Social Services Secure Communicator - "S3C," for short.

The real difficulty in keeping biological parents in touch with their children, whilst they are in either foster care or adoption. 

Many such parents are young and have experienced disrupted education and lives in general and struggle to find appropriate words to pass on to their children and their carers. They may also harbor feelings of guilt or loss. 

This, in turn, leads to an additional burden for the social worker, who may have to return several drafts of the annual contact letter, before they get something they can pass on to the child/carers. 

Finally, carers often find it difficult to write to biological parents, due to mixed feelings about the situation. They often feel that they have somehow played a part in removing the child from the biological family.

"There are over 391,000 children and youth in foster care. Mental and behavioral health is the largest unmet health need for these children and teens." https://www.childwelfare.gov/f...

"Around 5 million Americans are adopted."

https://adoptionnetwork.com/ad...

S3C, (the acronym for the working name for this product), is an AI driven platform that assists biological parents to indirectly, (overseen by social services), and securely communicate with their children and their carers, whilst they are in care. It prevents any direct unregulated communication between the biological parent and their child - rather like Paypal does in the online payment area. This is done for child-protection security reasons. 

It allows input in the form of digital text, handwritten notes and even voice-to-text. It then assesses how appropriate the content is and writes a report for the social worker, who then has the option to pass it on in its original form or ask the system to rewrite the text and eliminate disallowed details, such as contact information. This streamlined approach is highly beneficial for the parent(s), who may not have the skills to easily redraft their original message, (often several times), to comply with the social worker's feedback. In the long term, negative feedback can discourage biological parents from keeping in contact with their children. It also saves a great deal of time for the social worker, as modern AI can easily assess and rewrite letters to an acceptable standard.

If the letter is intended to be shared with the child(ren), which is now considered best practice, it will be in a well-produced and highly presentable form - potentially including some graphical elements. Foster and adopted children naturally seek to find validation and connection with their biological family and immature handwriting and badly worded text does not help them find either. Children in care often have impaired maturity and could make incorrect conclusions by a less polished letter.

Similarly, the carer is supported in their return letter writing task, which can be emotionally challenging, plus not all carers have impeccable spelling and grammar, which can easily be corrected by the same AI model. Many carers would find it far easier to simply submit a bullet point list of milestones the child had achieved in the previous year - and allow AI to generate a professional narrative style letter from it. This is already used in automated classified advertising and real estate listings.

Estimates for the US population of young people in care stands at around 400,000. Although only a small proportion of the total population, the impact of long-term mental health issues creates a long-term compounding tail of damage. In addition to the raw numbers, ethic minority families are overrepresented in this group and also suffer disproportionate long-term mental health issues and negative life outcomes.

In addition, S3C could also be used in prison/family communication situations.

As a life-long educator and a foster carer for several decades, I have a connection with this cohort of people. Whilst caring for children I did a great deal of ongoing training on all aspects of foster care and adoption. I was even in care myself, as a child.

None yet.

I already know I need guidance on the following, but there may be more:

A: developing a more robust business model

B: developing a scalable legal research framework. (This a digital product with a worldwide market).

C: marketing a digital product

D: structuring finances across multiple countries

E: optimum company structure

Currently, annual communication between biological parents and their children and carers is handled in hard copy form. This is both inefficient and has significant drawbacks for the biological parent(s) and the carers, as they are writing about a subject that is incredibly personal and intense for them, while at the same time, possibly not knowing a great deal of contect about the person they are writing to. For the children involved, it is more important that they receive something regularly, rather than hear the true, bt likely stressed writing voice of their biological parent. 

Whilst hardcopy will always be an option, it is AI's ability to quickly filter, edit and redraft even fairly detailed and complex documents that makes it a game-changer. I have trialed every useful aspect of ChatGPT 4 for this purpose, including getting it to help me fine-tune a text-to-speech function in Python. This adaptability makes it an incredibly powerful engine for this project. It can handle speech-to-text, then check and edit the text, for example, if a person finds writing or typing difficult, AI can give them many options that make the process easier for them. It can also output in audio, with a fairly accurate rendition of the writer's voice - given a few minutes' worth of training. With a bit of a workaround, it can also output as a talking avatar or realistic model. 

With further development, it would be possible for trusted biological parents to be placed on an automated version of the system, where the social worker does not have to actively intervene, but is forwarded copies of communications and automated reports.

Goal 1: to develop a fully functional model of the product leveraging the ChatGPT API and Python - within two months. I have a small group of software engineers that do various programming work for me from time to time, as my preferred programming language is Fortran. Two months is a generous amount of time for this goal.

Goal 2: to commence market research, including legal requirements - as soon as possible and for a month after Goal 1 is achieved. This is an area that I would need help with, including whether there would be any potential for IP protection. My initial thoughts, regarding market research are to approach a local social services department and ask them and their legal team what their requirements would be for such a product. Beyond that - and looking further afield, a more formal legal research process would probably be required, such as retaining a specialist lawyer.

Goal 3: to trial and fine-tune the product with a social services department - for several months after Goal 1 is achieved. As I am planning to work in the US for at least the next year and have an ongoing investment visa, I would be happy to pair up with a local department, but if that were problematic, the other option I have would be to work with Haringey Social Services in London, as they know me well; from my foster work and foster/adoption training over many years. As it is a digital product, I don't see distance as an impediment. In fact, over recent years, much of their training and formal meetings have gone online.

Goal 4: to take the product to market - within six months. This is an area with which I would need some assistance. I currently work with several highly successful billionaire investors/philanthropists - one that has an philanthropic operation in foster care, as well as a digital platform to aid entrepreneurial startups. I would also be most open to receiving guidance through MIT Solve.

