Portugal – Cloud Counselling for Youths
Overall Scope
Key Information
Runs from: Jan. 2011 – Jan. 2013 (24 months)
Website(s): Under development
Summary
Taking advantage of Portugal’s mobile phone penetration rate of 117% this project provides a service of cloud counselling support to young members of communities facing social issues via sms communication. This initiative relies on a network of qualified volunteers that log in to a robust Web-based interface in order to manage conversations. The information collected from each interaction is automatically forwarded on a daily basis to the appropriate social institutions according to the type and urgency level assigned to each interaction. The use of mobile technology for these situations presents an innovative platform with which youths are deeply comfortable with, and compared to traditional help lines this system offers a higher level of anonymity and discretion, which are crucial requirements to be met when dealing with youths in socially susceptible situations.
Objectives
- To bridge socially problematic communities with social institutions
- Use of innovative technology in order to empower the communities
- Provide youths with a support network that is adapted to their intrinsic use of technology
Highlights
- innovate use of technology: SMS technology (and its conversion to data) operating with web based software in order to provide youths with a platform that aims to respond to the specifications of the young generation’s use of digital technology.
- strategic relevance and pilot implementations in place: As a pilot implementation, the RLabs in South Africa has a counselling team have been working with a cloud-based solution. The project has been a success, as it has changed hundreds of lives. Typically 20,000 messages are exchanged per hour! It is aimed to follow the main orientation of RLabs considering the relevant cultural differences between South Africa and Portugal
- excellence in themed areas and/or cross-domain: being such a inter-disciplinary and cross-domain project, this initiative requires expertise in a range of knowledge fields. As such, both coordinators of this project are PhD students of Digital media in FEUP University of Porto. Also, FEUP has agreed to provide resources to this project for the benefit of its community. Finally, the existence of a close interaction with various Psychology research groups of University of Porto and various social NGOs working on the ground in Portugal is expected too fully cover both the technical and social needs and challenged to come.
R&D Scope
On top of a rather developed and robust web-based platform that enables logged users/counsellors to simultaneously manage different interactions, the most innovative technology being used iin this initiative is related to the use of SMS technology as a chatting platform requiring therefore the conversion of SMS to data. In this project, the SMS technology is expected to operate, in the near future, side by side with a web chatting service or a phone app accessible though the Cloud Counselling website.
Expected Impact
Portugal is a country with over 100% mobile phone penetration rate. The mobile revolution that has swept through Portugal has made mobile telephony widely available. However, as a nation, Portugal still has substantial social issues. This project expects to find the opportunity to use mobile phone in order to face different kinds of social issues (such as drugs, violence, bullying, suicide, STD’s) and reconstruct communities by providing them with professional counselling and social institutions engagement.
Involved Constituency
Currently, there is a major partnership with FEUP (Engineering Faculty of University of Porto). The world class expertise level that FEUP provides to this project is of undeniable value.
- The Mobile Technology Research Group is collaborating in the development of the software interface for the management of digital interactions
- FEUP as an institution, has agreed to take part in this initiative, and has come forward to share their IT resources, meaning that the servers in which this platform is expected to run offer unmatchable security and speed.
Also, there is a close connection between this project and various research groups of Psychology at University of Porto.
