Platform

There are many communities in Equal Care, and they’re dotted all around the place.

However, we have a space on the internet that we have built ourselves. We collectively own it, and it’s shared across computers and mobile phones so we can all come together. We call it...

The platform is a tool (or a set of tools) that helps us all coordinate and collaborate.

It’s where we store details of each support visit and keep everyone’s profiles for giving and receiving support.

It tells us who is in whose team and what responsibilities they hold.

It’s also the place where we can talk to each other more efficiently, allowing everyone involved in Equal Care to work together, whether that’s within their Teams, Circles or across the co-op.

Community-owned tech

The platform is important not just because it helps everyone work together but also because it’s ours.

Nearly all technology we use in our daily lives is built and owned by enormous private companies. These companies are controlled by their investors and have an obligation to put profits above all else.

It’s different at Equal Care: we own our technology.

We’re responsible for its quality (and also for if it breaks!). Our members can decide what’s important to build and what needs to change. It can’t be sold to the highest bidder.

Our technology exists to serve the interests of people getting support, families and people giving support, not the interests of investors looking for high return or people who just want to extract data.

This is pretty unusual and pretty special!

We are a platform co-op

This fairly unique approach means that we have the honour of being the world’s first social care platform co-operative.

This means more or less what we have said above: our work is supported by an online platform which is collectively owned and managed by its users.

If you’re interested in finding out about the wider global movement that we’re a part of just head on over to platform.coop.