What a Guided Pathway can do for your organization
Guided Pathways break down complex or lengthy processes into simple questions and helpful next steps.
Guided Pathways help organizations spend less time collecting the same information and completing routine paperwork. This gives staff more time to focus on work that needs their experience, judgment, or follow-up.
Support client intake
A Guided Pathway can collect the information your organization needs from a client in a simple, consistent way. Clients can complete the intake before an appointment or with help from a staff member or volunteer. They can also complete it at another organization that refers them to your services.
This can help your organization:
- avoid asking clients for the same information more than once
- make sure staff and volunteers ask all the important questions
- follow the same intake process across staff, volunteers, and locations
- collect information from clients outside regular office hours
- give staff useful information before they begin helping a client
Help with forms and documents
CLEO first developed Guided Pathways to help people complete legal forms and documents. Each Guided Pathway asks users simple questions and uses their answers to fill out a form, legal document, letter, checklist, or action plan.
This can be helpful when:
- a form is long or asks for a lot of information
- clients need to complete forms or documents on their own
- staff spend a lot of time completing the same types of documents
- volunteers or students could help clients complete forms if they had clear, step-by-step guidance
Identify legal needs
Clients may come to your organization with a problem without realizing it involves a legal issue. A Guided Pathway can ask questions to help identify possible legal problems.
Based on the client’s answers, the Guided Pathway can:
- provide relevant legal information from CLEO
- suggest another CLEO Guided Pathway that might help
- provide information about legal services that could help
- help refer the client to another organization if the organizations have agreed on a referral process
This helps your organization identify possible legal problems early and connect clients with reliable information and services.
Support service navigation and next steps
When clients complete a Guided Pathway, they can get information that fits their situation and helps them understand what to do next. This might include:
- personalized instructions
- completed forms or documents
- a checklist or action plan
- contact information for relevant services
- a referral confirmation or reference number
- information about what will happen next
Are you interested in exploring how to work with other organizations on a Guided Pathway that will help your clients get the services they need?