BLOOMILY

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands

Project Stage:

Start-Up

Website:

http://www.bloomily.com

Project Summary

Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

BLOOMILY supports self organizing networks caring for friends, family and others in need in a safe and friendly online environment.

About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

Never before in history healthcare faced such great challenges: upcoming shortage in skilled personnel, doubling healthcare demand, pressurized budgets...and the list just keeps on growing. Informal caregivers face the difficult task of helping people in need. Because of the retreating government their challenges will increase. People will be depending on help and care given by the ones that are close to them more and more. These caregivers, varying from family members, neighbours, friends or colleagues, need the right support to keep on going and stay strong. By adding modern technology and social aspects to this human problem, we truly believe we can help people help other people. Bloomily can give the support needed and bring people together.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

BLOOMILY supports self organizing networks caring for friends, family and others in need. Bloomily does so by giving the carers and helpers powerful tools to stay organized and coordinated, such as journals, calendars and easy to access to do lists. This all happens in an entirely safe, simple and friendly environment. BLOOMILY would also like to bring a more fun side to the table by making it possible to share all sorts of media solely with your own network of caregivers, helpers, and loved ones. At BLOOMILY you can share pictures and stories on and about the ones you take care of. This way it can also be a tool to stay connected and keep in touch. Which is something that isn't as obvious as we all think. Especially elderly people and people suffering from a chronic disease can easily get isolated due to loss of their daily contacts. Especially innovative about the BLOOMILY concept is a drag-and-drop plan for to do lists. This way you can easily see the tasks that need to be done, such as e.g. grocery shopping or vacuuming. At BLOOMILY it's possible to click on a certain task and make it yours or appoint it to someone else in the caregiving network. By doing so we want to stimulate and activate others to do their share of helping. When a tasks is done the task field can be moved to the column "done". This works in a satisfying way. It can make you feel somewhat more appreciated if others can see what you did and they may even speak out their gratitude to you. On the other hand it urges people in the care network to actually go see the ones they care for in person more often. We are independent and not connected to any health insurer or care organisation whatsoever. Contrary to other existing solutions, BLOOMILY puts caregivers, helpers and the ones in need first. We want to keep building tools that help them, support them and enhance their quality of life and add joy to all of them! BLOOMILY is easy and simple to use but at the same time has a friendly look and feel and has a way of making you feel right at home.

Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

Take Margaret for instance. Margaret, aged 80, still lives at home and would really like to keep it that way, but just needs a little help to be able to do so. She opened an account at BLOOMILY and invited her 2 best friends, her direct family, her next door neighbour and her GP. In this 'safe online place' she can easily ask for help if needed, plan appointments with the doctor and at the same time stay connected with her niece Anne, age 25, who just moved to the other side of the world. Her granddaughter can draw a nice picture and upload it, her oldest son can see when he needs to accompany Margeret to the hospital and her daughter in law can add some products to the grocery shopping list after she looked in the fridge when she visited. In the journal the children or Margeret herself can write stories about things they did together or that they want to share with the care network and even add a photograph. This way Margaret get's the help she needs when it's needed the most and she won't get isolated but rather stay included and involved. On the other hand the helpers get moral support from the others and everyone stays committed and up to date at the same time.

Sustainability

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

Introducing social media and networking solution to this problem isn't as new as it seems. In The Netherlands there are a few competing solutions on the market right now, such as Caren and Zorgsite. In a broader spectrum, there even are alike solutions in the US, such as CareZone. Seeing these different solutions makes it seem a proven concept. However we have a very different approach to the problem. We started thinking at the base of the problem, bottom-up; the people in need and the ones actually taking care of them. We differ from these solutions by adding extra functions, such as the above mentioned drag-and-drop to do lists, very strong privacy settings and different roles that can be appointed to different kind of care takers. Our tools are extremely user friendly and meet top level user experience goals. CareZone is not a well-known concept in Europe. The other Dutch solutions have certain limits to their user acceptance. For instance, you need a letter from a health insurer to start using Caren and you need to live in a certain municipality to start using Zorgsite for free. We will be free and open for all users, so there's no real competition there.

About You

First Name

Sophie

Last Name

Blaauw

[email protected]

Implementer(s) and cooperation partners

Name

BLOOMILY

Type

Private company

Country where main implementer is located

, NH, AMSTERDAM

How long has the main implementer been operating?

Less than a year

Please provide a short description of the main implementer.

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Cooperation partner

Name

Type

Please select

Website

How does this cooperation partner support the initiative? What competencies and resources does this partner bring to the initiative?

Cooperation partner

Name

Type

Please select

Website

How does this cooperation partner support the initiative? Which competencies and resources does this partner bring to the initiative?

Cooperation partner

Name

Type

Please select

Website

How does this cooperation partner support the initiative? Which competencies and resources does this partner bring to the initiative?

Cooperation partner

Name

Type

Please select

Website

How does this cooperation partner support the initiative? Which competencies and resources does this partner bring to the initiative?

