Oaem 211 ontario presentation june 13 2013

Presentation Overview

1. What 211 is

2. Our role in the Goderich Tornado

3. Our Exercise Highlights from Huron Challenge

4. Questions

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• 211 is an easy to remember telephone number that helps people find the right

community and social services in their community

• Calls to 211 are answered live by trained information and referral specialists 24/7

• Interpretation services are available in 150 languages

• It is also accessible by TTY and email

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•This is a list of current 3 digit numbers approved by the CRTC

• Not all of these numbers are in use across the country

•There are three unique characteristics of N11s:

• they are assigned for a purpose, NOT to an organization

• they are for services of a universal social value

• they offer enhanced access

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• It is simplest to think of 211 services as having three primary components

• The most obvious is the inquiry service, or call centre

• Supporting the inquiry service is a comprehensive, professionally maintained database of

services and programs (60,000 programs and services)

• The searchable 211 database is also available online

• Details about calls (not callers) are collected, analyzed and reported to stakeholders and

community partners, enhancing community planning

with information about service demand and use.

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• The first 211 service was first launched in Atlanta, Georgia in 1997

• In the US 211 now reaches into all 50 states

• The first Canadian service was launched in Toronto in 2002.

• Two provinces are now provide-wide: Ontario and Nova Scotia

• In addition to Ontario and Nova Scotia there are 211 services operating in Quebec City,

Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver

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• In Canada and the US 211 services must be Accredited through AIRS an association which

sets the standards for information and referral organizations

• Disaster preparedness is one of the areas of the Accreditation standards

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• 211 simplifies access to information about services in your community

• Callers can remain anonymous, have a conversation with an information specialist who

will help them find services they need

• Most people find out about these services by:

• Phone – ask friends, colleagues, county, town hall

• Phone book, however you need to know the name of agency (ie food banks not

listed under “F’ for food)

• Online – Google

• When you think of those 60,000 organizations, and the number of staff and volunteers

that work for them….

• How do they keep up with the current services are available for their clients?

• 211 is for staff to use too.

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• Here in Ontario we have divided 211 into seven regions, served by seven organizations

• Community Connection serves the Central East region, shown in green

•The next three slides will give you an example of our three core service areas

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1 - Public Inquiry

• In 2012 we answered 51,000 calls, which represents 5% of the population or 11% of

households in Central East

• Our highest % of calls are received from:

• Simcoe (9% population or 19% of households)

• Grey (8% or 18% of households)

• Bruce (4.0% or 8.5% households)

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2 - Online directories

• We work with a number of partner agencies across Central East to continually update

about 13,000 programs and services

• These listings are regularly uploaded to 211Ontario.ca

• We also make a number of online directories available through our website

• One of the most critical areas is the database, if it is wrong or out of date, than our

referrals could be wrong

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3 - Caller Needs

• Our staff track detailed information about each call (location, age, income sources, etc)

• We do not collect any identifying information about callers

• One item we track is why people call (shown on slide)

• This information can provide key information to stakeholders, such as unmet needs in our

communities

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• We had been serving Huron County for just one year when the Tornado struck in August

2011

• Huron County Social Services staff had visited our offices in July and so they had a good

understanding of what we do

• At 9 a.m. on August 22nd, I received a call from Huron County’s OW Manager Michele

Gaynor asking if we could help.

• Early that afternoon, media releases began going out saying to call 211 for volunteer

registration

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• This graphic shows the number of disaster-related calls we answered each day over the

first two weeks

• Calls peaked on the Wed with about 220 calls

• Calls fell off on the weekend, spiking on the seconded Monday with close to 150 calls

• A total of 1,157 calls diverted over a two week period

• This demonstrates 211’s existing capacity as a public information line

• Phone lines are already in place

• Professional staff skilled in answering calls

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• Here are the reasons people called

• 211 has existing capacity to track and report caller needs, and produce reports

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• This slide shows the results over the first six weeks

• Note these numbers won’t add up as some callers were registering donations and to

volunteer

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• We made the disaster database available online – infoHuronCounty.ca

• 42 new listings were added in the first six weeks

• Continually updated listings are necessary to provide real-time information to callers

• Received changes from Social Services

• Monitored social and news media

• Informed by callers

• Attempted to validate with key officials before going live

• And the database supported call centre

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• Here is a screenshot of some disaster database listings

• Animals – found/lost

• Scam Artists – tips

• Banking services

• Building inspection

• Business updates

• Court services

• Donations

• Emotional/trauma support

• Laundry services

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• This is an example of a database listing for laundry services

