HOPE Help Manual.

HOPE is a navigation and preparation tool

HOPE helps find services, organize a civic task, prepare paperwork, preserve the next action, and connect to official sources or human help. HOPE is not a government agency, emergency service, law firm, medical provider, benefits decision-maker, or case-management database.

Best first actions

• Danger now: use 911, 988, 2-1-1, or the fixed crisis route.
• Need a service: search or open the directory.
• Need to finish something: open Journeys.
• Have a form or notice: open Paperwork.

Search the way you speak

Use goals such as replace ID, food today, eviction notice, bus, or school enrollment. Search combines Journeys, services, and paperwork. Directory results are starting points, not promises of live availability.

Before traveling

• Check the source and last-reviewed information.
• Call before you go when hours, intake, capacity, or documents may change.
• Keep a backup option.

A Journey carries a task through the bureaucracy

Each Journey can show the next useful action, evidence to prepare, official source, what happens next, and a recovery path. The State ID pilot also shows who owns the waiting, private action receipts, burden indicators, and a deterministic What Changed summary.

Saved progress

Journey progress is stored on the current device. Earned progress is preserved when a blueprint is refreshed. Institutional waiting should be recorded as waiting on the agency, not as failure by the person.

Manual Private Mode is the default

Manual Private Mode runs in the browser and does not upload a case file to HOPE. It includes State ID readiness, Shelter Residency Letter, HealthyRhode and DHS checklists, Explain My Notice, document-photo guidance, and a local receipt locker.

AI is optional

AI may explain, extract, organize, translate, draft, and flag conflicts after consent. It may not invent facts, choose sworn answers, determine eligibility, authenticate evidence, enter passwords, or submit without final review. Delete any proposed field that has no visible source.

The Watch is HOPE's public trust surface

The Watch shows source health, known gaps, and release coverage. A source status does not guarantee live service capacity. Guardian remains a separately deployed evidence-acquisition and verification application.

No private Guardian data enters HOPE

HOPE is prepared for a future narrow, read-only public status contract. Operator identities, research notes, protected evidence, authentication, and publication controls stay inside Guardian.

Use the minimum necessary

Do not place Social Security numbers, full case files, immigration records, medical records, agency passwords, document photographs, or detailed trauma narratives into general HOPE tools. Saved Journeys and receipts live on the current device unless a specific feature says otherwise.

Leave No Trace

Use Leave No Trace before returning a borrowed phone, leaving a library computer, or ending a sensitive session. It clears Journey events, receipts, saved document metadata, drafts, queues, and other HOPE-prefixed browser data. It does not quietly re-enable analytics.

Golden rule

Help with the next action. Do not build a permanent client file in HOPE.

A person-facing handoff should include WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, BRING, SAY, CALL, and BACKUP. Show the person the exact information before it is texted, copied, printed, or shared.

Same-day escalation

Escalate court, eviction, appeal, immigration, utility shutoff, safety, benefit cutoff, custody, and other penalty deadlines to a qualified human the same day.

Partner tools are operational, not a case file

Partners may update resource facts, prepare shift packs, report service gaps, rehearse bed-availability workflows, and complete training. Do not place sensitive paperwork, personal case notes, trauma histories, or private Guardian evidence into Workbench status fields.

Public real-time bed availability stays off until governance, training, verification, partner readiness, and failure handling are complete.

Install HOPE

HOPE is a Progressive Web App. On Android, use the browser install prompt or Add to Home screen. On iPhone, use Share and Add to Home Screen. Open HOPE once with a connection so the offline shell can be stored.

What works offline

Previously cached public pages, the Help Manual, the Academy, selected Journeys, public resources, and local progress may remain available. Live functions, current service capacity, maps, AI calls, Guardian, and partner operations require a connection. Cached information may be stale, so call before traveling.

English and Spanish

Use the EN/ES control to change supported surfaces. When helping someone, use the person's preferred language and confirm important deadlines, addresses, and document names in the official source.

Display controls

The public home includes larger text, higher contrast, reduced motion, and low-data settings. HOPE supports keyboard focus and semantic landmarks. Report any screen-reader, zoom, caption, contrast, or tap-target problem.

Report facts about resources, not people

Useful reports include wrong hours or phone, no walk-ins, temporary closure, waitlist, changed eligibility or document rules, accessibility, language access, and broken links. Do not include a person's private case details.

Page is old or not updating

1. Reconnect and reload the page.
2. Close all HOPE tabs and reopen the installed app.
3. Use the browser's site-data controls only when necessary; this may erase local Journey progress and receipts.

A live function is unavailable

AI, partner operations, maps, Guardian, and live status tools may fail offline or when a server feature is disabled. Use the manual or official-source route and record the next follow-up.

Production foundations

Use the full Netlify source package for production. Build under Node 24, use strong server-side secrets, run the complete release gates, deploy a preview, test physical iOS and Android devices, verify assistive technology, and smoke-test Functions, Blobs, cookies, and response headers.

Separation boundaries

Guardian has separate authentication, storage, service-worker scope, APIs, and deployment. HOPE must not call protected Guardian APIs or share sessions. Paperwork Manual Private Mode uses a network deadbolt. Sensitive partner tools use stricter per-page policies.

HOPE provides general information, navigation, preparation, and local continuity. It does not provide legal advice, clinical diagnosis, professional representation, guaranteed service availability, or eligibility decisions. Important legal, immigration, appeal, benefit-cutoff, eviction, custody, safety, and utility deadlines require qualified human help.