Empowering Foster Families: South Texas Alliance for Orphans Digitizes Babysitter Certification with Kinetech

The uniqueness of Kinetech for us is the flexibility of the solution. It wasn’t like ‘Here’s the box that we work in and now we’re going to squish your needs, dreams, and ideas into this box... This is the only box we have.’ It is the opposite with Kinetech. You get exactly what you need in the most streamlined way for your process, rather than trying to make your processes fit into preconceived options.
- Jennifer Smith - Founder & Executive Director of The South Texas Alliance for Orphans (STAFO)

Delivered Value:

Aggregate Dashboard of Volunteers Making a Difference in the Community.

Source: a4o.kinetechcloud.com, February 2025.

In just 5 months since launching, STAFO has delivered the following results:

• 81 new applications, resulting in a nearly 180% increase in just 5 months, compared to the previous year. With 16 applications just in the last 30 days.
• 25 fully completed applications have already been processed. Previously, a majority of applications would be started and never completed.
• 11 of those have received their training already and can babysit going forward, increasing options & support available to foster families
• Applicants are coming in from over 20 different organizations/churches in the SA metro area, expanding the reach of STAFO significantly.
• The STAFO team can now put more time into marketing and other high-value areas, rather than manual processes associated with babysitting requirements.

Overview

The South Texas Alliance for Orphans (STAFO) is a nonprofit based in San Antonio and supports Bexar County and the surrounding region. STAFO helps the foster care system by unifying the disparate processes that support foster families, ensuring smoother communication and reducing administrative burdens. By aligning multiple agencies, STAFO creates an efficient pathway to support foster families while allowing them to focus on what matters most—providing care and stability for at-risk children.

Through this work, STAFO recognized that identifying, educating, and certifying babysitters is a significant challenge in the current regulatory landscape. To address this challenge, STAFO partnered with Kinetech to streamline and digitize the process while adhering to strict security standards related to personal identifiable information (PII) data. Powered by Kinetech GovCloud and built on the Mendix low-code platform, this collaboration enabled the rapid development and delivery of a solution tailored to the needs of STAFO, foster families, and agencies in Region 8 of the State of Texas.

Challenges

Being a foster parent is difficult. Approximately half of all foster parents drop out within the first 12 months.

The challenges foster parents face are wide-reaching. For starters, foster care is a confusing system where children who have been abused and neglected are placed into foster or kinship families while their parents make necessary changes to be reunified. This process can take a very long time and has many rules and regulations. For instance, if foster parents need to go out of state (i.e., family emergency / visit a loved one), they are prohibited by law from taking the children with them.

Relative caregivers struggle or are unable to say yes to caring for children in many situations. As a result, children may be placed in facilities instead of with families, and siblings often end up separated. This creates challenging situations and choices that are bad for all stakeholders involved.

If a foster parent elects to no longer foster, this can further compound larger issues for the children and their birth parents. Youth who age out of the foster care system frequently end up homeless, in prison, and in some cases, sex trafficked.

To address this and many other challenges, the South Texas Alliance for Orphans has designed wrap-around services to support foster parents, especially with respite babysitter care.

Respite babysitter care is essential for foster families as it ensures that caregivers of children in foster care meet the state-mandated requirements (CPR trained, safe home, etc). These babysitters give the primary foster parents a break or the ability to attend to personal matters. This service is critical as foster parents cannot access the typical pool of babysitters, as there are strict requirements, including:

1. Babysitters must be CPR-certified
2. Have passed a background check
3. Have been fingerprinted
4. Training in Trauma-Informed Care, Medication Administration, and Transporting Children

Additional hurdles must be cleared should other adults be present in the house (background checks), if they intend to transport the child in their vehicle (insurances), or have animals (vaccinations).

This creates hurdles for other adults who would like to assist (babysit), but may not have the ability to be a full-time foster parent.

The STAFO respite babysitter care / program allows foster parents a much-needed reprieve while ensuring the children are placed with adults who are certified to look after these children for up to 72 hours.

“When we learned about STAFO, the challenges they were addressing, and the statistics around foster care separation in San Antonio, we were compelled to take action. We are proud to support STAFO, foster families, and other agencies that are working to create positive outcomes in our community and country.”
- Michael Guido | CEO Kinetech

Solution

The South Texas Alliance for Orphans partnered with Kinetech Cloud to address the challenges of the babysitter certification process. The project leveraged the expertise of Kinetech’s seasoned developers, alongside the creativity and drive of its summer internship program. This collaboration delivered a practical solution for STAFO and embodied Kinetech’s commitment to "low-code for good," demonstrating how technology can create a meaningful, positive impact.

Key aspects of the solution included:

• Unified Processes Across Agencies: STAFO facilitated agreement among foster care agencies on common requirements for babysitter vetting. These requirements were digitized and standardized, eliminating the inconsistencies that previously created roadblocks for families.
  
• Digitized Documentation: Kinetech Cloud transformed the paper-based system into a streamlined digital workflow. Forms are now submitted, signed, and stored electronically, reducing processing time and minimizing errors.
• Centralized Babysitter Database: The solution includes a centralized database of certified babysitters, accessible to all partner agencies. This database allows agencies to quickly match foster families with babysitters who meet their specific needs, such as availability or experience with particular age groups.
• Automated Document Management: The system creates a secure, stamped copy of completed forms, which can be easily accessed by families or shared with agencies.

Results

The digital transformation of STAFO’s babysitter certification process has created a meaningful impact for foster families and agencies alike. In a short period, the STAFO digital application has begun the process of certifying 81 respite babysitters. This means:

• Improved Access for Families: Foster families now have quicker, easier access to certified babysitters. This allows foster parents to attend important out-of-state events, manage emergencies, and even enjoy occasional nights off—something many had not been able to do before
• Increased Collaboration Among Agencies: Agencies now benefit from a shared database of vetted babysitters, reducing duplication of effort and enabling better support for foster families.
  
• Enhanced Efficiency: By digitizing forms and automating processes, STAFO has significantly reduced the administrative burden on both families and agencies.
  By February 2025, STAFO Reported:
  
  • 81 new applications since launching in October
    
  • 12 fully completed applications
    
  • 11/12 of those have received their training already and can babysit
    
  • Applicants coming in from over 20 different organizations / churches in the SA metro area

The team at the South Texas Alliance for Orphans has praised Kinetech’s GovCloud built on Mendix for its simplicity and ability to provide much-needed process automation. Jennifer shared,

“The biggest difference is the lift on our end, and what Kinetech took off our plates is huge. The babysitting application includes a lot of complex processes and you can't control how or when people get through the process. Previously, volunteers spent time walking people through the process step-by-step, and we simply didn’t have the staff to do that. The Self-service application is hands-off for us and self-paced for applicants, which freed up a ton of time to focus on other areas.”

Conclusion

The partnership between the South Texas Alliance for Orphans and Kinetech demonstrates how Mendix’s low-code technology can be used to address complex challenges in the foster care system. This solution has empowered foster families to focus on their essential role in providing care and stability to vulnerable children by simplifying and standardizing the babysitter certification process.

For STAFO, this initiative represents a step forward in their mission to support foster families and create a more connected, efficient foster care ecosystem. As they continue to innovate and expand their efforts, STAFO exemplifies how collaboration and technology can create lasting change.