1. Stamford Interactive
Game of Homes
Concept pack
Draft at 1 September 2015
Karl has just turned18, and was
forced to leave his State care
arrangements.
Legislatively, there is no obligation on the
State or Federal Government to provide
for Karl after he is 18. He was living with a
foster family (his tenth family in his
lifetime); however, without funding the
foster family was no longer able to
continue to support Karl, and Karl wanted
to move back with his mum.
Karl was born into homelessness, by a
teenage mother with a history of
substance abuse and violence. Karl was
put into State care at the age of 3.
Karl could not afford a rental bond after
his mum kicked him out and without
knowing who to speak to about housing
options or who to ask for financial aid, his
only access to housing was to become
homeless. To date, Karl has been able to
sleep on friends’ couches but he doesn’t
know how much longer this can last.

2. 2
Game of Homes
A game, that young people at risk of homelessness (between 16-25) can play to earn points, and
those points are tradable for rewards that are meaningful to them.
Social
issue
Every year, approximately 800-900 young people exit the State Care system in Victoria.
Every year, approximately 200-300 of those young people will become homeless
because of inadequate support and access to relevant programs and opportunities
during the transition to independence.
Problem
with
current
state of
affairs
The problems are twofold:
1. Currently, it is difficult for young people (both in the State Care system, and that
have recently exited the State Care system) to know what services and programs
already exist to assist their transition to independence, and how to access those
services and programs. The government and not for profit systems are very
difficult to navigate.
2. Young people can obtain income via welfare payments or employment, but there is
no middle ground mechanism to earn income to support a young person’s access
to goods, services and opportunities.
Solution To create an innovative digital marketplace (the Game of Homes) for young people to
access assistance to aid their transition out of State Care, to prevent youth
homelessness and provide a third, or “middle ground”, option for young people to pay
for the goods, services and opportunities relevant to their needs and wants.
Stage of
solution
• CEOs of main NFPs in youth homelessness sector are aware of and supportive of
concept (Launch Housing, Berry St Institute, CHP, Melbourne City Council).
• Berry St Institute has completed initial review of first version of paper prototypes
drafted by Joni Pirovich, with input from Tom Brunzell of Berry St Institute (currently
undertaking a PhD in the application of positive psychology to vulnerable groups in
society).
• Workshops will be held with high schools students at Berry St campuses in Morwell
and Noble Park throughout September, whereby the students will be taken through
the paper prototypes to test the concept as well as obtain insights on what services,
opportunities and rewards the young people would play for.
• Feedback meeting with the Simon Benjamin, Director of Care Services at
Lighthouse Foundation will be held in September, to obtain insights on what
services, opportunities and rewards the young people are receiving through
Lighthouse Foundation.

3. 3
Game of Homes
What is involved in the game?
Purpose GoH is designed to promote connectedness and inter-dependence and is based on the
concept of having local community groups and suppliers support its youth at risk.
Engagement with the game is intended to improve the mental health and employability
of youth at risk of homelessness by providing a safe, fun and engaging environment that
teaches autonomy and self-sufficiency – all via a smart phone, which the majority of
young people at risk of homelessness already have!
Overview
of key
features
The game has four stages:
1. Struggling, everything is going wrong;
2. Stable, but some things are really hard;
3. Ok, but numb and not excited about much; and
4. Starting to become interested in things.
Basic points are earned by players progressing through game pathways by:
• answering questions about feelings, state of physical health etc; and
• participating in various learning-based opportunities via the digital interface
(education in bite size bits).
Bonus points are earned by players:
• participating in various skill-based opportunities away from the digital interface
(e.g. sports, the arts, science and technology, personal finances);
• entering “diary entries” (the data obtained would allow insights to be gained, which
would be coded into the game pathways and allow services, programs and
opportunities to be pushed to the player through the game - as and when the
player reaches the appropriate stage of the game the services, programs and
opportunities can be claimed); and
• Demonstrating positive behaviour (such as creating and maintaining positive
relationships; resilience; and gratitude).
Extracts from “Struggling” sequence of the game

4. 4
Game of Homes
How players claim rewards
Rewards Will range between essential and non-essential goods, services and opportunities.
Some rewards will be available via the game pathways whereas other rewards will only
be claimable via the points trading platform (think, a combination of gumtree and a
Facebook newsfeed – an example of what the “Rewards feed” might look like is
depicted to the right).
Value
proposition
of suppliers
of rewards
Coles could potentially provide:
• goods;
• paid or unpaid work experience and / or employment; and
• opportunities to participate in induction / health and safety training (which might
be transferable to other like organisations).
Coles could fund those goods and opportunities via either or a combination of:
• subtracting a percentage of profits from every transaction;
• adding a premium to certain products – it could be different each day/week/month
– to be determined by the Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility teams; or
• alternatively, Coles could provide the work experience / opportunities as an unpaid
offering, via the game pathways (rather than a reward that can only be claimed by
trading in points) to build skills and encourage positive work behaviour.
Benefits to Coles include:
• increased customer loyalty – customers know that the funds from their grocery bill,
or the products they have paid a premium for, are going towards supporting the
young people at risk of homelessness in their local area;
• increased staff engagement (and retention), as the staff may need to be involved in
bringing the opportunities to life and would be helping improve the life
circumstances of the young person; and
• Attraction of new customers – the young people shopping at Coles (via trading
points) would actually be contributing revenue to Coles.
Extracts from “Rewards” sequence of the game

5. 5
Game of Homes
Next milestones
Steering
Committee
meeting on 5
October 2015
Collate feedback from student workshops and meeting with Lighthouse Foundation
into a report to be shared with the Steering Committee in October 2015 (October
2015 Report), including a recommendation as to whether to proceed with technical
build of the Game of Homes pilot app, or if other avenues should be pursued.
Resolution of
critical issue
of “supply”
Availability of opportunities in order for the player to earn points, and availability of
meaningful rewards.
Possible steps to resolve critical issue of “supply”:
• If the recommendation of the October 2015 Report is to proceed with a
technical build for a pilot app, we would need to identify and secure a select
number of opportunity providers and reward providers.
• The identification of reward providers will depend on the young people
selected for the Bosch trial (i.e. $75,000 provided over 3 years to test
effectiveness of a diminishing rental subsidy), as this group of young people will
likely be the first user group to engage with the pilot version of the app.
• Notwithstanding that the pilot app would be tested on the group of young
people selected for the Bosch trial, the types of goods, services and
opportunities built into the pilot app would ideally be useful and meaningful for
the majority(at least 70%) of the target users.
The ask Initial feedback on whether this concept would align with your strategic direction,
operational factors of implementing this concept and specific terms on which you
would be interested in further involvement (if any).