When a natural disaster strikes, All Hands and Hearts arrives early and stays late to assist the affected communities. Thanks to passionate volunteers, donors and partners, the U.S.-based nonprofit has provided 15 years of disaster relief support to over 1.2 million people.
In recent months, All Hands and Hearts has operated projects in response to damaging hurricanes in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico, earthquakes in Mexico and Nepal, and a tropical cyclone in Mozambique.
All Hands and Hearts Mobilizes Quickly
All Hands and Hearts effectively and efficiently addresses the immediate and long-term needs of communities, by building in a disaster-resilient way that better prepares them for future events. Utilizing a unique volunteer model, All Hands and Hearts is able to mobilize quickly to work alongside local residents in areas around the world struck by natural disasters. The volunteers, many who have not had formal environment, health and safety training or experience in construction, are provided with on-the-job training.
In 2019, All Hands and Hearts made a renewed commitment to safety. As part of that, they created a new safety management role, to promote a consistent level of safety for all of their staff and volunteers. As part of the renewed commitment All Hands and Hearts invested in Intelex, the global leader in environmental, health, safety and quality (EHSQ) management software.
Near Miss and Incident Reporting
The project, which is now well underway, allows users to report near-misses and incidents via a web-based-interface, or from the field via their mobile phones. This enables All Hands and Hearts to put-in-place corrective and preventative actions to protect the many volunteers who work tirelessly to help communities get back on their feet.
“All Hands and Hearts is a fantastic example of the great work that our customers are doing to make the world a safer place and most importantly in this case, keep those whose lives are affected by natural disasters as uninterrupted as possible,” said Cory Gendron, CRO at Intelex Technologies ULC. “Working on this project has enabled Intelex to really show that we are changing business for good.”
One Goal Is Real-Time Data
Prior to working with the Intelex platform, the All Hands and Hearts team utilized a paper-based process to record incidents. Often, there would be a lag between the event happening and it being officially recorded. This contributed to delays in adopting measures to reduce or prevent future incidents.
“Having a simple, easy to use system whereby our team can quickly and effectively record near misses and incidents on their mobile device, in real-time will change the way we work and have a profoundly positive effect on our safety culture,” said Gary Pitts, Safety & Security Lead, All Hands and Hearts. “We are hoping that working with the Intelex system will allow us to define all of our incidents, track them through to corrective action points, and make sure that we are providing the safest environment for our volunteers and staff across the globe.”
Pitts noted that while they are in the early stages of the deployment, “it is an important step in our commitment to continually improve our safety culture.”
