Our Work.

Two Million Arms KC Campaign

Coordinating a regional effort to increase vaccination in our most vulnerable communities

Idealect partnered with KC Digital Drive and Willoughby Design to launch and manage the Two Million Arms KC campaign, a regional COVID vaccination effort aimed at getting almost everyone in our region vaccinated against COVID-19. This work entailed deep community engagement in communities with high levels of distrust of the government and the medical system. We developed targeted, bi-lingual campaigns to reach these communities and partnered with community partners and vaccinators to grow registrations and participation in vaccination events.

Research
Community engagement and outreach
Content campaigns
Event promotion
Digital media campaigns

Onward Financial

Helping workers build an emergency savings cushion

Almost 40% of Americans can't handle a $400 emergency with cash or savings. Onward Financial is working on changing that fact. Onward is a social enterprise startup that helps low- and middle-income workers build emergency savings. Onward offers an employer-sponsored, automatic savings program, financial literacy education, and equitable lending to help workers build savings and avoid predatory lending.

Onward engaged idealect to conduct original, qualitative research to understand the lives and needs of financially insecure workers. We also provided Product Strategy and Product Management, leading Onward's design and development teams through the successful rollout of its first, feature-complete version.

Ethnographic research
Product strategy
Product management
Project management

Advance KC

Integrating equity goals and measures into economic development incentive policies

The city of Kansas City, MO is striving to make its policies and procedures more equitable and sustainable. The city engaged idealect to facilitate meetings of the Advance KC committee, a group tasked with overhauling the city's use of Economic Development Incentives to create more equitable outcomes. The committee consisted of representatives from the community at large, civic activists, taxing jurisdictions, and the development community. 

Working with our partners at Sophic Solutions, we helped guide the committee through the process of defining goals and priorities, prototyping a new, equity-oriented scorecard for development projects, and refining recommendations to improve the transparency and predictability of the incentive application process.

Equity-Centered Design
Facilitation
Research
Prototyping

Internet Access Support Program

Growing awareness and utilization of an important digital equity program

During the pandemic, the Internet became a lifeline for many families. Reliable, high-speed internet access is a gateway to telemedicine, working from home, remote schooling, and access to essential services. The Internet Access Support Program helps people without internet access to pay for it, providing six months free internet access during the pandemic. 

idealect partnered with KC Digital Drive to conduct community interviews, design a brand identity, develop a communications strategy, and drive awareness and uptake of this important digital equity program.

Research
Communications strategy
Community outreach

HIV & OPIOID USE DISORDER ASSESSMENT

Assessing the needs of frontline workers serving people with HIV and Opioid Use Disorder

Working with partners at the UMKC School for Nursing and Health Sciences and the Addiction Technology Transfer Center, idealect explored the needs of healthcare and community workers who serve people with both Opioid Use Disorder and HIV. We conducted interviews with subject experts and frontline workers across the country who serve this highly vulnerable population and compiled our findings into a research report. We then conducted idea sessions with key stakeholders to generate useful ideas for providing those frontline workers with much-needed support and tools.

Research - literature review and stakeholder interviews
Workshop planning and design
Ideation workshops
Refining and evaluation of candidate innovation concepts

Comeback KC

Launching a public/private campaign to help the Kansas City region recover from COVID-19

Early in the pandemic, idealect was invited to join a coalition of private-sector and public-sector partners who joined together to help Kansas City fight the pandemic as a region. We worked develop communication campaigns focused on vulnerable communities in our region to help spread the word about COVID safety, testing and prevention. Working with partner VMLY&R, we launched Comeback KC, a brand dedicated to helping the region as a whole come back stronger and better than before. 

Communications research and strategy
Brand design
Community engagement
Event promotions
Media relations