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Stevenson Promise Built a Shared System to Coordinate Family Navigation
Back to Case Studies
Stevenson Promise Built a Shared System to Coordinate Family Navigation
Back to Case Studies
Stevenson Promise Built a Shared System to Coordinate Family Navigation
Introduction
When chronic absenteeism rises, families do not need more programs. They need fewer handoffs. Hayward Promise Neighborhood (HPN) faced a familiar challenge: multiple partners trying to support the same families, each operating in their own silo, and no clear way to understand what interventions were truly helping reduce absenteeism. This case study tells the story of how Hayward Promise and its partners built a custom, shared, secure, multi-partner case management and referral system. It was designed around family navigation rather than isolated student interventions, and it created a foundation for outcomes-driven coordination across schools, nonprofits, and public agencies.
Goal
Reduce Chronic Absenteeism by Supporting Families
Hayward Promise Neighborhood’s work sits within a broader cradle-to-career mission: ensuring kids show up, stay engaged, and succeed from early childhood through career.
But the team was confronting a root issue with cascading effects.
Chronic absenteeism is a leading indicator of literacy outcomes, graduation rates, and long-term earnings.
Their theory of change was clear.
Chronic absenteeism is not a single student problem.
Supporting the whole family helps stabilize all children in the household.
Rather than running programmatic interventions in isolation, where one organization focuses on one student at a time, Hayward Promise was coordinating a family-centered navigation model.
They launched a 50-family pilot initiative where navigators and case managers could deliver:
coaching and family outreach
referrals to services
milestone tracking
case management and follow-up
attendance monitoring through school district uploads
This work required coordination across:
Alameda County Office of Education
Hayward Promise Neighborhood (broker and backbone organization)
school district staff (attendance and records)
probation and public sector partners
4Cs of Alameda County (navigation and direct referrals)
Challenge
The Coordination Challenge
The program model depended on multiple partners working in sync, but the operational environment made that difficult.
Pain Point 1 : No Shared Source of Truth
Each organization has a different way of tracking work, including:
Spreadsheets
Internal CRMs
Case notes stored locally
Email attachments
Informal updates in meetings
The status quo would have led to predictable problems:
Families receive multiple calls from different agencies
Staff do not know who was doing what
Attendance data was not easily connected to interventions
Measuring effectiveness required manual effort
Pain Point 2: Salesforce Was Slow, Expensive, and Not Built for Multi-Partner Navigation
Hayward Promise explored using a Salesforce setup or existing partner systems, but that required approvals and governance across institutions. It also came with long timelines and high costs. The team estimated it could take 1 to 2 years to accommodate the project, largely due to contractor backlogs. Even simple changes were costly. One referral form alone had cost $70,000 the previous year and took months to create.
Pain Point 3: Salesforce Was Slow, Expensive, and Not Built for Multi-Partner Navigation
Hayward Promise explored using a Salesforce setup or existing partner systems, but that required approvals and governance across institutions. It also came with long timelines and high costs. The team estimated it could take 1 to 2 years to accommodate the project, largely due to contractor backlogs. Even simple changes were costly. One referral form alone had cost $70,000 the previous year and took months to create.
Solution
Campground Helped Hayward Promise Build a System Around Their Workflow
Hayward Promise partnered with Campground to build a secure case management and referral tracking system that worked across organizations. This was the first time the partnership had been able to collaboratively build a system to match their real-world needs, instead of forcing their program into a tool designed for a different context. The cost was a fraction of the cost of hiring a developer or vendor.
What Campground Delivered
1. A customized CRM that matched their workflow and process map
The system was built to reflect how work actually flows in their model. Campground used AI to customize at lower cost.
Intake
Family Engagement
Interventions and milestones
Tracking data
Performance Measurement reporting
2. Shared access across organizations without spreadsheets
Select partners across agencies could work in the same system. This enabled a shared source of truth, reduced duplication, and lowered risk from emailed attachments.
3. Attendance uploads integrated with case management
A portal enabled district partners to upload attendance data regularly. The system could then sync attendance with intervention timing, milestone tracking, service referrals, and case management intensity.
This created the foundation needed to answer a key question: Which interventions, across the full suite of supports, are most effective at reducing chronic absenteeism?
4. Automated reporting for required performance measures
Instead of spending 10 to 15 hours per month compiling reporting, staff can export performance measures directly from the system.
