About
I'm Chad Verity. I build frontline technology at Hope Mission, a rescue mission in Edmonton, Alberta.
I believe homelessness is prevented in childhood, that a person can be housed and still homeless, and that organizations ending homelessness should build their own tools and share their data. I write from a pragmatic understanding of people and poverty, and from an incomplete perspective that's built on 25 years of trying and usually failing.
The Innovation Hub at Hope Mission
The Innovation Hub is where we build. Engineers work alongside frontline staff, in the same building as the people we serve, so the tools come from need in an attempt to provide value to men and women who are working on the frontlines of the homelessness epidemic in Canada. We publish what we can as open templates for other organizations.
Visit Hope Mission ↗Four convictions
- Prevention
Homelessness is prevented in childhood.
Many adults in shelter first became homeless as children or youth. Tools should help people notice earlier.
- Housed is not whole
A person can be housed and still homeless.
Home means healthy relationships, a support network, wellbeing and purpose, not just a roof.
- Faith
Christian faith is the lens.
Every person has dignity and is made for relationship. Following the Chalmers Center, poverty is broken relationships with God, self, others and creation, and help that ignores this can hurt.
- Build and share
Build your own tools, and share the data.
Forward deployed engineers embedded with frontline staff, and a collective data sharing agreement so organizations still collaborate seamlessly.
What I speak on, and what I don't
“I speak from what we built. On child welfare, mental health or theology, I bring in the experts.”
I speak on
Building tools inside a shelter
Forward deployed engineering
Shared data between organizations
AI policy and pilots in frontline work
I bring in the experts on
Child welfare practice
Mental health
Theology
Views are my own and don't necessarily represent Hope Mission.