"To enable members of the Cape York Indigenous community to have control and responsibility of their own lives."
Cape York Partnership (CYP) is a non-profit organisation that works to empower Indigenous families and communities in and around Cape York. All CYP initiatives are co-designed with the people of Cape York so they can lead the changes that will make a difference to them.
Many financial and community services are migrating to online platforms, so it's vital that people with lower digital literacy are not excluded.
The challenge
'Pama', which translates to 'my people', aims to transform the lives of Indigenous Australians. There were four challenges the platform needed to resolve:
- Effective community communication with a comprehensive user database
- Development and access to digital money management resources
- Online portal for users to access and manage their trust and opportunity accounts
- Consolidation of key personal documents for job applications
The design challenges included low tech proficiency among users, tech limitations across a spectrum of devices, bandwidth challenges due to remote location, and geographical distance exacerbated by Coronavirus border closures.
The approach
An Australian-first digital platform designed for mobile and desktop across varying bandwidth conditions.
The Kablamo team invested time creating a comprehensive toolkit and style guide at the beginning of the project. This focused on designing and developing core atoms and molecules in Figma and Storybook, which formed the backbone for all future interface design and development.
The platform was built using AWS serverless technologies and an event-driven architecture. SQS queues and AWS Lambda functions enabled seamless and secure integration with a third-party banking provider.
Results
Launched in 2021, Pama includes 14 comprehensive features used by over 250 First Nations Australians daily, helping them take control of their money and participate and thrive in this digital age.
Looking forward
Pama has become an invaluable community tool through its digital calendar, noticeboard, and services providers address book. The platform provides guardrails that enable spending in a thoughtful way while empowering users to take control of their financial futures.
