Kinderspot Phase IIB

The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (AFIMSC) has identified a national defense-related mission need in the area of software development to develop a web-based platform or App for parents of children enrolled in military Child Development Centers (CDCs) to sublease their child’s spot to eligible families with short-term childcare needs. With an Airbnb-type subletting solution, we can positively impact military family resiliency and retention of Airmen through improved childcare options. Kinderspot is a secure, mobile application that creates a marketplace for CDC families to advertise unused spots to other eligible families. Similarly, families with a short-term childcare need can use Kinderspot to find space in the CDC. Kinderspot helps solve several key family readiness challenges. First, during our customer discovery interviews, we learned that many Airmen were forced to turn down valuable Temporary Detached Duty (TDY) opportunities because the Airmen needed to bring their children with and could not find short term childcare at the TDY location. Second, families with unused spots are forced to assume the financial burden for that time, which impacts their ability to take TDY or even family vacation. Though USAF childcare policy allows for subletting, the practice is not operationally consistent across all Air Force installations, up to some bases not supporting or minimally supporting subletting. Since there is not an official and transparent marketplace for sublets, these transactions are being facilitated in closed social media groups or offline. In both of these cases, there’s no way to ensure that the transactions are conducted fairly, within policy and members are not overcharged. Kinderspot ensures these transactions are safe, secure, fair, and in accordance with USAF policy. The deployment commitment in the SBIR Phase II was 10-15 CONUS installations. This limited rollout enabled us to rigorously test functionality and process with actual users.