A.T.S.P.I.N

Caitlin and Liepa, aged 13 from St Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls in London, England.

What is your product and who is it for?

Our product, called A.T.S.P.I.N, is an app that the everyday person - specifically those aged between 12 and 40 years old who live in urban areas in the UK - can use to help homeless people by alerting the local councils and homeless charities/shelters to the location and quantity of the homeless people so they can go out and try to assist in any way they can.

What inspired your idea, and why is it important to you?

Our idea to create this app was inspired by many things, particularly the story of a local homeless man. He was taken in by the priest of a local church, Holy Cross Carshalton, and allowed to sleep there; this inspired us through the way it showed us that anyone can make a difference to change someone’s life for the better and, although we knew it was a problem, it really brought to our attention the homelessness crisis.

How does your product solve the problem?

Our product will attempt to solve the issue of homelessness, particularly in the quantity and quality of life of homeless people on the streets. It will alert homeless charities and local authorities to the location of these homeless people so they can go out and help them, checking if they are alright or need some help, as well as assisting in creating data for the concentration of homeless people in different areas. Our app will also have information and advice for the everyday person on where they can go to donate and other ways they can help the homeless.

How does it work?

The user will go onto our app then select the option to “report”; they can then choose to either call in or to just text. If you select the call button, your call will be directed to our partner, the homeless charity Crisis, who will ask you a few questions about the person. If you select the text option, you will be directed to a questionnaire where you will be asked the above questions as well as having a feature that links to google maps. The user will have to pinpoint the exact location where they saw the person on the map. This will make it easier to find the person and also will help our team track the concentrations of homeless people in certain areas. There will also be other areas of our app where you can find advice about other ways to help the homeless as well as some statistics about homelessness and a donation option if you want to help fund our app and help homeless charities. 50% will go to our partner Crisis UK and 50% to us.

What is the biggest challenge you faced when creating your app?

The biggest challenge we faced whilst creating our app was overcoming our fear of presenting an idea in front of an audience, since we have a slight fear of public speaking.

Why should your product be the Judge's Favourite and why should people vote for you in the People’s Choice Award?

Our team strives to confront a problem that many have overlooked - we want to help the homeless, people who have been pushed to the side of political issues; for instance, during the pandemic the number of government decisions enforced to tackle homelessness decreased whilst the number of actual homeless people rose by 15%. We also make sure that our aid is something that the person actually wants, as to not infringe on their integrity.