Social Impact Tech: Angela Robinson Of EverFree On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact
Consider how you will fund your tool over time. For tech like the Freedom Lifemap, we often focus so much on the benefits for end users that we lose sight of other stakeholders. Even in the nonprofit sector, lasting impact requires a business model that supports long-term sustainability.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Angela Robinson.
Angela Robinson, PhD is a researcher at the Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation at the University of California, Irvine. Through academic research and work in nonprofit management, Angela has dedicated her career to using sound theory and evaluation to maximize the impact of community-based work. Since 2021, Angela has been partnering with EverFree to support the development of Freedom Lifemap, adapt it to different contexts, and evaluate its implementation and impact.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
Thanks for having me! As a little kid, I was reserved and preferred to observe rather than draw attention to myself. I was deeply attuned to others’ emotions which sparked my interest in learning more about people’s experiences, goals, and challenges. This curiosity ultimately drove me to pursue a career in social psychology, where I could leverage my natural nosiness as a researcher to learn about people’s experiences and synthesize data into something that might help people.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
My path to becoming a researcher was pretty straightforward, but it rarely felt that way. I started my career at a nonprofit before returning to graduate school to study psychology. Today, I’m fortunate to continue my research at the university where I earned my PhD. But along the way, I put considerable energy into exploring alternative career tracks, including entrepreneurship, technical writing, and running a dog rescue. While I now feel committed to a career in research, I picked up a lot of skills and broadened my network by considering those alternative pathways.
Reflecting on this reminds me of when a previous mentor said that they viewed me as a generalist. Since researchers are typically expected to identify as experts in very specific areas, it felt a bit like a critique when they said it. Now I’ve come to love that about myself, and I take pride in being able to conduct research on many different issues that affect people’s lives.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My mom has been an incredible role model both personally and professionally. She is deeply dedicated to her career as a business executive, and she also puts in long hours as a mom. Some of my early memories include visits to her office on Take Your Daughter to Work Day. Professionally, I have learned so much from her about goal setting, building a strong reputation, and workplace communication. She has also supported my personal development and interests, which was critical to finding a career that I love.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
This might show my age, but I frequently remind myself to “begin with the end in mind,” which is one of the principles in Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s so relevant in social impact projects, where effectiveness relies upon knowing what we aim to achieve.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- I’m an idealist, so I believe that what I do can have a real, positive impact on the world. That is incredibly motivating and helps me stay fired up. Each day when I come to work, I ask myself, “What steps can I take right now to make the world a better place in some small way?”
- At the same time, it’s essential to be grounded in the real world. Researchers have a reputation for being isolated in an ivory tower with little connection to practical, everyday concerns. My background in nonprofit management builds my credibility when partnering with community organizations, because I understand the time and resource constraints that nonprofits face. I am a better researcher because I know how to conduct research in ways that are truly beneficial to people who work on the front lines every day.
- Lastly, I identify as a novelty-seeker. I’m always pursuing new interests and interacting with the world in new ways, which helps me to see connections between different ideas and bring fresh perspectives to my work.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive social impact on our society. To begin, what problems are you aiming to solve?
For the past few years, I’ve partnered with EverFree, a nonprofit dedicated to ending modern slavery through better data, care and collaboration. One of the key problems that we face in fighting human trafficking is the scope of the problem and the limited resources available to fight it. From 2016 to 2021, the estimated number of victims of human trafficking grew by 25 percent, with 50 million people living in conditions of modern slavery. Of those who exit exploitation, less than 1 percent receive any type of services to help them remain free. As a society, we have an imperative to reach more victims with better care. Technology can help us do that.
How do you think your technology can address this?
- In the anti-trafficking sector, organizations face significant challenges when it comes to measuring outcomes and the ultimate impact of their programs. Traditionally, organizations have relied on metrics like the number of counseling sessions or shelter stays, but how do we know whether those services had the intended impact of helping someone remain free from exploitation?
