Apparo and Hylaine help nonprofit overcome technology challenges so they can continue to advance early childhood programs and services
The North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) is the state-level, nonprofit organization that oversees North Carolina’s innovative, award-winning Smart Start initiative. It administers funding to 75 local partnerships that operate as independent nonprofit organizations. Smart Start’s mission: Advance a high quality, comprehensive, accountable early childhood system that benefits each child in North Carolina beginning with a healthy birth. Smart Start’s vision: Each child reaches their potential and is prepared for school and life success in North Carolina and a global community.
Amy Cubbage, President of NCPC, reached out to Apparo for support in face of technology challenges with the rollout of a critical new system. She explains, “We reached out to Apparo with a need for support with our contract and data management system, which is critical not only for our organization, but for all 75 Smart Start nonprofits. We had changes in our IT team and needed the support to keep the system running.”
Apparo Tech Therapist, Jennifer Ray, stepped in to help. She worked with Amy to understand the specific needs and connected her to skilled volunteers from Hylaine, Adam Boitnott and Ryan McElroy. The volunteers created detailed documentation that the NCPC team needed to manage the system effectively. As NCPC considered whether to migrate to a new system or continue to use it, Apparo also helped NCPC think through key considerations and also provided support to NCPC to find a short-term consultant to address any break/fix issues with the system.
“Apparo and our Hylaine volunteers gave us a sense of confidence, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that we would be ok. When others were telling us about large licensing fees and years of time to build a solution, they gave us the confidence that we could do this – within our budget. They worked quickly and efficiently to help us think through the steps needed to run our contract and data management system effectively.”
We are looking forward to our continued Tech Therapy work together and their Technology Assessment via Community Impact Project in progress now with Hylaine, Duke Energy and Divergent IT.
