Submitted
2025 Indigenous Communities Fellowship

Indigenous Social Mobility App

Team Leader
Ken House
Hoyan creates a cohesive approach to delivering human services. Hoyan is a social health passport mobile app that shows service providers "moved the needle" for Native Americans struggling with poverty and other diseases of despair. It allows end users to: 1. See a step-by-step guide to getting housing, education, employment, financial literacy, and healthcare 2. Increase access to the Indigenous...
What is the name of your organization?
Hoyan
What is the name of your solution?
Indigenous Social Mobility App
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
We will cut Tribal poverty by 10% by 2035.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Portland, ME, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
USA
What type of organization is your solution team?
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
The U.S. Census reported that the poverty on Tribal lands is 28.4% and 1-in-6 families live in Poverty. Nearly 1-in-2 AI/AN adults suffer from obesity according to the National Institutes of Health. According to the HHS Office of Minority Health, the overall death rate for Native Americans was 50% higher than for non-Hispanic whites and 5x higher for adolescent females age 15-to-19. Additionally, for every suicide there are 25-to-30 attempts. According to the CDC, Native Americans saw a 15% increase in drug overdose deaths and 56.6 deaths by drug overdose per 100,000 people.,
What is your solution?
Hoyan creates a cohesive approach to delivering human services. Hoyan is a social health passport mobile app that shows service providers "moved the needle" for Native Americans struggling with poverty and other diseases of despair. It allows end users to: 1. See a step-by-step guide to getting housing, education, employment, financial literacy, and healthcare 2. Increase access to the Indigenous Social Drivers of Health 3. Track progress 4. Ask for help in a unique way to stay on track with their goals. It allows service providers to: 1. Collaborate, coordinate, and communicate 2. Reinforce good choices 3. Market their services when clients need them 4. Get better outcomes. It allows Tribal Nations to: 1. Get quality data on their human services efforts 2. Better compete for federal grant funding 3. Honor Seven Generations
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
I am working with people struggling with the diseases of poverty and other diseases of despair. Going up one economic level - social mobility - is difficult to do for Americans - and harder for opportunity youth, people with criminal history, and people living in poverty. There are plenty of services out there but finding them is often like locating toothpicks in a Walmart. Hoyan treats the whole person by combining a Life Coach, a Case Manager, and a therapist to address one's Past, Present, and Future. It also allows clients to have their small needs met in real-time so people don't fall off track in achieving goals. IF someone can't afford diapers and toilet paper on the 25th of the month and subsequently can't pay the rent, they may go homeless and their children will most likely suffer worse life outcomes. On the highway of life, it's the detours and not the roadblocks. Hoyan encourages people to work on a life plan and keeps them on track.
Solution Team:
Ken House
Ken House