Request and accept offers of help from people you know and trust.
Know who to ask and get help in a few taps.
And look forward to that holiday, new car or saving for the kids’ education.
This is the best way to regularly, schedule short help with the kids and avoid the hassle and expense of a babysitter.
Even though we're friends, I never would have asked her for help without the app. I can rely on my community a lot more in the future.
Relationships made at the school gate can transform a parent’s care options and build social capital for families and the school.
Moving to a new area could have felt isolating but within a few short weeks of using the app we had people we knew that we could ask for ad hoc help with our son.
Step 1: Sign up for free
Step 2: Create your profile to help activate your school community
Step 3: Share with friends
Step 4: Give/ get help for time credits or cash
Step 1: Tell parents at your school
Step 2: Involve your P and C and class reps
Step 3: Ask your principal to support the building of the school and parent community
Step 4: Contact us - we can help
Just like your banking app, users names, mobile numbers and emails are cross linked to check a user is who they say they are. Same school people who are already members confirm this and provide permission for users to enter the community with no ability to view identifying child data other than the child’s connection to its parent.
Making requests for the month ahead or offers for the week ahead makes planning easy and personal commitment low and flexible.
Ultimate flexibility for members wanting to keep tabs on their credit balance and use cash payments along with credits. Any booking can be paid in either cash or credits.
Search results stay highly relevant when members star their preferred childminders in their private lists. Even without nominating favourites, members will see fellow school parents with similarly aged children first. No more scrolling through endless mismatched carers.
Clay recognises and makes visible members who are actively caring for kids in the community. Acknowledging previously unseen care work motivates this in others.
Information relating to bookings is easily shared with a quick and easy form that needs only be filled out once on signing up. Importantly, information is only shared when an offer for help has been accepted by the requesting parent.
Notifications telling parents when there are unanswered requests for help, when they have new chat messages, or when a new member wants to join keeps community engagement high throughout the week. Creating a habit of helping and actively communicating with parents across the community who share the same problem and purpose.
No one likes to miss an appointment. Any booking, whether for a school pick, drop or child minding is automatically placed in a parents ical or google calendar for them to accept and set their reminder alarm.
Tell us what you’d like CLAY to do via the Help button. We love knowing what’s important to you.
Clay is a community of school registered parents and friends sharing school runs and ad hoc childminding. It’s a bit like a traditional babysitting club but much more powerful, it’s supported by technology which gives parents greater reach, beyond a static small group of friends along with better visibility, timeliness and safety.
Being a member can help you access more local childminding and transport by people you actually know. It’s also cheaper and easier to find, book and manage a childminding and transport booking through the App. You also get a flexible alternative to long term care bookings (10 weeks or more) or expensive and ever-changing casual babysitting arrangements. Unlike a closed group on a social platform, you are the administrator of your own group and you take your connections with you, even when your child changes school.
You can only enter the community as a known person. The community is school centred so you’ll be surprised how many people you know in the community. There is a 2 step secure sign in, verifications from friends, and a pin. The app is designed for people who know each other to book care with each other. All members have presented themselves as school parents and you can also choose to only book carers with WWCC checks.
The App encourages members to get a WWCC but it is not compulsory as most members will just be booking care with close friends. Members are always in control of who they book care with and need to confirm they’ve had an in-person meeting previously. The WWCC was not created to control ad hoc help between parents.
Yes, childminding and transport during the 0-12 years costs parents $5-10K per child after tax in Australia. By including a another family’s child with your own for a few hours per week you can potentially collapse this cost over a year by accessing same value care. This is as simple as including a child on the school run or minding them during a ‘playdate’.
The app is free to download and use for now. When a parent registers within the app, they’ll be creating a possibility for a community of shared help to exist at your school. When enough same school parents join - your school’s full access is switched on and parents can start booking with each other. Community building takes time and supporting the use of the app within your community gives the best chance of success for the school community.
