FBD +
Building meaningful discovery channels for Catch 22’s Finance, benefit & debt service
Context :
Academic Project at the Royal College of Art (RCA)
Team:
Aishwarya Narvekar
Avi Choukhany
Caroline Salmen
Shivanghi Aggarwal
Tong Shen
Timeline:
9 weeks, 2022-23
Project Context
Finance Benefit & Debt (FBD) is a new service piloted by Catch 22 in August 2022. It aims to help people on probation(PoPs) start life after prison by helping them to get their finances in order after leaving prison.
Our brief was to carry out research and develop unique insights to inform the service to support people on probation around issues of finance, benefits, and debt
“Too often those who have been in the criminal justice system find it difficult to get their finances in order and don’t know where to go for help with claiming the benefits they’re entitled to. This inevitably leads to an increased likelihood of reoffending.”
Justice Secretary 2019
Finance Benefit and Debt Service
The FBD service intends to assist people on probation (PoPs), to engage with support around financial security and management.
PoPs need to be referred to FBD service by a Probation Practitioner. The FBD case workers conduct an initial assessment and draw up an action plan for the delivery of the right interventions according to the needs of the PoP.
THE PROBLEM
Catch 22’s current Finance, Benefit, and Debt (FBD) service has gaps in communication and visibility.
This leads to disengagement and disconnect as PoPs go through the service.
Conversations with people who have been on probation, Catch22 staff, and Probation practitioners helped us identify gaps in the current delivery of the service. PoPs are not aware of the service or how it could help them and are referred by probation practitioners. . This negatively impacts a PoP's ownership and engagement with the service
How might we build avenues for FBD service discovery before the referrals?
SERVICE DESIGN INTERVENTION
FBD+
A pre-service addition to existing FBD service to help men who are preparing for life after prison, by raising awareness before release through information and a call to action to increase ownership and engagement
Value creation in the larger ecosystem
TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS
If we increase routes to access the service in prison, then PoPs motivation, referrals and engagement will increase
PROTOTYPING EXPERIMENTS
Co-creating channels of discovery
BUILDING NEW CHANNELS OF DISOCVERY
Podcast about service, success stories for NPR
Video Ad for Common Hall screen in Prison
Communication principles for framing content
Testing interventions with FBD team
REDEFINING THE ROLE OF FBD+
FBD team understands the nuances of communication yet it does not reach PoPs through their marketing material
FBD+
Connecting FBD & Catch 22 marketing team
Establishing lines of communication through design-led tools between 2 teams in the Catch 22 organisation to enable better delivery of the service for people on probation
