Johego Wins $200,000 Missouri Expansion Contract

I am delighted and honored to announce that Johego has secured a $200,000 contract with Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) to expand our services for the next two years to the more than 4.3 million Missourians living in MFH territory — including St. Louis!

Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) Service Areas

MFH has been an invaluable supporter of Johego throughout our history, including during the initial pilot study of our smartphone application in Northeast Missouri as well as during our subsequent expansion throughout Northeast, Central, and Southwest Missouri, among other critical moments. It’s not an overstatement that we would not have been able to make it this far without their support.

What does this opportunity mean for Johego and for those we serve?

1.) Geographic Expansion: As mentioned previously, we will expand the geographic coverage of Johego’s social and medical service directory for two years throughout the entire Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) service area, which includes 84 Missouri counties plus the City of St. Louis.

2.) Automated Onboarding: We will develop search engine, app store, and Google Ads optimization processes so that, in a free and automated fashion, more people throughout the state will be able to find out about social and medical services listed in our directory more easily.

3.) Search Augmentation: We will develop additional functionalities for more efficient searches of our social and medical service directory, including multi-language searching support for the more than 340,000 Missouri residents who speak a non-English language at home.

4.) Data Dashboard: We will create a data dashboard for MFH and other trusted partners to illustrate the when, where, and what of social and medical service referrals, the supply of such services, and more. This dashboard will help our partners more efficiently allocate their resources, apply for grants, conduct research, and investigate concerns about a particular social need or region.

Want to get involved with our expansion?

There are a few main ways to help us connect people in need with the social and medical services they need. Using the form below, you can sign up to:

  • Download the Johego smartphone application on iOS or Android when we expand to your area,
  • Host a free, in-person training session for Johego software at your nonprofit or government agency,
  • Serve as a beta tester of our volunteer platform still under development, and/or
  • Help us find a data engineer to add to our team on a full-time basis.

If any or all of those opportunities interest you, please fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch as soon as we can:

    Please select each of the following that apply:
    I want to download the Johego smartphone application when you expand to my area.I want to host a free, in-person training session for Johego software at my nonprofit or government agency.I want to volunteer to help Johego expand to my area.I know, or I am, a data engineer interested in working for Johego.

    In the meantime, I want to reiterate my thanks to Missouri Foundation for Health for supporting our expansion at this critical stage in Johego’s development. We’re particularly excited to share our services with our adopted home of St. Louis, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted throughout the next few months as we prepare to scale our operations.

    — Michael

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    Johego Wins Catalyst Fund Award

    What do Johego, Star Trek, and King Abdullah II of Jordan have in common?

    We’ve all benefited from the creative genius of Gene Roddenberry, a World War II pilot and LAPD officer who created the original Star Trek television series. An avid Trekkie, King Abdullah II (then a prince) appeared as an uncredited extra in a 1996 episode. For our part, I am thrilled to report that Johego has received a grant from the Roddenberry Foundation, a philanthropic foundation that was established by Gene’s son Rod “to build on his father’s legacy and philosophy of inclusion, diversity, and respect for life to drive social change and meaningfully improve the lives of people around the world.”

    Gene Roddenberry (third from the right) in 1976 with some of the Star Trek cast at the rollout of the Space Shuttle Enterprise in Palmdale, CA.
    Gene Roddenberry (third from the right) in 1976 with some of the Star Trek cast at the rollout of the Space Shuttle Enterprise in Palmdale, CA.

    Our proposal was motivated by two key observations:

    • In the US, it is easier to reserve a ticket for a movie than secure overnight shelter, mental health treatment, or other critical services — largely because of a lack of reliable information about such services.
    • Meanwhile, research has shown that over 90% of Americans want to volunteer yet only 25% do so, often because volunteer schedules are inflexible, volunteer tasks are uninteresting, or potential volunteers are never asked in the first place.

    Thanks to funding from the Roddenberry Foundation, Johego will begin to help tackle these challenges simultaneously by creating a online platform through which volunteers can help collect and verify information about social and medical services that, in turn, will help people in need connect with those services more easily. Through this initiative, Johego will empower anyone with a phone and an Internet connection to make a meaningful difference in their community, no matter their location, schedule, or skill level.

