Chalmers Suite: Using AI & Data to Prevent Homelessness

Chalmers Suite is a homelessness prevention AI Chatbot and data aggregation software serving everyone from at-risk individuals to policymakers.

The team lead for our solution is Si Zhe (CG) Chen, Ample Labs Founder and CEO.

Canada spends $33 Billion a year on all its programs in homelessness/social services. In the US, this is upwards of $100 Billion, yet the number of people who end up chronically homeless has also doubled in the last 5-years. Cities are not intervening with at-risk individuals to prevent homelessness; instead, 90% of their resources go to individuals when they are already chronically homeless. Cities don’t have enough data on the homeless/hidden homeless to make data-driven resource decisions. They lack the real-time data required to make data-informed decisions and allocate resources where the need is greatest, which became even more apparent due to the pandemic. 

COVID-19 has exacerbated the need for technology and a simplified, digital, 24/7 support service navigation method. It has led to a surge in demand for Chalmers Chatbot as 211 call centres are overwhelmed. Many shelters, drop-in, and respite sites have had to close, reduce their hours or augment services while limiting their numbers due to social distancing. Those experiencing homelessness rely heavily on these essential services. The lack of centralized and up-to-date information disproportionately affects the most vulnerable as those experiencing homelessness are 2x more likely to contract the virus.  

The target audience we are working to help are cities within North America that have over 100,000 in general population who are committed to ending homelessness and streamlining support service navigation for their at-risk populations. Cities would benefit from real-time data to better understand homelessness within their jurisdiction for cost-savings, effective resource allocation and support for the most vulnerable. Chalmers Suite was founded on pain points we heard from customers relying on Point-in-Time (PiT) data that is irrelevant in crises.

Chalmers Chatbot is designed to serve the most vulnerable and marginalized populations, including youth – 50% of our users are between the ages of 16-30, women, people with disabilities, refugees, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC. 48% of Chalmers users identify as someone experiencing homeless, and 32% are front-line workers (social worker, police, front-line responder, etc.) serving vulnerable populations. 

Chalmers Chatbot was co-designed in collaboration with those with lived experience. Co-Design workshops are targeted to at-risk youth (ages 16-30) who are currently, or have previously, experienced homeless, precarious housing situations or have attempted to navigate social services before and would like to provide feedback on how to improve the system for themselves and their peers.

This initiative’s public good is the free-to-use, digital, simplified, anonymous and efficient support service navigation tool Chalmers Chatbot. Chalmers Chatbot impacts 3 audiences: end-users, first responders and service providers. End-users are impacted as they can access 211’s database of support service providers in their community through a self-directed and digital tool that utilizes geolocation and self-selected filters to refer them to tailored supports. Chalmers is 60X faster than Google at providing appropriate service recommendations to our end-users for food banks, free meals, shelter, clothing banks, free activities and crisis supports. Chalmers Chatbot is so effective that Community Outreach, Social Workers and concerned citizens are using our platform to make referrals for those in need. Lastly, through our partnership with 211 Ontario, we have brought their robust Service Provider database online through our AI technology platform. This has led to a reduction in call wait times for their call centres in communities where Chalmers is live and increased access to basic necessities and youth’s critical needs by meeting them where they are, online!

Chalmers Chatbot has the following short-term impact for users: 

(1) Increased awareness of local social services specifically around: Free Food programs, Crisis hotlines, Shelter, Drop-ins

(2) Increased utilization of local Food Bank services 

(3) Increased engagement with social services and resources. 

The impact anticipated for frontline workers are:

(1) 30% increase in referrals made weekly (community outreach/social workers)

(2) increase utilization of underused services and (4) decrease utilization of overused services. 

For first responders and front-line staff, we anticipate the impact will be 

(1) increase in the number of referrals police officers are making to citizens by 200% 

(2) a decrease in the number of arrests by 10%. Instead of making arrests, we expect the Chatbot platform will help officers point people to the appropriate services they need. 

