New Technology Increases Efficiency at PEARLS
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United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County

New Technology Increases Efficiency at PEARLS

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November 10, 2015

T’Keya (Alumnae), Kim (Volunteer & Alumnae Relations Coordinator), Elizabeth (College & Career Readiness Coordinator), Jona (Program Coordinator), Tristiana (Alumnae), Dortha (Alumnae)

In 2014 PEARLS for Teen Girls, Inc. received United Way’s IT United Innovation Award, an award designed to provide a nonprofit with free IT services (up to $100,000) to develop an innovative technology to help the agency better serve its clients. PEARLS, in partnership with SysLogic, Inc., developed a new web-based software database called “Oyster”. The program was built to assist our agency with management, outreach, and analytics of the PEARLS program. It was also a critical step to help us progress in our 10,000 Girls Initiative.  

The SysLogic team focused on the operational aspects of the PEARLS Program by eliminating time consuming manually maintained spreadsheets and documents. Now it’s all housed in a central location allowing PEARLS staff to easily report on information vital to the program such as girls served, attendance history, active girls, and hours served. Oyster also manages information on each of the PEARLS Girls including demographic information, guardian information, and participation in group meetings and events. This grant has truly increased our program’s efficiency. Our PEARLS Data Analyst, Jennifer Chang, led the project internally.

Watch the video and hear Jennifer and the PEARLS staff share the impact that Oyster has had.

Moving forward, PEARLS would like to continue to expand Oyster to enhance the relationships with existing PEARLS Girls, potential recruits, alumnae and volunteers. A critical aspect of PEARLS programming is managing and reporting on goal development. Providing access for the PEARLS Girls to interact and provide updates on each of their goals through a mobile device would be a great first step toward expanding beyond face-to-face interactions. Thank you again Syslogic, Inc. and United Way for moving our agency a step forward in creating a PEARLS online community.

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