    Our work is being funded through the Catalyst Fund, a grant program “focused on early-stage, unconventional ideas that have the potential for disruptive change.” We are honored to have earned the support of the Roddenberry family, and we are thrilled to contribute our efforts to “disrupt existing dynamics, challenge old patterns of thought, and discover new ways to help us move towards a better future.” We look forward to keeping you posted as well roll out this new program in the coming months.

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    Johego Secures $220,000 Donation from Google

    Updated August 24, 2018: I’m pleased announce that Johego has secured an in-kind donation of technology and services from Google worth more than $220,000. Their generous donation includes, among other things:

    • Google Cloud Computing credits, which we will be using for our machine learning, natural language processing, and speech-to-text conversion activities.
    • Google Ad credits, which will help us drive traffic to our website and increase downloads of our smartphone application on iOS and Android.
    • Recruiting assistance through the Hire by Google platform, which will help us grow our team.
    • Invitations to various online and in-person training courses and networking opportunities.

    As with our donations from Heroku and Amazon, we were able to secure the donation thanks to connections we made through StartX, the global business accelerator Johego is participating in this summer. With only one week left in the program, I’m excited to see if we can secure any other partnerships!

    – Michael

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    Johego Wins $55,000 Donation from Amazon

    Good news! Johego just received $55,000 in free credits and technical consulting services from Amazon, which is the largest provider of cloud computing services in the world.

    As with our grant from Heroku, we were able to secure the donation thanks to connections we made through StartX, the global business accelerator Johego is participating in this summer. With only a few weeks left in the program, I’m excited to see what other partnerships we can secure! I will be sure to keep you posted!

    – Michael

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    Johego Wins $100,000 Donation from Heroku

    Johego Heroku Announcement

    GREAT news! Johego just received $100,000 in free credits from Heroku, whose platform-as-a-service we use to host the server that runs our smartphone application.

    We were able to secure the donation thanks to connections we made through StartX, the global business accelerator Johego is participating in this summer. I’m excited to see what other partnerships we can secure during the rest of the program! Happy 4th of July, everyone!

    – Michael

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    Johego Wins Transportation Contract

    Improving Transportation in Northeast Missouri
    Photo Source: Wikipedia

    I am pleased to announce that Johego has secured a contract to improve transportation systems in Northeast Missouri, in partnership with Missouri Foundation for Health, Health Literacy Media, The Mission Center, Families and Communities Together, and OATS Transportation. As part of this contract, Johego will:

    • Expand and refine our app to include additional transportation providers located in Northeast Missouri.
    • Integrate Uber and Lyft functionality with our app to enable users to request rides to service providers listed in our directory.
    • Complete a public information campaign through various social and community media for the aforementioned transportation features to be made available through our app.
    • Conduct a frequency analysis of one year of OATS ridership and service denial data to inform future federal and foundation grant applications for sustainable expansion of transportation service and ridership in Northeast Missouri.

    During a series of community-based asset-mapping activities during late 2017 and early 2018, public service professionals from throughout Northeast Missouri identified transportation as a critical social determinant of health, affecting not only access to healthcare resources but also employment, social opportunities, and more, particularly for the poor and the elderly. We will keep you posted as this project progresses.

    – Michael

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    Johego Wins $270,000 Contract

    I am thrilled to inform you that Missouri Foundation for Health has awarded Johego $270,000 to expand our services throughout Northeastern, Central, and Southwestern Missouri.

    This award represents a huge milestone in Johego’s development, and it occurs only nine months after securing our first customer in Hannibal, MO and only two months after winning the prestigious Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition at Washington University in St. Louis. This contract will enable Johego to, among other things:

    • Add 18 additional counties to our coverage area, allowing nearly 1.1 million Missourians to access our services.
    • Create a browser-based equivalent of our smartphone application so that anyone can search our directory using their laptop and desktop computers, including police officers in their squad cars.
    • Provide information about the hours of operation, financial requirements, and documentation requirements of services listed in our directory, enabling our users to more efficiently obtain the help they need.

    This also means that we are hiring.

    We are currently seeking to add two full-time staff members to our team: (1) a data engineer / backend developer and (2) a frontend developer / product designer. If you are interested in applying, please click on the image below. If you know someone who may be interested in using data science and software development to connect people in need with the services they need, please share this link with them via email or on social media.