5. A single place for navigators and case managers to do daily work
Navigators and case managers could finally do daily work in one place, rather than relying on clipboards, scattered notes, and multiple trackers.
Introduction
When chronic absenteeism rises, families do not need more programs. They need fewer handoffs. Hayward Promise Neighborhood (HPN) faced a familiar challenge: multiple partners trying to support the same families, each operating in their own silo, and no clear way to understand what interventions were truly helping reduce absenteeism. This case study tells the story of how Hayward Promise and its partners built a custom, shared, secure, multi-partner case management and referral system. It was designed around family navigation rather than isolated student interventions, and it created a foundation for outcomes-driven coordination across schools, nonprofits, and public agencies.
Goal
Reduce Chronic Absenteeism by Supporting Families
Hayward Promise Neighborhood’s work sits within a broader cradle-to-career mission: ensuring kids show up, stay engaged, and succeed from early childhood through career.
But the team was confronting a root issue with cascading effects.
Chronic absenteeism is a leading indicator of literacy outcomes, graduation rates, and long-term earnings.
Their theory of change was clear.
Chronic absenteeism is not a single student problem.
Supporting the whole family helps stabilize all children in the household.
Rather than running programmatic interventions in isolation, where one organization focuses on one student at a time, Hayward Promise was coordinating a family-centered navigation model.
They launched a 50-family pilot initiative where navigators and case managers could deliver:
coaching and family outreach
referrals to services
milestone tracking
case management and follow-up
attendance monitoring through school district uploads
This work required coordination across:
Alameda County Office of Education
Hayward Promise Neighborhood (broker and backbone organization)
school district staff (attendance and records)
probation and public sector partners
4Cs of Alameda County (navigation and direct referrals)
Challenge
The Coordination Challenge
The program model depended on multiple partners working in sync, but the operational environment made that difficult.
Pain Point 1 : No Shared Source of Truth
Each organization has a different way of tracking work, including:
Spreadsheets
Internal CRMs
Case notes stored locally
Email attachments
Informal updates in meetings
The status quo would have led to predictable problems:
Families receive multiple calls from different agencies
Staff do not know who was doing what
Attendance data was not easily connected to interventions
Measuring effectiveness required manual effort
Pain Point 2: Salesforce Was Slow, Expensive, and Not Built for Multi-Partner Navigation
Hayward Promise explored using a Salesforce setup or existing partner systems, but that required approvals and governance across institutions. It also came with long timelines and high costs. The team estimated it could take 1 to 2 years to accommodate the project, largely due to contractor backlogs. Even simple changes were costly. One referral form alone had cost $70,000 the previous year and took months to create.
Pain Point 3: Salesforce Was Slow, Expensive, and Not Built for Multi-Partner Navigation
Hayward Promise explored using a Salesforce setup or existing partner systems, but that required approvals and governance across institutions. It also came with long timelines and high costs. The team estimated it could take 1 to 2 years to accommodate the project, largely due to contractor backlogs. Even simple changes were costly. One referral form alone had cost $70,000 the previous year and took months to create.
Solution
Campground Helped Hayward Promise Build a System Around Their Workflow
Hayward Promise partnered with Campground to build a secure case management and referral tracking system that worked across organizations. This was the first time the partnership had been able to collaboratively build a system to match their real-world needs, instead of forcing their program into a tool designed for a different context. The cost was a fraction of the cost of hiring a developer or vendor.
What Campground Delivered
1. A customized CRM that matched their workflow and process map
The system was built to reflect how work actually flows in their model. Campground used AI to customize at lower cost.
Intake
Family Engagement
Interventions and milestones
Tracking data
Performance Measurement reporting
2. Shared access across organizations without spreadsheets
Select partners across agencies could work in the same system. This enabled a shared source of truth, reduced duplication, and lowered risk from emailed attachments.
3. Attendance uploads integrated with case management
A portal enabled district partners to upload attendance data regularly. The system could then sync attendance with intervention timing, milestone tracking, service referrals, and case management intensity.
This created the foundation needed to answer a key question: Which interventions, across the full suite of supports, are most effective at reducing chronic absenteeism?
4. Automated reporting for required performance measures
Instead of spending 10 to 15 hours per month compiling reporting, staff can export performance measures directly from the system.
