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 for disabled young people scattered across spreadsheets, inboxes and personal laptops. We partnered with YDAS to understand the real cost of that fragmentation, choose the right path forward, and implement a single, secure case-management system its team co-designed and now runs itself.
Outcomes
- A single, secure case-management system live on Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, replacing 25+ disconnected tools
- One source of truth for sensitive information about disabled young people, with strict privacy controls built in
- Internal capability to own and improve the system — CRM Project Officers, Champions and a CRM Lead — not ongoing reliance on a vendor
- A clear, costed plan that turned an estimated $264K–$422K a year of lost capacity into time for 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 the 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 worked around their technology rather than with it, 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. The picture was stark. 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. The same budget, spent on the right structure, could do far more for young people.
Two clear paths, one confident choice
Rather than hand YDAS a single recommendation, 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 wrote short job descriptions for the new internal roles the system would need, so YDAS could see the people side, not just the software. This wasn't technology done to YDAS; it was a decision the organisation could own. 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. The point was never to make YDAS dependent on us. Today the system is live and in use across the organisation — a single, secure source of truth that protects sensitive information and frees staff to spend their time on advocacy rather than admin.
