The lockdown has given rise to new needs and sharpened the ingenuity of many. It also happened to Ottavia Borellalawyer specializing in family law, ed Elena Rivano, communications consultant, creators of the Circle in Family application. In a historical moment in which women want to get out of the pivot role around which the whole family axis rotates, this app can be a tool that helps to no longer place them alone at the heart of family management.
“The idea was born during the lockdown – explained Borella – when the courts slowed down the response to the needs of families and I identified the issues that generate conflict in the couple. Then it was decided to try to create a market survey with a series of questions and I set myself the goal of verifying the needs that, in my profession, I was breathing mostly in the pathologies of families. This market investigation, made on a sample of 350 familiesgave very positive responses and allowed us to identify needs that matched the functionality of the app we had in mind ”.
Circle in Family therefore gives support to the family, allowing you to create and share information of different kinds: a calendar for keep an eye on appointments of all the components, accounting and money management (a particularly useful function for larger households, where parents have to contribute to the expenses of their children), photo albums, documents and organization of meals, from the menu to grocery shopping. In short: “Circle in Family is an answer to working parents with children who have a lot of commitments a week. The app helps the organization, the part that requires the most effort and time, and reduces its complexity. And it is also a corporate welfare product, because management can create inefficiencies at work ”.
The positive synergistic effect is the involvement and participation of the whole family: parents, grandparents, extended nuclei to those who are part of the family in the traditional sense of the term as well as to the people we have chosen as a family, all share the tasks involving, where possible, even the children.
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The numbers
Up to this moment the creators have invested 100 thousand euros and since last November, that is, since a communication campaign began, the number of downloads of the app from digital stores is constantly growing: “We are respecting the business plan. We have verified that the need exists and the app is also chosen by men. We want to enhance Circle as a welfare tool, for now we are focused on families, but we also intend to offer it to companies. In Italy there are 11 million families with children ”, added Borella and Rivano.
Better organization of family tasks it can also help gender equalitysupporting the professional life of mothers: “None of the competing apps have integrated all the features we offer, we want to act on the prevention of conflicts in the family, and behind there is a very precise job of identifying needs”.
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The next steps
The objectives are clear: “To expand the user base, start new collaborations and, in the coming months, grow again with a capital increase open to external investors – explained Borella and Rivano – Circle in Family is constantly improving”. Anyone wishing to fill in the appropriate questionnaire can do it herereceiving in exchange the possibility to use the app for free for one month.
The application, available for Android and iOS, includes free calendar and list functions, and allows you to create multiple families separated from each other in respect of privacy; the cost of additional features varies from 1.99 to 5.99 euros per month, depending on your needs.