MSW student Rachel Grossinger is demonstrating what is possible when you bring an open mind and a modern toolkit into community care. A natural problem solver with over two decades of experience in graphic design, marketing and tech, Grossinger has spent years trying to make digital spaces more human. Now, as she completes her field education at Philadelphia’s Broad Street Love, she is using her insight and experience to develop an app that will provide support and resources to those in need.
Grossinger is earning her degree through the School’s online program in the Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health and Substance Abuse pathway. She said the decision to pursue her MSW reflected her life experiences and core values. “I circled back to social work once I realized that the impact I’ve always wanted to make was more human in nature,” said Grossinger. “I have people very close to me who have struggled with mental health, and I've seen firsthand some of the challenges of the system and of getting help. At the same time, I’ve seen how meaningful good support can really be. Also, I have a kid, and I think about what I want to model for my son. What are my values and what do I want him to see me doing? That’s the personal motivation behind the leap to social work.”
Her field placement brought her to Broad Street Love. The deeply respected organization has a 20-year history of serving the community by providing meals, clothing, mail services and other resources to individuals in need. While Grossinger had initially hoped to be placed in a traditional clinical setting, her work with the concierge case management team provided an unexpected opportunity to deploy her creative and entrepreneurial skills.
“I've had the chance to make what I want of it,” said Grossinger. “This might not look like a clinical experience on paper, but there’s always an opportunity to make it more clinical. It’s given me a different perspective and the chance to both practice other social work skills and translate those experiences.”
At Broad Street Love, Grossinger’s digital skills found a new outlet. Her entrepreneurial background, combined with her natural curiosity, had already led her to explore AI. Over the last year or so, she has begun practicing an emerging tech method known as “vibe coding,” which uses natural-language prompts to direct AI to build full-scale software applications. Her first creation was an all-in-one app for songwriters; it provided an all-inclusive space to capture lyrics and voice memos, organize calendars, map venues, and automate social media posts. “I was blown away by the possibilities,” she said.
“So here I am, coming from that world, doing my internship, and reflecting on what we do at Broad Street Love,” she said. “I was thinking about how to condense what people are looking for. From my experience, most of the people we work with have phones. What if there were a way to build an app that could offer the resources Broad Street Love provides? And while I was thinking about the population in Philly, it really doesn’t have to be limited to Philly — it could be anywhere.”
Currently in development, Grossinger’s app provides streamlined mobile access to critical support services for mental health, housing, food security and crisis management — literally bringing resources to clients’ fingertips. Faced with a roadblock, Grossinger pulled a classic social work move: using her unique experiences and perspective to create positive change. She’s aiming for a late-summer or early-fall rollout and sees the project as an example of how tech can amplify social work’s impact.
“With most technologies, there is fear, but there’s also an opportunity to use it for good,” she said. “I tried this out while in the midst of my social work learning journey because it gave me the opportunity to play with my marketing and creative background, and allowed me to see how technology can be used in education, social work and even therapy. Anything can be taken too far or misused, but there is so much that can be done if folks are willing to consider what AI can do for good and use it in the social workspace.”
“It’s been interesting and eye-opening for me,” she added, “and I would welcome others to join me on this foray.”
Grossinger’s second app was built for curating Dad jokes — which, once shared, simply cannot go unmentioned. Her favorite:
Q: Why don't scientists trust atoms?
A: Because they make up everything!