Related Work
The design of VOICE draws on earlier programs such as Community Voice Mail and on books and studies about mutual aid, design justice, digital inclusion, and trauma-informed practice.
Earlier and Related Programs
Community Voice Mail, 1991 to About 2015
Community Voice Mail was a national program, begun in Seattle, that gave free personal voicemail boxes with local phone numbers to people through social service agencies. At its height it worked through about 2,000 agencies in more than 40 cities and served tens of thousands of people each year. Its design and its eventual closure are documented in the Solid Ground retrospective Disconnecting the Line, which is a useful study of both what worked and what made the program difficult to sustain.
Miracle Messages
San Francisco, California. miraclemessages.org
Miracle Messages runs a hotline that helps people reconnect with family and friends, and a phone-buddy program that pairs people with volunteers for regular calls and texts. It employs people with lived experience as community ambassadors. It shows volunteer communication infrastructure built as much to keep people in touch with one another as to help them reach services.
ProxyAddress
London, United Kingdom.
ProxyAddress is a social enterprise, supported by local governments, that gives people a stable alias postal address. Mail sent to it is forwarded to an address of the person's choosing, which they can change online, by email, or by text message.
mRelief
Chicago, Illinois. mrelief.com
mRelief helps people check their eligibility for SNAP and apply online, by text message, and by phone, and submits supporting documents to state agencies by fax or email. It is an example of a nonprofit organization submitting the paperwork on applicants' behalf.
Digital Inclusion
National Digital Inclusion Alliance, Digital Navigator Program Toolkit
The toolkit offers planning worksheets, training materials, sample job descriptions, and program design guidance for digital navigator programs.
EveryoneOn
EveryoneOn publishes guides and a capacity-building toolkit for organizations that help people get affordable internet service, devices, and digital skills training.
Benton Institute for Broadband and Society
The Benton Institute publishes ongoing analysis of the federal Lifeline program, including barriers to enrollment, the effects of verification rules, and the changes to Lifeline that the Federal Communications Commission proposed in February 2026.
Community Practice and Infrastructure
Spade, D. (2020). Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next). Verso.
This short, practical book defines mutual aid, distinguishes it from charity, and discusses how groups can organize, make decisions, and avoid burnout.
Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need. MIT Press.
The book examines who designs systems, who benefits, and who is harmed, and describes design that is led by and accountable to the communities it affects most. The related Design Justice Network Principles are maintained at designjustice.org.
brown, a. m. (2017). Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. AK Press.
The book draws on patterns in nature to describe how movements grow through small, adaptive actions and trusted relationships.
Kretzmann, J. P., and McKnight, J. L. (1993). Building Communities from the Inside Out. ACTA Publications.
This is the founding text of asset-based community development, which starts from the skills and resources a community already has. Later critiques note that the approach can understate structural barriers and suggest pairing it with an analysis of power and resources.
Detroit Community Technology Project, Digital Stewards Curriculum
The project offers community wireless networking and training rooted in the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition's principles. The curriculum prepares community members to build and maintain their own network infrastructure.
Mattern, S. (2014). Library as Infrastructure. Places Journal.
The essay describes the public library as social infrastructure that has served at once as a reading room, a social service center, a knowledge commons, and a communication hub. Eric Klinenberg's Palaces for the People (2018) extends the idea of social infrastructure further.
Research and Policy
Sieck, C. J., and others (2021). Digital Inclusion as a Social Determinant of Health. npj Digital Medicine, 4, 52.
The article argues that digital access belongs among the conditions that shape health, and reviews how digital exclusion affects access to care and benefits.
Community Legal Services of Philadelphia (2021). ID.me Presents Barriers for Low Income People.
This issue brief documents how ID.me's facial recognition and smartphone requirements can create obstacles for people without smartphones or identity documents.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2014). SAMHSA's Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach.
The guidance sets out six principles, which have been adapted widely in service delivery and technology design. SAMHSA's Practical Guide for Implementing a Trauma-Informed Approach (2023) expands it, and the Accessibility page lists it with the other sources on disability justice, trauma-informed design, and accessibility standards.
- Safety
- Trustworthiness and transparency
- Peer support
- Collaboration and mutuality
- Empowerment, voice, and choice
- Cultural, historical, and gender issues