Frequently asked questions
1. What kind of service problem could a Guided Pathway help our organization solve?
A Guided Pathway may help if your organization:
- regularly asks clients to complete difficult forms on their own
- does not have enough staff to help everyone who needs support
- spends too much time on intake or collecting the same information
- has difficulty connecting clients with other services
- does not always identify clients’ needs in a consistent way
Guided Pathways can help with intake, completing forms, identifying client needs, and making referrals. This allows staff to spend less time on routine tasks and more time providing the personal help clients need.
2. What would the client experience look like?
The Guided Pathway is designed to fit your service and your clients’ needs.
Clients may complete it online, at your organization, or with help from a staff member or volunteer. Your organization can also send a Guided Pathway directly to a client. In some cases, staff or volunteers may complete it on the client’s behalf.
After completing the Guided Pathway, clients may receive documents or instructions based on their answers. Your organization may receive a summary of the client’s information or documents to review.
If your organization has agreed on a referral process with another organization, the Guided Pathway can also share information with that organization. The client must agree before the information is shared.
3. How much staff time could it save, and how much new work will it create?
This depends on how your organization uses the Guided Pathway. The goal is to reduce staff time spent on existing tasks, help your organization serve more people with its available resources, or both.
In an earlier pilot that ran over several years, a Guided Pathway helped with intake, preparing documents, and referrals. The receiving organization estimated that it saved about one hour of staff time for each referral.
A Guided Pathway may also allow volunteers to help clients complete long, detailed forms that previously required staff assistance.
If your organization uses a Guided Pathway to offer a new service, this may create some additional work. However, the Guided Pathway should make it possible to offer that service with less staff time than would otherwise be needed.
4. How much does it cost?
The cost depends on what the Guided Pathway needs to do.
CLEO may be able to develop and host a Guided Pathway at no cost to your organization if:
- the project fits CLEO’s current development priorities
- the Guided Pathway helps identify legal needs that might otherwise go unnoticed and connects users with relevant CLEO legal information
Larger projects, connections to other technology systems, and major changes usually need separate funding.
CLEO can help prepare a grant application for a project we are interested in. We can also receive and manage funding for projects we develop together.
Before your organization agrees to a project, CLEO will explain any expected costs for development, hosting, support, and maintenance.
5. How much work will our organization need to do?
CLEO does most of the design and technical work.
Your organization’s main role is to share its knowledge of the service. This includes providing forms and other information, reviewing and testing the Guided Pathway, and getting any necessary approvals.
If your organization already has clear procedures and documents, you may not need to spend much time on the project.
Your organization may need to do more work if the service is new, important decisions still need to be made, or several teams or organizations need to agree on how the service will work.
6. Can we start small?
Yes. Your organization can start with one intake process, a simple form or document, a way to identify client needs, or a referral to another organization.
Starting with a small project lets you test how well the Guided Pathway works for clients and staff. You can see whether it saves time, fits into your existing work, and helps clients before deciding whether to expand it.
7. How long does development take?
A simple Guided Pathway project usually takes about 6 months. A larger or more complex project usually takes about 18 months.
The timeline depends on what the project involves, available funding, and the documents and information CLEO needs. Special features, testing, decisions involving several people or organizations, and required approvals can also affect the schedule.
CLEO can usually begin planning once your organization agrees to move forward and provides the necessary documents.
CLEO does not currently have a wait-list for simple projects, but this may change as we take on new projects.
8. Does the pathway provide legal advice?
No. CLEO Guided Pathways provide legal information and step-by-step help with legal tasks. They do not provide legal advice about a person’s specific situation or create a lawyer-client relationship.
9. Does CLEO decide whether a client qualifies for our service?
No, unless your organization and CLEO specifically agree that the Guided Pathway will help make this decision. Your organization must also provide clear rules for the Guided Pathway to follow.
Your organization remains responsible for deciding who qualifies for its services, meeting its legal and professional obligations, and making decisions about the services it provides.
10. Who supports users and staff?
Your organization provides the first level of technical support to clients, staff, and volunteers who use the Guided Pathway.
CLEO supports the managers or administrators your organization identifies as its main contacts. We also offer training and resources to help your organization train its own staff and volunteers.
CLEO aims to respond to support requests within two business days. We respond to urgent problems as soon as possible.
11. Can the pathway connect with our other systems?
Yes, depending on what your organization needs.
Guided Pathways can support:
- common document and data formats
- email and text message notifications
- secure sharing of files
- reports on how people use the Guided Pathway
- branding specific to your organization
It may also be possible to connect a Guided Pathway to your existing client or case management system. These connections require separate planning and funding.
Guided Pathways do not currently support single sign-on, which lets users access different systems with one login. They also cannot be embedded directly into your website. However, your website can include a link to the Guided Pathway.
12. Is the service available in French?
CLEO currently offers this service for organizations in English only. We do not offer French-language development as a standard part of these projects.
However, CLEO continues to offer many of its public Guided Pathways in French.
13. Will CLEO provide a demonstration?
CLEO can answer your questions and review a short description of how your organization would like to use a Guided Pathway.
If a demonstration would help us decide whether a Guided Pathway is a good fit, we can consider arranging one as part of the initial project discussions.