Youth Disability Advocacy Service
From 25 disconnected tools to one secure CRM for youth disability advocacy
As the Youth Disability Advocacy Service prepared to become an independent organisation, its work was spread across more than 25 disconnected tools, with confidential case notes about disabled young people scattered across spreadsheets, inboxes and personal laptops. We partnered with YDAS to put a number on what that fragmentation was costing, lay out the options, and implement one secure case-management system that its team co-designed and now runs itself.
Outcomes
- One secure case-management system live on Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, replacing more than 25 disconnected tools
- A single source of truth for sensitive information about disabled young people, with strict privacy controls built in
- In-house capability to run and improve the system: CRM Project Officers, Champions and a CRM Lead
- A clear, costed case for change that quantified an estimated $264K–$422K a year of lost capacity — time now going back into advocacy
- Confidential case management and program tracking unified in one place, co-designed with the staff who use it
Services
- Service Design
- Design research
- Digital strategy
- Capability building
Sectors
A new organisation, held back by its tools
In 2025, YDAS — the Youth Disability Advocacy Service — was standing up as an independent organisation, funded by the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance to put a proper CRM in place. The timing mattered: YDAS exists to amplify the voices of disabled young people, and independence was a chance to build systems that matched that mission. But day-to-day reality got in the way. Advocacy, programs and communications ran across more than 25 separate tools that didn't talk to each other, staff spent their days working around the technology, and the insight that should have powered advocacy sat locked in inboxes and spreadsheets.
Putting a number on the pain
We began discovery by mapping YDAS's whole technology and data landscape, and asking staff to be honest about what it was like to work inside it. Critical case data — much of it sensitive information about young people — lived in inconsistent places, from Azure and AWS to Excel, SharePoint and personal laptops, with no single source of truth. Staff were losing up to 12 hours a week to duplication, searching and workarounds. All told, keeping the patchwork running was costing YDAS an estimated $264,000 to $422,000 a year — more than four full-time roles' worth of capacity that could have gone to young people instead.
A decision YDAS could own
We set out two costed, plain-language implementation plans — a "configure-first" build and a faster "off-the-shelf" rollout — and laid out exactly what each would ask of YDAS and of us. We also wrote short job descriptions for the internal roles the new system would need, so YDAS could weigh the people side alongside the software. We shaped the system around how its teams actually work: Individual Advocacy's confidential case management and Programs' workshop tracking, with strict privacy controls protecting young people's rights throughout.
A system the team runs itself
We implemented YDAS's new case-management system on Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, migrating data out of the scattered tools into one secure home. Just as importantly, we built the capability to keep it running: CRM Project Officers co-designed and tested the build, Champions supported colleagues through the change, and a CRM Lead took on long-term ownership. From the start, the plan was for YDAS to run the system without us — and today it does. The system is live across the organisation, protecting sensitive information in one place and freeing staff to spend their time on advocacy instead of admin.
