Harlem Children’s Zone is a nonprofit organization committed to breaking the cycle of poverty in Central Harlem by working to build community, strengthen families, and ensure children succeed from birth through college graduation.

HCZ® has achieved unprecedented success, helping thousands of children and families and disrupting the cycle of generational poverty in Central Harlem through innovative and effective programs since 1970.

The goal of developing an intranet for the organization was to help foster a greater sense of community within the organization, more efficiently distribute information and training, and bridge the gap between the leadership and the employees in the field. Some challenges in developing the design and strategy for the intranet included the high turnover rate in staff and the high percentage of employees who had never used an intranet before. It was also important to be very mobile friendly, as some employees only accessed the intranet using smartphones.

I really focused on creating a fun and exciting design and color palate, that was carried throughout the intranet to help a clear distinction between intranet sections. The strategy was also very focused on being flexible to grow if the intranet’s social and community sections became a popular feature. Since the previous intranet wasn’t used, there was no data to indicate if this feature would be utilized, but I helped lay out a few options for strategy and direction for the organization to follow depending on the activity after launch.