Problem and solution

Which of these fields of Active and Healthy Ageing are addressed by your initiative?

Health literacy and patient empowerment, Personalized health management, Integrated care for chronic conditions, Assisted daily living, Independent living solutions, Social inclusion (intergenerational practice, work and volunteering).

If none of the above, answer here:

Please describe if and how your stakeholders (cooperation partners, funders, users, etc.) have been participating in defining the problem and developing the solution.

Has your solution been tested in trials, experimentations, or pilot projects? If yes, please describe the process and outcome.

Momentarily we're testing the website and it's functions with a small test panel of caregivers including ourselves. In September we'll start a 'bigger' trial in the municipality of Amsterdam. So far it's great to get feedback from our panel. Besides bugs and other minor improvements they are positive about the website and more relevant are eager to start using and the website for real. Next to users, clients are curious about the concept and are following every move we make. We've already spoken to some major organizations and local governments about implementing our tools in their care plans.

How long has your solution been in operation?

for less than a year

Please select the relationship between your solution and related solutions currently established in our society. Is your solution…

substitutive (your solutions is substituting existing solutions because they do not meet needs or solve the problem appropriately)

What barriers might hinder the success of your initiative? How do you plan to overcome them?

The biggest barrier for social media platforms to work is to create volume. However at BLOOMILY the person in need or the caregiver is not dependent of any existing other user. He/she creates his/her own network of caregivers. So even if only 3 people would apply for BLOOMILY within the same network, it can proof it's use.

Dealing with government and local politics to promote our solution can however be a burden. In short: it takes time.

At the same time the market of potential users and therefore the need of an efficient and effective solution like BLOOMILY keeps on growing. Society tends to get older, have less children, start living more apart, and seems to indulge computers, internet and technical solutions more and more. Budgets are increasing, skilled staff is hard to come by, and we'll all have to take care of someone sometime.

Organization and funding

Regularly paid employees

Volunteers

Trainees

External advisers and experts

Countless - friends, family, professionals, ex-colleauges etc.

Others (please specify)

Founders (2)

What are the specific professional backgrounds and competencies your team brings to the initiative?

Sophie and Ruud co-founded BLOOMILY March this year. Sophie recently got her Masters Degree in Law. Legal issues are her forte but designing an copyrighting are her passion. In stead of laying down the law somewhere she'd rather be part of something which she can really be proud of. Something that could change the world and in which she could be able to help people help other people. The same goes for Ruud. He followed a Minor Sustainable Leadership and Entrepreneurship. As a caregiver himself he would like to make a difference. Ruud is a true born project manager and a great team player.

Please describe your management or coordination structure in the initiative.

Both founders are equally committed to turning BLOOMILY into a success. BLOOMILY has a totally flat matrix structure. Sophie takes on the marketing, sales and design as where Ruud is more an engineering and managing guy.

Please provide the total yearly budget in Euro that your initiative spends on implementing the solution.

We've spent five months of our time and energy (full-time) to make it work. This way we were able to keep development costs low.

National public funding

European Union public funding

Economic return from own products/services

99%

Foundations and philanthropy capital

Single donations from private individuals

Donations from private companies

Crowdfunding platforms

Participation fees

Other (please specify)

Target group, scale and impact

Which target group(s) do you want to reach with your solution?

a) Seniors; people suffering from a chronic disease; disabled people; caregivers.
b) Professional caregiving staff
c) Municipalities and their local politicians.

Please estimate the number of persons within your target group (users, clients, etc.) that you currently reach directly with your solution.

Currently we are in a testing phase. (Market estimation: 3,5 million care givers; 400 municipalities; etc)

In which local/regional/national area(s) is the solution currently implemented?

We're testing. But we'd like to enroll our solution in The Netherlands as a whole.

What is the impact on your target group (users, clients) you want to generate?

Care receiver: empowerment and better engagement with civil society; to live independent lives as long as possible.
Care giver: extra strength to keep on going and a certain gratitude and appreciation from fellow carers.
Municipalities: a tool to help and support care givers and receivers.

What is the wider impact on society you want to generate?

We will all have to take care of someone at some point in our lives...why not start now? We want to empower everyone to live their lives in full BLOOM. BLOOM someone!

What are the impacts on your target group you already achieved?

We're testing (see above).

How has the impact of your initiative been assessed?

Experience-based self-assessment (you assessed the impacts based on your experiences with the target group), Feedback-based self-assessment (you assessed the impacts based on feedback from the target group without using specific methods), Self-evaluation (you used qualitative and/or quantitative methods to assess impacts), External evaluation of impacts based on qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups, etc.).

Public information and strategy

What information on your initiative is publicly available?

Information on team members.

Please indicate webpage or contact for obtaining the respective information.

http://www.linkedin.com/company/Bloomily

What are your milestones for further developing, implementing, and establishing your initiative in the next three years? Please describe 1-3 milestones.

1) Launch website (August 2013)
2) Start pilot in Amsterdam (September 2013)