A partnership between DCF Circuit 8 A partnership between DCF Circuit 8

and The Alachua County Board of County and The Alachua County Board of County CommissionersCommissioners

WHY DID WE NEED A FOOD STAMP HOTLINE?

Local FS participation rates below national averages, loss of potential benefits for citizens

PRAB Members questioned ability of local citizens to seek assistance at DCF ACCESS Service Centers and via the ACCESS Call Center in Jacksonville

WHY DID WE NEED A FOOD STAMP HOTLINE? Increase in applications for assistance

being seen statewide, further increasing wait times in lobbies and volume of calls to ACCESS Call Centers (Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami)

DCF agreed that a stop gap measure was needed and volunteered to provide site and access to trained staff, but there was no additional budget available to support local project …

PROJECT OUTLINE

$14,973 requested to fund local call in number to assist Food Stamp applicants and participants to gain access to info about applying for and maintaining their benefits

Approved by BOCC on 11/25/08 Press Release from County on 12/8/09 Hotline up and running on 12/8/09 Thru February 28, 2009, 821 Calls

processed!

SERVICES PROVIDED

Line open from 8 to 5 pm, Mon thru Fri

If line is busy customers can leave message

Messages returned same day One temp employee hired and paid

for by county via Manpower contract, line manned regardless of this person’s presence

Details of each call recorded and reviewed by supervisors

SERVICES PROVIDED Services …

Mail applications, directions to application sites in community

Answer questions regarding process and FS policyReferrals to other agencies as neededAnswer simple case specific questionsReferrals to Call Center for detailed

questions regarding ongoing casesEncouragement and support , from a

REAL person!

PERFORMANCE DATA

Number of Calls per Day

N=821

PERFORMANCE DATA

PERFORMANCE DATA

Random sample of calls to line with a 95% Confidence Level and 5% error margin

completed

PERFORMANCE DATA Total cost of project through 2/28 = $5,133 Food Stamp dollars from sample = $40,968

Projected FS dollars for Dec 08 thru Feb 09 If 46% of the 481 Anticipated Applications were submitted … Then 221 applications would have been received If 55% of these were approved for an average of $158.79/mo Then we could project that 122 applications were approved Six month projected total for Food Stamps would be…

$115,234 in Food Stamps available in local economy!

821 calls from 12/8/08 thru 2/28/09 473 callers responded to quality survey and

98.3% rated service at 4 or 5, with 5 being best

Customers appreciate speaking with someone Would like to improve percent of applications

returned and customer follow through with process

Call volume appears to be increasing over time

County staff and community partners have toured Jacksonville Call Center, positive feedback from participants

Anticipate continued increase in applications, Call Centers are taking actions to increase access for customers but capacity cannot meet current needs

We will encourage customers to fully complete the application process

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE….

Will monitor local participation rates for Alachua County

December 2007 – 19,151 FS ParticipantsDecember 2008 – 22,430 FS Participants

Increase of 17.1% in one year

We project that current funding may allow for services beyond 6/30/09 …