Goal 5: to have the product available within at least six US states - within twelve months. I will also need guidance on this, as in Goal 4, above.

Goal 6: to have the product recognized as a viable and legal option in most US states, the UK, NZ and Australia. I anticipate needing to be on the ground in the UK - and as I have a home there, that would not be too difficult. Likewise, as an Australian citizen, I have no legal difficulties doing business in Aus/NZ. I also have a home in Australia, which makes extended business visits affordable.

Goal 7: to have the product or similar competitors available across the European language world - asap. It is inevitable that many or perhaps all of these services will go digital, but at what pace? I don't know, so it makes no sense to put a time limit on this goal. Also, as language models continue to develop rapidly, it may well be reasonable to include non-European language countries. I am well aware that if this product is successful, there will be imitator competitors.

It is too early to comment on this in detail, but I would anticipate the main metric would be the takeup of the system by social services. Beyond that simple number, I am keen to hear regular feedback from them and suggestions for improvement. I would also be open to getting feedback from private trials, such as using university students to assess its pros and cons.

This is a rather simplistic model, as it is early days. I will address it in terms of the stages of the development of the product itself, to begin with, ending in the long-term outcomes in the lives of the children and adults who use it.

ACTIVITIES:

The system needs to be developed on an offline IT platform. As an older trained scientist, my programming language is Fortran, which is not suitable, so I am learning Python. Although I don't intend to do all the programming myself, I need to know enough to make tweaks to improve the system in the future. However, I have created a detailed flow diagram of all the useful functions that the system will need. I have a handful of experienced programmers ready to begin coding.

OUTPUTS:

As soon as the first working model of the system is working, I will begin testing, debugging and optimizing it.

SHORT TERM OUTCOMES:

Once the system is in a good and reliable state, I intend to trial it with at least one local social services department. I have a backup plan, using a social service department that knows me well from fostering and training over many years.

MEDIUM TERM OUTCOME:

I see this as the roll-out stage. At this point, I want to see the system meet with approval from social services departments, as well as take in feedback and improve the product.

LONG TERM OUTCOMES:

At this point, I want to try to measure, or at least get some sort of qualitative feedback on the impact of the system. I would also like to look into what other services or products could be developed for this cohort.

Very simply, it's ChatGPT linked to a suitable modern coding language, such as Python. The system will reside on the client's server and will be maintained by their in-house IT tech person. 

ChatGPT provides excellent text regeneration with a highly specific set of instructions - and Python provides usability, to allow easy tweaks and modifications.

The product and its target users, in itself, work hard to address diversity, equity, and inclusivity. Children in care have a far higher chance of negative life outcomes and are over-represented by minority sectors of the population in any country. The following, relates to the US:

• There are over 391,000 children and youth in foster care. Mental and behavioral health is the largest unmet health need for these children and teens.
   
• Up to 80 percent of children in foster care have significant mental health issues, compared with approximately 18 to 22 percent of the general population.

From: https://www.childwelfare.gov/f...

In addition to the benefits arising from better communication between biological parents, their children and their carers, an inbuilt source of action on diversity, equity, and inclusivity is the social services organizations in themselves, which all have well-developed and reviewed policies in such matters.

As a teacher in some of the most needy areas of London, I have been well-trained in this area. As a child in Australia, with a Russian name, I received a fair bit of discrimination myself, so understand the issues from the inside. I also propose to team up with a group of talented programmers in Indonesia and the Philippines, which will provide them with opportunities to develop their careers beyond their own country, if they wish. 

I am proposing a hybrid profit and non-profit model. The non-profit side would be to license the product in developing countries at cost. In developed countries, I propose an affordable license fee - possibly recurring, but I would be keen to take advice on that. 

As a digital product, the margins are relatively high and because of how it would be implemented, the overheads are relatively low. The software would be digitally delivered and the client would have their in-house IT tech install it on their server. For the client, the cost/benefit return would be excellent. Social workers are in shortage and they are overworked. Any time saved doing administration back at the office gives them more time with their current caseload, or potentially, the ability to take on further children. 

The more children benefit from easier and more regular contact with their biological parents, the better. Even if the impact is only a few percent, it's a benefit that continues for years and compounds. It would probably take a dedicated specialist research project to calculate the net impact. It's not even just the amount of contact that occurs, but also the quality and ease with which it can be created that adds benefits - mostly for the biological parents, but also for the carer - and thereby, the children as well.

I am proposing using employing software specialists from developing countries, so they and their families also gain from the projects. Even with earnings well below the developed world, they do very well in purchase power parity terms. Their children attend the best schools and universities on offer and they have enough income to lead a decent and healthy life. This is the feedback I have received from the engineers who collaborated with me on a previous worldwide IT project.

As this is a proposed business, I will speak of two aspects:

Development funding: I can self-finance the initial prototype development of the product and the trial and fine-tuning phases. I am open to outside investment or donations, but I would like to receive guidance from MIT on that.

Ongoing income: this would probably be in the form of a tiered subscription model. As mentioned elsewhere, I propose providing the product to developing countries at cost. The main overheads would be for product and website maintenance and improvement. The other costs would be the same as any other small to medium online IT business.

This is a new project. It has been developed in my own time, at my own expense. As I have previously owned and ran an international IT company, (a vacation rental portal), I can see how this might follow a similar model to financial sustainability. I can fund the development of the product and an associated website - and as the product will be hosted on the client's equipment, the costs would not scale linearly. I would need a bit of guidance on developing a more robust business model.