- The Freedom Lifemap is a technology-based case management tool that helps organizations measure outcomes more effectively. Program participants evaluate their own well-being across 50 different indicators, which represent key outcomes that are necessary for lasting freedom. By building outcome measurement into the case management process, organizations can better identify the most effective interventions and stretch limited resources to maximize their impact. Ultimately, this can help the anti-trafficking sector expand services so that more than 1 percent of victims are able to receive care. And on an individual level, it ensures that each program participant receives customized services that best meet their immediate needs.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
I think that many people can relate to how upsetting it feels when someone takes away their autonomy, even in a small way. It really resonated with me when I learned more about the extreme control that traffickers exert over victims, all to make a profit at the expense of another person’s freedom and well-being. I have always been drawn to projects that truly value and empower the voices of people with lived experience, and the Freedom Lifemap is designed to restore an individual’s autonomy and self-determination.
How do you think this might change the world?
Globally, we are united in condemning human trafficking and modern slavery. Yet, more people are becoming vulnerable to trafficking due to societal stressors like poverty, pandemic, climate change, and conflict. We need enhanced data and better care to stop the alarming increase in trafficking that we’ve seen over the past few years. Data from the Freedom Lifemap will help us to identify key vulnerabilities that we can target in order to prevent future exploitation.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
The Freedom Lifemap aims to empower survivors of human trafficking, but it’s important that we don’t conflate empowerment with isolation. The technology is designed for survivors to use alongside a trained social worker or case manager who can provide resources and support along the way. It is important to use the technology in the context of supportive person-to-person relationships.
Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”?
We have learned a lot while developing the Freedom Lifemap. It’s an ongoing process of iteration with many pivots along the way. These are five key lessons that likely apply for others who are creating social impact technologies:
(1) Design something that solves a problem. In building the technology behind the Freedom Lifemap, we immersed ourselves in the everyday challenges of our target users, including program directors, social workers, and people with lived experience as survivors of human trafficking. We developed an intimate understanding of how tech could solve key problems they face, which helped us prioritize the features that would most improve their day-to-day work.
(2) Complement strong ideas with excellent execution. In social impact work, there’s a tendency to build tech that addresses several problems at once. It’s important to prioritize seamless functionality over broad scope. Nonprofit employees have a lot on their plate, so it’s important to present a high-quality product that is well-thought-out and easy to navigate even if that requires saving some objectives for later phases of development.
(3) Fully explore the ethical implications associated with your tech. There is no playbook for ethical tech development, so this requires a significant time investment. We engaged a wide array of partners and collaborators to develop a cutting-edge understanding of key issues related to participant privacy, data security, and international regulatory compliance.
(4) Consider how you will fund your tool over time. For tech like the Freedom Lifemap, we often focus so much on the benefits for end users that we lose sight of other stakeholders. Even in the nonprofit sector, lasting impact requires a business model that supports long-term sustainability.
(5) Collaborate! This is one of the best ways to learn about the emerging challenges that your end users might face. For example, our relationships with direct service providers helped us to identify a key opportunity that emerged when another tech tool ceased its operations.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
- In addition to the benefits for society, making a positive impact is important to your own well-being. Research shows that helping others reduces your own stress, provides a sense of meaning, and satisfies your own needs. Keep in mind that helping others doesn’t necessarily require a major sacrifice. Small acts of kindness can make a big difference.
- Having the opportunity to help others is so critical to one’s well-being that it’s even included as an outcome in the Freedom Lifemap. Survivor-leaders helped us understand how crucial it is to make a positive impact on others’ lives, even in times of significant hardship.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would love to meet Oprah. She emanates so many qualities that I admire and that align with my values as a researcher. I admire her curiosity and her ability to engage with diverse perspectives and complex topics with empathy and insight.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow my work on LinkedIn. For all things Freedom Lifemap, follow @everfreeorg on Instagram.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
Social Impact Tech: Angela Robinson Of EverFree On How Their Technology Will Make An Important… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.