Indiana 211 Partnership, Inc. Annual Report for 2011

Transcription

1 Indiana 211 Partnership, Inc. Annual Report for 2011 Helping Hoosiers Find Help

2 2-1-1 in Indiana Indiana 211 Partnership, Inc (IN211) IN211 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose members include local human service providers, divisions within state government and other member organizations, representing United Ways, United Funds and several comprehensive and specialized information and referral (I&R) programs. IN211 is governed by Board of Directors that meets bimonthly. Its books and records are audited annually by independent certified professional accountants, and IN211 files a Form 990 with the IRS each year. All documents are available upon request. Board of Directors Jim Allbaugh, Lifestream Services Tiffany Bailey, UW-Allen County Anne Becker, Stewart & Irwin Denise Boykin, PNC Bank Chuck Brandenburg, UW-Central Indiana Tony Dzwonar, Community Volunteer Carl Ellison, Indiana Minority Health Coalition Brad Ellsworth, Vectren Energy Lynn Engel, Connect2Help Roger Frick, Ind. Assn. of United Ways John Guingrich, Briljent, LLC Walter Kirkwood, Community Volunteer Jane McCann, Lafayette Crisis Center Jaya Naiken, CPA John Pinter, Community Volunteer Marsha Thompson, IACCRR Thanks to our Funders Service for 95% of all Hoosiers Indiana Association of United Ways Ruth Lilly Foundation Duke Energy 95% of all Hoosiers had service in Plans will hopefully lead to service for all Hoosiers by the end of 2013.

3 2-1-1 Provides Critical Service to Indiana is an integral part of our community s infrastructure Primary activities include: Providing well-trained, professional staff on the by providing an easy-to-remember dialing code that acts as the gateway to the complex web of social services available to community residents. Maintaining the most current and comprehensive database of social and human services programs and agencies available; phones and available 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, 365 days/year to help people assess their circumstances, prioritize needs, understand options for assistance, make good decisions based on their situation and goals, and work toward obtaining the highest degree of self-sufficiency possible. Providing timely, reliable, and useful data to community leaders, planners and funders who need to know what help is needed, where it is needed and the barriers experienced by those who need help Caller Needs in 2011 Although the unemployment rate fell through out the year from a high of around 11% to a low around 8.75%, Indiana centers answered 472,879 calls, providing 553,539 referrals. Most callers were seeking assistance with necessities housing, utilities, and food. Arts, Culture & Recreation (1%) Clothing, Personal & Household (5%) Disaster Services (<1%) Education (2%) Employment (2%) Food & Meals (10%) Health Care (7%) Housing & Utilities (28%) Income Support & Assistance (11%) Individual, Family & Community Support (4%) Information Services (12%) Legal, Consumer & Public Safety (7%) Mental Health & Addictions (4%) Other Government/Economic Services (2%) Transportation (2%) Volunteers & Donations (1%) Funding for Centers continued to decline. This decline in support frequently results in smaller payrolls. Fewer employees to answer phones results in longer wait times for help and more abandoned calls.

4 2011 Financial Condition General economic conditions continue to batter Indiana 211 Partnership. Direct services to Centers, providing overnight call coverage, administrative services to replace former staff functions and the telephone bill that provides toll-free calling to Indiana residents, accounted for almost 85% of all partnership costs. Due to general economic malaise, incoming call counts were significantly higher resulting in 54% higher costs in providing toll-free calling. Without this service, callers would be paying tolls to dial or the Centers would have to absorb this cost into their already stressed budgets. This would result in fewer dollars to answer ringing phones. INDIANA 211 PARTNERSHIP, INC. Statement of Activities For Year Ended 12/31/2011 REVENUES Grants $ 170,000 Contributions 4,201 Membership Dues 3,000 Total Revenues $ 177,201 EXPENSES Call center services $ 64,500 Conferences and meetings 133 Office and miscellaneous expense 2,155 Professional fees 16,800 Salary and benefits 6,745 Toll-free telephone fees 74,920 Total Expenses $ 165,253 CHANGE IN NET ASSETS $ 11,948 NET ASSETS (ACCUMULATED DEFICIT) BEGINNING OF YEAR $ 5,048 NET ASSETS, END OF YEAR $ 16, Account at IURC Under I.C , the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has responsibility for administering a 211 services account established in the state general fund to make available throughout Indiana. As of September 2011, the Commission has received no funds in the services account. Recommendations for Policymakers As the State s fiscal situation improves, the State should explore opportunities to support as a central source of help. State agencies and contractors that rely on for its resource database, client referrals and call data should support financially. Just as is critical to Indiana s system of public safety preparedness and response, is critical to Indiana s human service and disaster recovery system. However, unlike 9-1-1, 7-1-1, and 3-1-1, Indiana s system does not receive any public funding dedicated to its infrastructure, telecommunications routing, database management or trained staff to answer calls. Sources of public funding need to be developed to support an integrated N-1-1 system. Telecommunications providers should be required to enable calling for consumers as part of their making basic telecommunications services available in a community in Indiana. With 20,000 services (such as food pantries, shelters and utility assistance programs) spread across 92 counties in the state, it is nearly impossible to know where to go to find help without calling first.

5 Routing Continues to Challenge IN211 The challenges of providing service through a range of all service carriers persists. A number of companies continue to provide telecommunications services without making dialing available to their customers, and some consumers that subscribe to bundled services packages remain unable to reach from their telephones. The Indiana 211 Partnership, Inc. (IN211) is responsible for the routing of calls throughout the system within the state of Indiana. The is accomplished via the use of extensive routing tables held by IN211 through CenturyLink, that take the state s calls (via a single toll-free number) and successfully route them to the correct Center, depending on the caller s NPA/NXX (GeoRouting), with the time-of-day, day-of-week, or day-of-year exceptions. In 2012, IN211 has worked extensively on these routing tables and found an issue that we are unable to adequately address without aid from the IURC. We have found multiple phone service providers that route calls using their own static (and often incorrect) routing tables. These calls are routed to the wrong state (one cable/phone service provider in central Indiana was routing all Indiana calls to a center in Texas), the wrong county (a major phone service provider in northern Indiana routed all calls from Fountain County to Switzerland County) and, far too often, to just an incorrect Center. The Indiana 211 Partnership will take full responsibility for routing all Indiana calls correctly if they are forwarded, by the telephone service providers, to We have worked over the last year with a small number of individual telephone service providers to make these changes. However, this process is slow and often ineffective. We are unable to determine which companies have their own routing tables without multiple caller complaints. We then need a way to contact and then persuade these individual telephone companies of the importance of correctly routing calls in Indiana. Indiana 211 Partnership, Inc N. Meridian St., Ste. 300 Indianapolis, IN (317)