Please help us encourage the safe use of pre-loved nursery equipment by voting for our Baby Safe App before 17 September.
If we get enough votes we could secure vital funding from Pick My Project to turn our prototype into a reality.
We've been using mobile apps to guide our volunteers through safety assessments for the past eight years, and now we want to make this important information available to all.
This app will share all the intellectual property (IP) we have collected over the past nine years about product safety for nursery equipment in Australia.
This IP includes international product recalls, contact information for suppliers/distributors of nursery products, shared knowledge of unrecalled products that have common faults, and also voluntary recalls and recommendations.
We have built a prototype of the platform that will share all this information with the world via a free application downloadable from the App Store or Google Play. The app could be used by social workers, new parents, at markets or op-shops, or by organisations like us in other states.
Why?
Op shops don't sell second hand nursery equipment anymore, so products exchange hands via gumtree or ebay. How can people be sure the pram they are given is safe?
How can a social worker know if the cot used by a foster carer has not been recalled?
How can we encourage the use of second hand nursery equipment without making it easy for people to check how safe it is?
What if the pram you were given is "broken"; how can you find information about the supplier and whether they offer after-sales support and repair?
How can we waste less?
Use Cases
Social workers & MCH nurses
A social worker could use the app when visiting a family in their home to check the safety of all nursery furniture and products in use. This is especially important in remote and regional areas where more second hand nursery products are in circulation.
Markets
The general public could use the app to make a decision about purchasing a second hand item from Gumtree, eBay, Facebook Marketplace or a swap and sell market.
New Parents
New parents could use the app to check that the gifts they receive for their new baby are safe. Not all products sold in store today are recommended by health professionals.
Op shops
Op shops often want to sell nursery items, but are prevented by lack of trained staff. This app could give staff confidence that the products in their stores have not been recalled.
Sister organisations
It's too costly and time consuming for our sister organisations (in Australia and worldwide) to develop their own technology, and build their own databases and information sharing systems. They can use our app to grow and serve their own communities faster. There is a complete list of Sister Organisations on our website.
For more information about this project, please contact our CEO jessica@stkildamums.org. Thank you!