As federal, state and local governments are increasingly leaning on I&Rs as the “go to” solution for all manner of needs and situations, I&Rs themselves need better tools to claim the resources to do this work. But who has time for advocacy when we are busy taking calls and managing our programs – even when renewed interest in I&Rs among elected officials is requiring us to step into the public policy spotlight? This workshop will explore how to legislate support for I&R in all levels of government.

Objectives:

• learn the benefits of advocating and lobbying for your I&R.
• explore the various lobbying methods used in a digital world.
• where to go for updates on issues of interest
• how to develop a rapport with elected officials and staff to benefit your mutual constituencies.

Catherine Rea, AIRS President/Vice President for 211

Joshua B. Pedersen, Director of Network Operations & Performance

Meredith Ponder Whitmire, Vice President

Collaboration and innovation have been central to strategies employed by Aging Network I&R leaders to meet the growing challenge of loneliness and social isolation as the COVID-19 pandemic persists. This workshop highlights why social engagement is so important to the mental and physical health of older adults and people with disabilities; how I&R programs can incorporate social isolation into their work on social determinants of health; and reviews collaborative and innovative best practices from the federal, state and local perspectives. Join us to hear from your colleagues about what has worked and share your own social engagement successes.

Objectives:

• Learn why social engagement is so important to the mental and physical health of older adults, people with disabilities and their caregivers and how I&R programs can incorporate social isolation into their work on social determinants of health 
• Reflect on how I&R programs can foster connections in their communities as the hub of collaborative efforts around social engagement 
• Envision how social engagement best practices could be replicated in your own organization 
• Review Federal, State and local resources for increasing social engagement and supporting the work your organization is already doing 
• Share your social engagement successes

Sara Tribe Clark, Director

Nanette Relave, Senior Director

Sherri Clark, Senior Aging Services Program Specialist

Rebecca Levine, Senior Manager, Membership

Did you know that 87% of new employees are not fully committed to a new job for at least the first six months? Employees report ineffective training, unclear guidelines about job responsibilities, lack of interaction or attention from co-workers and management, as primary reasons for leaving an organization. This process can be more frustrating when you introduce new hires to a remote onboarding process.  

Within our organization, Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, we worked tirelessly to ensure that we did not compromise new hire experience while working remotely during the pandemic. This was accomplished by studying our existing onboarding program experience and discovering ways to integrate new technologies and procedures to ensure that our attorneys, staff, and interns were properly trained. Throughout the forced time away form our office,  we learned how to engage new hires differently and increased overall satisfaction. 

During this session, participants will take away strategies concerning the following objectives

• Fostering effective interaction between remote staff 
• Establishing clear guidelines and expectations for job expectations remotely 
• Avoiding common pitfalls for onboarding  
• Building best practices for onboarding for your organization  
• Leveraging feedback from current and former staff 

Monique Keels, Manager of the Advice and Brief Services Helpline

Saasha Williams, Staff Attorney, Helpline Team Leader

It’s proven that texting is the fastest and most efficient way to reach your community. Whether looking to spread the word to increase campaign engagement, enlist volunteers, request donations from members, or perform simple follow ups, nothing beats the ease and personal feel of a text. Learn how text messaging can reduce hold times, provide more effective disaster response, increase agent capacity, and garner greater community engagement

After attending this workshop, attendees should be able t

• List 3 text message use cases for I&R
• Explain why text messaging is more effective than emails or phone calls
• Describe best practices for mass text communication

Brandon Elwood, Partner and Co-Founder

Erik Drumm, CEO and Partner

Sandra Carpio, Director of Operations

Gold isn’t valuable in its raw state. First, it needs to be processed and manipulated into jewelry. Similarly, data is valueless when collected in isolation. By sharing data, we unlock additional value and accelerate innovation. Data sharing is vital to promoting the health, education, and financial stability of every member of a community. It is essential because it can enhance decision-making capabilities, build learning organizations and finally, stimulate cultural change and innovation. Cross-sector data sharing enables communities to use individual and community-level information to understand acute community needs and lead to improved services, systems, and practices. Collaborative learning leads to developing innovative policies and interventions; and, ultimately, builds stronger communities. Increasingly, local and state 211s and United Ways are embracing data sharing as a core function of their modern community impact work as they convene or partner on collective impact initiatives seeking to drive equitable, person-centered impact. Join this session to learn more about resources and collaboratives United Way Worldwide is supporting and how your organization can access them.

Objectives:

• Understand the key roles involved in data sharing collaboratives and where many 211s connect and bolster these initiatives
• Create data sharing plans and policies with equity at the forefront of design
• Know how to use dis-aggregated data, to better understand issues, advance narratives that focus on the systemic causes of current disparities, and to inform solutions
• Be able to access resources and engage colleagues to support local development of data sharing collaboratives

Myeta Moon, Director of Health

Mary Miller, PhD, Manager, 211 Innovation

Melissa Ladd-Patnode, Program Supervisor

Community Information Exchanges present a major opportunity for I&R providers to serve as essential elements of a cooperative ecosystem of coordinated care. In a Community Information Exchange, an I&R would serve not just as a source of information about services for people, but as a hub in a network of sharing information about people among services. Contrary to some popular beliefs, however, a CIE does not entail the deployment of a single software solution. Community Information Exchange entails the development of shared infrastructure, open protocols for data exchange, and systems of community governance. 

