Datris has been applying its AI technology to develop a Community Mapping Tool that can identify, validate and profile community based organisations, clubs, groups and charities.
In the UK, for example, it is estimated by the NCVO (UK third sector umbrella organisation) that there are between 600,000 and 900,000 not-for-profit organisations, ie approximately 1 per 100 of the population (66 Million UK population).
90%+ are small or micro organisations, often run by volunteers, and only a minority are legal entities as such as charities, trusts or social enterprises. Many will not have websites and only exist on social media. Because these informal organisations are hard to find and described as "below the radar" no one has been able to effectively discover and map out community organisations, form the benefit of policy makers interested in community regeneration and public health and wellbeing.
We categorise them under (i) Sport & Leisure, (ii) Arts, Culture & Education, (iii) Community Care & Wellbeing, (iv) Faith and (v) Profssional plus Other!
Extensive research demonstrates that where individuals participate in local clubs or groups that interest them, they have better mental and physical wellbeing, members also support each other, and pressures on the health system can be significantly reduced. This is sometimes described as "social prescribing".
Our DatrisAI Community Mapping Tool is being specifically designed to assist local authorities, governments and agencies to identify and map out existing groups and activities in their defined geographic areas. We are doing this via key scraping and analytics processes, with the machine learning algorithms and NLP set to become more automated and gaining high levels of accuracy/validation.
The DatrisAI Community Mapping Tool is designed to be used by local governments or agencies who wish to discover the extent of community-based clubs, groups and activities in defined areas.
It can then be used for:-
- Policy Making ie from the overall information, by type and micro-community within the area
- Raising the profile of local communities and groups and providing support to local groups
- Encouraging public participation and volunteering in local groups as well as access to locally based services
Our Community Mapping Tool undertakes key processes:
(i) Agreed definition(s) and descriptors linked to a defined area
(ii) Systematic mulit-source digital searching for not-for-profit organisations using our machine learning, interlinked to (i)
(iii) Validation processes with probabilistic evaluations (multi-stage)
(iv) Collection of further contact informaiton and descriptions for categorisation and profiling
(v) "Live" searchable database and analyses for clients, including direct validation (contacting) if required.
Community mapping with public sector organisations and agencies, the health service, local government to promote community and individual wellbeing
Social Prescribing - defined in a clinical setting with a doctor as "What matters to you" rather than "What is the matter with you".
Could also be used in "verticals" ie finding specific types of organisation or people.
The Community Mapping will also support the developement of the Datris membership management app called clubetter, specifically designed to support small, community clubs and groups.
- Growth of social prescribing in the UK (https://www.england.nhs.uk/personalisedcare/social-prescribing/)
- Pressure on health services and GPs especially with chronic, long term and eldery patients
- When people join or club or group for exercise or just social interaction, they usually feel better and may also get fitter
- Isolation and depression applies to all ages, and the Community mapping tool will make it easier for people to find something they enjoy doing.
- At a community, level cost and capacity pressures on health services are reduced
- This is extremely cost effective, we are simply mapping what is already happening in the community, but which is generally difficult to find currently.
We are not aware of anyone applying AI in this way before. At the core is the intelligent integration of established processes of digital data scraping with multiple cross searching and machine reading, linked to machine learning to validate entries in a step-by-step process with probabilities attached based on confirmed factors.
From our most recent Pilot in a county of 140,000 inhabitants (1,300 groups profiled), we have established a series of key variables and processes which we shall in future aim to automate.