year in review – Open Referral

Our 2019 Year in Review

January 31, 2020February 6, 2020 Greg Bloom Leave a comment Blog

As January 2020 comes to a close, I’m pleased to share our Year in Review report for Open Referral’s 2019.

The report is available to download here. You can also read it embedded in this blog post below.

This year, our report features voices of stakeholders across our network — including social workers and legal aid providers, Chief Information Officers managing legacy systems and young innovators breaking ground with new projects. These stories convey the wide range of ways in which Open Referral is making it easier for communities to share information about the resources available for their residents in need.

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Open Referral’s 2018 Year in Review

January 29, 2019January 30, 2019 Greg Bloom Leave a comment Blog

We are pleased to share our Year in Review report for 2018!

This was the Open Referral Initiative’s fifth year – and in several ways, 2018 stands as a culmination of all the work we’ve done to date. Continue reading →

Our 2017 Year in Review

January 16, 2018 Greg Bloom Leave a comment Blog

Happy new year! (We’re less than three weeks in, so we can still say that – right??)

Open Referral’s 2017 Year in Review is available to read here, and embedded below. (See our previous year-in-review reports here in our public document gallery.)

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Our 2016 Year in Review

January 18, 2017January 18, 2017 Greg Bloom Leave a comment Blog

I’m pleased to share Open Referral’s 2016 Year in Review. (You can browse the document here, download the complete PDF here, or skim through the document embedded at the end of this post.) Continue reading →

Annual Review wrap-up: the path ahead

January 31, 2016August 2, 2016 Greg Bloom Leave a comment Blog

In 2014, we formed a table and conducted research. In 2015, we initiated action. In 2016, we’ll put these ideas to the test, and learn from our work. Based on your feedback so far, here’s what that might look like…

(This note is far from a final word on the matter — please share your own feedback in our community forum and/or directly via email. Thanks for your insights!) Continue reading →

2015 in Review: who’s doing what, where and why

January 11, 2016August 2, 2016 Greg Bloom 2 Comments Blog, Pilots

In the last blog post, we discussed the different technological products that have emerged through Open Referral. [See our entire 2015 Year in Review here.]

In this post, we’ll discuss the different projects in which people are using these tools to find new ways to share and use information about the health, human, and social services available to people in need. Continue reading →

2015 in Review: the building blocks of an open ecosystem

January 5, 2016August 2, 2016 Greg Bloom 3 Comments Blog

A world in which information about community resources is easy for anyone to find, trust, and effectively use — in whatever way works best for them. This is Open Referral’s hopeful vision of the future.

In 2015, we saw the first glimmers of such a world. Let’s take a look: Continue reading →

2015 In Review: Much Progress and Many Thanks

December 29, 2015August 2, 2016 Greg Bloom 5 Comments Blog, Pilots

As we wrap up 2015, I’ve taken a moment to review our progress over the course of the year. It’s been a long journey with lots of moving pieces, and I’m so inspired by the many people who are playing roles of all kinds in this collective effort to reimagine a safety net for the 21st century. I’ve summarized these developments in this “2015 Year In Review” report. Over the course of upcoming posts, I’ll unpack the components of this report in greater detail.

In the meantime, I want to use the final moments of 2015 to give thanks to (some of!) the many people who have made this work possible over the past year…

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Our Inaugural Year in Review

December 31, 2014December 23, 2015 Greg Bloom Leave a comment Blog

As we wrap up 2015, I’ve taken a moment to recap our launch and progress so far in an End of Year Report. The document is available for comment and download here.

I’m including my own note of introduction here:

Last year, in 2013, I saw an opportunity. While working on what we now call DC Open 211 (which we then called the DC Community Resource Platform), I proposed a partnership to Code for America and the CfA fellows who built the Ohana Platform in San Mateo County. Continue reading →

Year in Review: a lot to shout-out about

December 29, 2014February 15, 2015 Greg Bloom 1 Comment Blog

As the year winds to a close, I want to take a moment to give thanks to some of the people who have made the Open Referral Initiative possible so far.

My first thanks should go to Bread for the City in D.C., where this whole initiative began. BFC is a rare and inspiring kind of organization, a true laboratory for innovation. Special thanks to Stacey Johnson, the mother of the database, and George Jones, Bread’s executive director, for their humble, practical leadership. Also thanks to Kathleen Stephan for sharing her on-the-ground experience, and Andrew Lomax for driving technology development.

The lion’s share of the credit for Open Referral’s launch and rapid progress goes to Code for America, whose ambitious vision in and of itself creates a new world of possibilities, and whose vast network of brigades and believers is unparalleled. CfA not only co-sponsored my work on this initiative; they have helped us learn how to effectively move from problem diagnosis to problem solving. Continue reading →