt the app and expand the database to cover services that are relevant, not just to homeless people, but to everyone looking for help in these trying times.
For now, we’re taking a break over the Christmas Holidays. Our office will be closed from 5pm on 23 December 2022 until 9am on 3 January 2023. If you wish to contact Kanndoo during this period, please email enquiries@kanndoo.org and we’ll respond when we return in January.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