    The Johego Team

    We would not be where we are today without the support of our friends, family, and colleagues in Decatur, Hannibal, St. Louis, and beyond. Thank you to everyone for your support!

    – Michael

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    Johego Joins Amazon Smile Program

    We’re excited to announce that Johego has joined Amazon Smile, a program that enables our supporters to earn money for Johego by shopping at Amazon.com.

    Here’s how the program works:

    • While shopping through the Amazon Smile program, Johego supporters will see the exact same selection of products and prices offered regularly through Amazon.com.
    • Whenever a Johego supporter buys a product identified as “Eligible for Amazon Smile donation”, the Amazon Smile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to Johego.
    • So what does Amazon get out of this? At a minimum, Amazon gets a tax deduction from its donations. Ostensibly, this practice also results in greater customer loyalty and activity.

    Interested in helping us out? Here’s how you can set up Amazon Smile:

    • First, click here or on the Amazon Smile image above to open Amazon Smile in a new window.
    • Then, designate “Johego” as your charity of choice. Once you’ve done this, your browser should say “Supporting: Johego” near the top of your screen, under the search bar. You only have to do this part once.

    What then? Once you’ve set up Amazon Smile, here’s how you can start earning money for Johego:

    • First, make sure that every time you shop on Amazon.com, you first visit our Amazon Smile page. Johego will only receive a donation if you visit our Amazon Smile page right before you start shopping. I recommend bookmarking this page for easy access.
    • From there, when you purchase products identified as “Eligible for Amazon Smile donation”, this will result in the Amazon Smile Foundation sending us a donation.

    It’s that easy.

    If you know anyone who is a regular shopper on Amazon.com, please do pass along this message to them, so that they can join our efforts to help social workers, police officers, and other public servants connect vulnerable people with the services they need!

    – Michael Kehoe

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    Johego Secures First Customer

    I’m delighted to announce that Johego is partnering with Families and Communities Together (FACT), a coalition of social service agencies in and around Hannibal, MO. FACT’s collaborative programs are focused on increasing the number of:

    • adults working,
    • children and youth succeeding in school,
    • healthy children and families,
    • young children ready to enter school,
    • children safe in their families and families safe in their communities, and
    • youth prepared for productive adulthood.

    In order to support their programs, FACT is paying Johego to, among other things, expand our directory to include social services in and around Hannibal and to train local social service professionals to access the directory through Johego’s smartphone application on iOS and Android, by the end of April 2017.

    We are tremendously excited about this opportunity. Thank you to The Mission Center and Health Literacy Media for helping make this possible!

    – Michael Kehoe

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    We Don’t Do This Often

    2016-12-01_johego_team

    An Exciting Opportunity for Johego:

    An anonymous supporter has generously offered to sponsor a 1:1 donation-matching campaign on behalf of Johego. This means that, for the next week only, any and all donations to Johego, up to $5,000 total, will be matched dollar-for-dollar.

    Why This Matters:

    Back in April, Johego had its first-ever in-person fundraiser, and the response from the community was inspiring. Here are some of things your generosity made possible:

    • We built a smartphone application on iOS and Android, supporting more than 100 categories of social services and over 1,250 service providers.
    • We began formally field-testing our application with social workers, police officers, and other public servants.
    • We significantly expanded our team, adding one paid employee, three new board members, and two outside advisors, all of whom make Johego stronger.
    • We secured a grant from Missouri Foundation for Health, one of the largest philanthropic organizations of its kind in the United States.
    • We successfully applied to, and completed, Square One, a competitively selected entrepreneurship development program.
    • We developed partnerships with local nonprofits and for-profit companies that will help us deliver better services and position us to become more competitive for additional institutional support.

    You Can Help Us Do More:

    With your help, we can keep this momentum going: expanding the geographic coverage of our application, completing formal field-testing, and leveraging that momentum to apply for substantial funding from philanthropic foundations and other target partners. This donation matching campaign means that, for the next week only, any and all donations to Johego, up to $5,000 total, will be matched dollar-for-dollar, thereby doubling your impact.

    If you are able, please send us a tax-deductible donation of $50 or more today, so that we can continue to build on our successes:

    Donate

    If you prefer, checks can be mailed to P.O. Box 23261, St. Louis, MO 63156. In any case, on behalf of the Johego team, thank you in advance for your generosity and support.

    – Michael Kehoe

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