5. A single place for navigators and case managers to do daily work
Navigators and case managers could finally do daily work in one place, rather than relying on clipboards, scattered notes, and multiple trackers.
Introduction
When chronic absenteeism rises, families do not need more programs. They need fewer handoffs. Hayward Promise Neighborhood (HPN) faced a familiar challenge: multiple partners trying to support the same families, each operating in their own silo, and no clear way to understand what interventions were truly helping reduce absenteeism. This case study tells the story of how Hayward Promise and its partners built a custom, shared, secure, multi-partner case management and referral system. It was designed around family navigation rather than isolated student interventions, and it created a foundation for outcomes-driven coordination across schools, nonprofits, and public agencies.
Goal
Reduce Chronic Absenteeism by Supporting Families
Hayward Promise Neighborhood’s work sits within a broader cradle-to-career mission: ensuring kids show up, stay engaged, and succeed from early childhood through career.
But the team was confronting a root issue with cascading effects.
Chronic absenteeism is a leading indicator of literacy outcomes, graduation rates, and long-term earnings.
Their theory of change was clear.
Chronic absenteeism is not a single student problem.
Supporting the whole family helps stabilize all children in the household.
Rather than running programmatic interventions in isolation, where one organization focuses on one student at a time, Hayward Promise was coordinating a family-centered navigation model.
They launched a 50-family pilot initiative where navigators and case managers could deliver:
coaching and family outreach
referrals to services
milestone tracking
case management and follow-up
attendance monitoring through school district uploads
This work required coordination across:
Alameda County Office of Education
Hayward Promise Neighborhood (broker and backbone organization)
school district staff (attendance and records)
probation and public sector partners
4Cs of Alameda County (navigation and direct referrals)
Challenge
The Coordination Challenge
The program model depended on multiple partners working in sync, but the operational environment made that difficult.
Pain Point 1 : No Shared Source of Truth
Each organization has a different way of tracking work, including:
Spreadsheets
Internal CRMs
Case notes stored locally
Email attachments
Informal updates in meetings
The status quo would have led to predictable problems:
Families receive multiple calls from different agencies
Staff do not know who was doing what
Attendance data was not easily connected to interventions
Measuring effectiveness required manual effort
Pain Point 2: Salesforce Was Slow, Expensive, and Not Built for Multi-Partner Navigation
Hayward Promise explored using a Salesforce setup or existing partner systems, but that required approvals and governance across institutions. It also came with long timelines and high costs. The team estimated it could take 1 to 2 years to accommodate the project, largely due to contractor backlogs. Even simple changes were costly. One referral form alone had cost $70,000 the previous year and took months to create.
Pain Point 3: Salesforce Was Slow, Expensive, and Not Built for Multi-Partner Navigation
Hayward Promise explored using a Salesforce setup or existing partner systems, but that required approvals and governance across institutions. It also came with long timelines and high costs. The team estimated it could take 1 to 2 years to accommodate the project, largely due to contractor backlogs. Even simple changes were costly. One referral form alone had cost $70,000 the previous year and took months to create.
Solution
Campground Helped Hayward Promise Build a System Around Their Workflow
Hayward Promise partnered with Campground to build a secure case management and referral tracking system that worked across organizations. This was the first time the partnership had been able to collaboratively build a system to match their real-world needs, instead of forcing their program into a tool designed for a different context. The cost was a fraction of the cost of hiring a developer or vendor.
What Campground Delivered
1. A customized CRM that matched their workflow and process map
The system was built to reflect how work actually flows in their model. Campground used AI to customize at lower cost.
Intake
Family Engagement
Interventions and milestones
Tracking data
Performance Measurement reporting
2. Shared access across organizations without spreadsheets
Select partners across agencies could work in the same system. This enabled a shared source of truth, reduced duplication, and lowered risk from emailed attachments.
3. Attendance uploads integrated with case management
A portal enabled district partners to upload attendance data regularly. The system could then sync attendance with intervention timing, milestone tracking, service referrals, and case management intensity.
This created the foundation needed to answer a key question: Which interventions, across the full suite of supports, are most effective at reducing chronic absenteeism?
4. Automated reporting for required performance measures
Instead of spending 10 to 15 hours per month compiling reporting, staff can export performance measures directly from the system.
5. A single place for navigators and case managers to do daily work
Navigators and case managers could finally do daily work in one place, rather than relying on clipboards, scattered notes, and multiple trackers.
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