Overview
When Kinbrace faced the challenge of scaling its growing Ready Tours program, Recess Labs stepped in to support them. Ready Tours provides critical legal information to refugee claimants across Canada, and with a surge of participants in the first half of 2023, the workload intensified. Our role was to help Kinbrace streamline communication, improve service delivery, and ensure the team could manage rising demand without feeling overwhelmed. Though we weren’t officially part of the internal team, our collaboration was seamless and it sure felt like it.
The Challenge
Between January and August 2023, Kinbrace experienced a notable increase in demand for the Ready Tours program. The growing number of refugee claimants needing crucial legal information created operational strain. As a result, Kinbrace sought out Recess Labs to provide support and solutions to ensure the program could continue delivering high-quality services efficiently.
Kinbrace needed to:
- Manage Growth: Develop an automated solution to handle the surge in participants while maintaining service excellence.
- Ensure Accessibility: With claimants coming from 74 different countries, communication needed to be accessible in multiple languages.
- Support the Team: Reduce the admin load so staff could get back to the heart of their work—supporting people.
The Solution
Recess Labs, in collaboration with Kinbrace and HubSpot Implementation Partner Roadmap, worked together to ensure smooth, scalable operations. Here’s how we approached it:
1) Stakeholder Collaboration:
We worked closely with Kinbrace’s staff, volunteers, and refugee claimants to identify where operational bottlenecks existed. Together, we designed a scalable, efficient solution to address the program’s evolving needs.
2) Automation Implementation:
We set up automated workflows in HubSpot CRM that took care of communication—timely and stress-free. We also implemented multi-language support to ensure clear, equitable access to information for all claimants.
3) Training & Support:
Handed the reins over to Kinbrace’s team with training that ensured they could keep things running (and growing) independently and adapt the system to continue meeting future demands.
The Results
The automation solution brought immediate benefits to the Ready Tours program:
- Increased Efficiency: Automated workflows meant no more manual email overload, giving staff the chance to focus on direct service delivery to refugee claimants.
- Enhanced Accessibility: Multi-language support ensured equitable access to Ready Tours information for refugee claimants from different linguistic backgrounds.
- Scalability: Kinbrace completed 28 Ready Tours in the first half of 2024, serving 664 refugee claimants from 74 different countries.
- High Satisfaction: Out of 500 surveys, 91% of participants were happy with the experience. Even better, 92% felt more informed, 90% felt connected, and 90% felt prepared for their hearings or appeals.
“Working with Recess Labs, particularly Jamie Turner, felt like having them as part of our internal team. Their strategic guidance, from visioning to implementation and monitoring, was invaluable. They deeply understood our needs and the challenges refugee claimants face, offering practical and impactful solutions every step of the way. Jamie and his team brought a level of expertise and commitment that allowed us to scale our Ready Tours program in ways we couldn’t have imagined. We couldn’t recommend Recess Labs more highly—they truly became indispensable partners in our work.”
Loren Balisky
Director of Engagement
Conclusion
Recess Labs’ collaboration with Kinbrace, alongside HubSpot Implementation Partner, Roadmap, transformed a complex and growing program into an efficient, well-managed system. Strategic operations and automation implementation enabled Kinbrace to scale its Ready Tours program, keeping things efficient, accessible, and impactful. The result? Seamless communication and top-notch service delivery for refugee claimants across Canada. In the end, well-executed automation can move mountains—or at least streamline operations for greater impact.
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