Chalmers Enterprise Core’s impact for cities are: data on service demand, engagement and utilization of services, 

1. Understanding/data on # of individuals at-risk of homelessness, hidden homeless and chronically homeless, 

2. a decrease of 10% for ER trips & 911 calls - instead of going to the ER, users are pointed to appropriate drop-in services, and crisis supports

3. 10% savings/reallocation of funds from homelessness to preventative/intervention services

Our goals for the next 12 months to scale our impact are:

- launch Chalmers Chatbot across the province of Ontario, making the chatbot accessible to 14.6 million people.

- close a seed round of investment worth $1.6 million USD to build our internal capacity to onboard and maintain new areas.

Our Goals for 3 years: 

- have 100 cities in North America at $250K a year for $250 Million in annual recurring revenue 

- have Chalmers Chatbot native android and iOS mobile applications

- Chalmers Chatbot live to 60+ million people in North America, with 10 million unique users 

- be live in cities outside of North America 

Ample Labs will be measuring the success of Chalmers Chatbot with a number of key metrics. These engagement metrics will ensure the tool helps users identify and resolve their inquiries around locating and utilizing support services. 

The success metrics/KPIs we measure are:

1. Number of unique visitors (currently 250K)

2. Number of Chalmers Chatbot sessions per user 

3. Number of recommendations per session 

4. Number of successful recommendations that lead to the use of services 

5. Change in NPS (net-promoter score: measures the willingness of customers to recommend Chalmers to others) (currently 76/100)

6. Helpfulness Rating (currently 86%)

7. Number of users avoiding homelessness due to intervention

8. Number of users securing stable housing / how long they maintain housing

For Cities subscribed to Chalmer Suite, our success metrics/KPIs are:

1. Reduction in 911 calls

2. Reduction in ER Trips 

3. Reduction in chronic homelessness spending

4. Increase in community policing

The current barriers we face are:

1. Funding; we need to raise $1.6 Million USD to increase our internal capacity and hire the ideal team to scale quickly to capture market share and establish ourselves and our SaaS to solve homelessness prevention. 

2. Validate product-market-fit; validate our business model via selling Chalmers Suite as a SaaS to demonstrate sustainable annual revenue. 

3. Define an impact framework that will keep our company focused on our mission which is to prevent homelessness. 

4. Data Security and Compliance; as the personalization skills are implemented and we expand to new countries, ensuring that we are compliant with privacy and security laws in each country. 

Ample Labs has a formal data-sharing agreement with 211 Ontario permitting us access to their organizations’ database to be uploaded into the Chalmers Chatbot infrastructure. We also have charitable trustee agreements with Blue Door Support Services and Fast Forward for access to grant funding that requires charitable status.

We are applying to the Trinity Challenge to receive financial support, engage investors, expand our network, validate our product-market fit and mentorship.

1. Funding; we are transitioning from a non-profit to a for-profit. Trinity Challenge’s publicity can assist us in leveraging investment dollars, introducing us to the right impact investors to accelerate our growth, and raise awareness of our seed round of funding to raise $1.6 million USD.

1. This opportunity will help us validate and refine our product-market fit and help us reach our ARR goals in North America before we scale to other continents.

1. Gaining access to your network and mentorship. We know that this opportunity is one of the most coveted because of its entrepreneurs, advisors, investors’ network and alumni of transformative Solver Teams. Being a Solver Team will accelerate our company and brand’s respected recognition because we will be aligned with a prestigious organization such as this. 

Ample Labs is committed to collaboration. We would like to partner with any organizations that are committed to solving homelessness through direct services or financial investment. We are also open to partnering with researchers and post-secondary institutions for the data analysis and knowledge sharing of real-time data on demographics, service gaps, number of hidden and chronically homeless etc. We are also interested in partnering with different support service database providers to bring more support services into the Chalmers Chatbot tool, to have an established and proved protocol to streamline our expansion into new areas and countries.