This update is from the Director of 211: Delaware’s new Centralized Intake process to support the needs of homeless Delawareans has passed another milestone, 60-days. I wanted to share our role in this process. Effective January 6, 2014, the process for meeting the needs of our state’s homeless population was changed to align and comply with new U.S. Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, Opening Doors, with specific goals to: · End chronic homelessness by 2015 · End Veterans Homelessness by 2015 · End Family Homelessness by 2020 · Set a path to end all types of homelessness The change primarily requires an assessment be performed, and information to be captured, on those receiving services. In order to document the factors causing homelessness, and to summarize and effectively focus on what can be done to proactively improve the situation going forward, such focus is now mandatory in order to continue to receive federal funding for the those in need in Delaware. Therefore, Delaware 2-1-1 now must work with the Homeless Planning Council of Delaware (HPCD) to support compliance. The focus of Delaware 2-1-1, State Agencies, Nonprofits and HPCD is to address the needs of all Delawareans by getting them connected to the services they need in their community. Delaware 2-1-1 is still the first number to call for assistance. However instead of connecting the caller directly with a service provider, Delaware 2-1-1 must now refer the caller to HPCD, where an appointment is made to meet with a Housing Specialist who completes the assessment and assigns shelter beds to individuals and families. To ensure all callers are being contacted by HPCD, Delaware 2-1-1, at the end of each day, creates a list of all callers (with their appropriate contact information) from the calls logged into the 2-1-1 system, which is sent to HPCD to confirm that all transfers and messages left with HPCD can be backed up with a hard copy of information. For return callers indicating no service or appointment was provided, a Delaware 2-1-1 Information & Referral Specialist routes the caller to a supervisor who will contact the HPCD Program Director immediately to that caller’s needs addressed. Finally, Delaware 2-1-1, State Agencies, Nonprofits, and HPCD continue to meet to discuss and address issues with the new process, as meeting the needs this winter have been complicated, not only by the new requirements, but the coldest winter in recent history, which has increased the need for services beyond what had been originally anticipated. As always, Delaware 2-1-1 remains focused on being good stewards of the communities in which we serve, and that all Delawareans in need are connected to those services. DSW Donna Snyder White Director Delaware 2-1-1 900 North King St., Suite 330 Wilmington, DE 19801 (p) 302-255-1804 (F) 302-577-5740
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 12:46:27 +0000
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