All but the most determined of techophobes would agree that Information Technology has improved our lives. It's brought us the paperless office, desktop publishing, sophisticated databases, and the Internet. But even the simplest of technical solutions can have a big impact on people's lives.

One good example of this is Form-Link©, a CD-ROM that brings together over 70 application forms (585 pages) used by those in need to access social services. Form-Link is distributed to case managers employed by hospitals, community and government agencies, utilities, and other care and support organizations (all of whom pay a nominal $1 licensing fee). Once a case manager has assessed a client's needs, they can print out all the relevant forms from the Form-Link CD.

Before Form-Link, the needy (whether mentally or physically disabled, homeless, seniors, the addicted) had to go to various agencies - often miles apart - to pick up the forms they needed to apply for help. This resulted in people's already painful situations being made worse. Because Form-Link brings all the social services forms together in one place, people now only have to visit one agency - cutting both the stress and the legwork.

Center For Career Freedom
Form-Link is the brainchild of Don Fitch of the Center for Career Freedom, a not-for-profit organization based in White Plains, New York State, that helps people with psychiatric disabilities re-enter the workplace.

Fitch explains how the idea for Form-Link came about.

"We'd been collecting application forms for some 3-years," he relates. "But it just didn't make any sense to Xerox them and hand out huge books to all the case managers in institutions in our county. Coming from the business sector, as I did, the obvious solution was to scan the forms and put them on a CD-ROM."

Help From The Business Sector
The only problem was Fitch didn't know anyone who could help him scan the forms. So when he saw a newspaper article about Data Conversion Laboratory, he called up the company's president, Mark Gross, to see if he could help. "When Don told me about Form-Link, I thought it was a great idea," recalls Gross. "And to help him get started, I told him we would do it at no charge."

The team at DCL duly scanned the application forms and converted them to PDF files, which can be read on any computer system in the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software, and printed when needed. The files were then put on CD-ROM.

"I'm very grateful to DCL," says Fitch. "Without their help, we couldn't have got to where we are today. We simply don't have that kind of equipment at our disposal. Nor do we have a big budget."

Fitch plans to take Form-Link a step further in 2002 and make it available online from the Center for Career Freedom website. This will make it even easier for case managers and institutions to access and deliver the gamut of forms needed by people applying for social services.

But isn't it obvious?
To people in the business world, scanning application forms and putting them together in one place on CD-ROM or on the Web, might sound like the obvious thing to do.

Surely someone must have thought of it before?

"The fact is, no-one had," says Don Fitch. "Form-Link is unique, not just here in the United States, but also in the rest of the world." The reason for this, explains Fitch, is the not-for-profit sector tends to spend money, not make it, so they're not used to looking for ways to deliver better services at less cost. "Because I came from the commercial sector (Fitch was in marketing at Pepsi Cola), I was able to apply a business solution to not-for-profit," he says.

Worldwide Appeal
Although Form-Link is currently distributed to community and government agencies in New York State, it will likely get picked up in other parts of the U.S. and even other parts of the world - such is the strength of the idea. Not only is this relatively low-tech solution making life easier for the needy, it is also improving the efficiency and cutting the cost of delivering social services - a fact that will not go unnoticed by those holding the purse strings of public funds worldwide.

So remember Don Fitch and the Center for Career Freedom - you could well be hearing a lot more about them over the next year or so. Good ideas and simple solutions have a habit of spreading like wildfire...

DCLnews Editorial

Comments and Correspondence to DCLnews@dclab.com

To find out more about the Center for Career Freedom, go to: www.freecenter.org