In this session, we'll explore the emerging state of the art of CIEs – describing some fundamental concepts, new opportunities, and unresolved challenges. Featuring Alana Kalinowski from 2-1-1 San Diego, and Greg Bloom from the Open Referral Initiative, this panel will draw upon a range of experiences and enlist participants in the process of articulating open questions and envisioning possible paths towards answers.

Greg Bloom, Founder

Alana Kalinowski, Director of Partner Integration

We talk about I&R as a matched pair, but let’s be honest, our work can spend a lot of time working on the “R”, specifically with regards to our database of community resources. In this presentation, two database curators will discuss how they have approached incorporating a focus on the “I”, and how they have included the “I” into their database to ensure a well-rounded connection to information for both staff and public users of the resource database.

Objectives:

• History of the “I” at our 2 agencies (E-Library or HelpSheet)
• How-to’s
• Process for creating content
• Process for posting the information (both internally and externally)
• Process for annual update
• Other examples of increasing the “I”
• Internal reference information
• Contract information
• Data on usage 
• Internal and external

Jennifer Abels, Database Manager

Laura "LJ" James, Director or Resource Strategy and Technology Integration

While we are still deep in the turbulent times of the pandemic many employees continue to be required to work from home.   But when the pandemic ends and we are all clear to come back to the office some employees will prefer not to while others can't wait to get back.  Information and Referral services are in a unique position as a knowledge-based industry to offer a variety of flexible work arrangements.   In this presentation attendees will explore the history and current landscape of remote work to help reenvision the future of the call center workspace. 

Objectives:

In this presentation participants will be able to:

• Implement tools and techniques to support remote work
• Develop processes that support a distributed team (both in-office and home)
• Identify employees that can work remotely (and those that should not)
• Advocate for flexible work arrangements within their parent organization

Mike Lightbody MPH, CRS-A/D, Director

Go beyond traditional diversity, equity, and inclusion practices to boldly create a lasting impact in your workforce, team, and community. Make connections with others, be inspired, build a playbook of implementable strategies to transform business workplaces and community culture into one of real inclusion. This "Cultural Awareness Tool" is not about asking people to change their values or core beliefs. Instead, the conversation on diversity, equity, and inclusion is about holding space for difficult-but-necessary conversations and being open to ideas, perspectives, and experiences, outside of your own.

Objectives:

• Define and explain the benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
• Recognize one’s own dimensions of diversity and what influences those dimensions.
• Influence others by demonstrating diverse and inclusive behaviors to increase awareness and community impact.
• Recognize other dimensions of diversity and explore how they influence your perception of the world and how the world sees you.
• Appreciate and have empathy for others dimensions of diversity and how this informs relationship building.
• Recognize opportunities for inclusive practices among all areas of opportunity in business and community.

Camica Credle, Chief Equipping Officer of Credle Consulting

J Lamont Harris, CEO

Knoxville's Center for Service Innovation 311/211 premiered a chatbot in March 2020 to provide basic information about the U.S. Census and, soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic. The chatbot also links users to TN211.org if they are seeking community resources such as assistance with rent, housing and utilities. The chatbot is available 24 hours a day, making it accessible when 311/211 representatives are unavailable after office hours or due to an increase in the volume of calls.

Objectives:

• Demonstrate how collaborations in problem solving across spectrums can address barriers to assistance.
• Learn how an environment of innovation and support from leadership can improve overall services.

Russ Jensen,

Virtual and remote environments have become a new way of performing outreach and education about I&R programs during the COVID-19 response. Our COVID-19 dashboard reports improved outreach efforts and led to new opportunities for partnerships such as with county and elected officials, a newly formed Social Determinants of Health project, and funding from OneStar Foundation. Most importantly, outreach influenced social service agencies receiving CARES Act Funding on how to decide funding priority and eligibility for clients affected by COVID-19. Disaster outreach related to COVID-19 increased dramatically with new opportunities due to COVID-19 response.

Objectives:

• Identify ways to continue outreach in virtual environment using remote work technology
• Understand the importance of data dashboard reports using platforms such as PowerBI; 211 Counts as outreach during disasters (COVID-19, 2020 Hurricane response, STEAR for COVID-19 vaccines)
• Utilize new opportunities for outreach during COVID-19 such as Virtual Health or Community Fairs, drive thru events and online training for 211texas.org
• Turning new resources for COVID-19 into outreach opportunities

Janna Shoe, LBSW-IPR, CRS, Outreach & Disaster Coordinator

Halley Goldstein, LSW, LMSW, CRS, Disaster/Outreach Coordinator