• 211 has the skills and capacity to manage databases

• Our data system already in place

• Professional staff skilled in data research, collection and maintenance

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• We had never registered volunteers or donations before

• Used Google Drive’s free APP to create shareable excel file

• We colour coded important entries, such as other municipalities offering crews and

equipment; department stores with large donations of supplies; money

• It was simple to use, no training needed

• All 211 staff could enter at one time

• File was shared with specific County and Town staff who could download, sort and print

lists

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• We used the same tool for donations, colour coding financial donations

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• The day after the tornado, there were many FB pages up

• This is a screen shot of one in particular that had over 7,000 followers

• We used this page to actively post news…things like: “211 is registering volunteers and providing

lists back to Town Officials. Call 211 to register.”

• Actively posted news to:

�Promote the 211 phone number for volunteering

�Direct volunteers to specific activities (when groups were needed for things like handing

out flyers)

�Redirect unwanted donations (don’t bring used clothing, have a sale and donate the funds)

�Redirect unwanted volunteers (deterring people from showing up, asking they register)

�Drive specific donations (able to drive specific donations such as milk and dish soap)

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• Here are usage stats for that FB page for the first six weeks

• The reach is staggering

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Just to recap – during response and recovery we can do three things

Public Inquiry:

• central access point to register volunteers & donations of goods

• rumour control by monitoring social media and posting facts or notices to call 211 or visit

specific websites

• capacity to handle large call volumes through mutual assistance agreements with 211 providers

across Ontario

• in-person access points in reception or evacuation centres

Database/Internet

• continually update disaster database with information & services that emerge through response,

relief & recovery periods

• make database available to other organizations in the community

• maintain a continual information exchange with EIO to ensure only authoritative information is

disseminated

• collect customized details about people who want to volunteer & donations of goods & make

available in real-time to emergency personnel

• support case management for vulnerable populations fan out procedures

Caller Needs

• provide real-time reports to EIO to support emergency response

• produce after action reports with aggregated data to support community planning activities

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• Since Goderich we have had a lot of interest in 211 and there has been confusion and

concern about our role

• A significant amount of relationships have been to developed to help us and we continue

to learn

•We created this slide to illustrate where we think 211 fits

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• Trillium Resolve was a multi-jurisdictional disaster response exercise developed by Emergency

Management Ontario (EMO) and Bruce Power

• The exercise was conducted during mid October 2012 with the emergency simulations taking

place in Huron, Bruce, Grey and Wellington counties

• Thanks to Lynda Rotteau (former CEMC Goderich), we were able to make the right connections

with EMO

• This was the first functional disaster exercise with multiple Regional Service Partners in Ontario

• Some of our goals were to:

• Test timelines for the exercise

• Activate notification and communication protocols

• Invoke mutual assistance agreements

• Test telecommunications routing systems

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• We had the opportunity to play in three locations

• Thanks to Doug Smith, CEMC Bruce County and Roberta Trelford, CEMC Kincardine – who both

helped to guide where we should be.

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• One key outcome from our exercise was the development of a cloud-based portal

• It provided a centralized access point for all 211 providers across the province to the disaster

database, call handling tools and important information

• We will further develop the portal for future exercises

• And it remains in place ready to support public inquiry services during future emergencies

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• We deployed a mock disaster database which also runs on a cloud-based system

• It was modified with dozens of new and changing mock resources relayed by 211 staff at the

EOC and EIC

• This slide shows the disaster database, example database listings, and a sample organization

listing

• We are using this framework to develop new standards for pre-disaster database

development in Ontario


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• Online registration tools were also centralized so 211 providers across the province could

register volunteers and donations

• Multiple call takers simultaneously tested viewing and entering mock volunteer registrations

and donations in real time

• A survey-like entry form controlled standardized data entry and automatically fed into an

excel spreadsheet, including a time and date stamp

• The excel file was sharable online, which allowed designated people to search, sort and print

lists of donated goods or registered volunteers

• And it remains in place ready to support registration services during future emergencies

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• For the exercise a tracking tool was also centralized to collect information about each of the

contacts received through mock calls, social media, email and TTY

• The contact tracking tool contained 15 questions and a total of 69 possible data elements

• This shows screen shots of some sections of the tracking tool

• The tool was tested, accumulating disaster call information which demonstrated a range of data

that could be collected from calls about community needs and service gaps


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• The data collected from the tracking tool used during the exercise was downloaded into an excel

file which enabled the contact data to analyzed and reports produced.

• This is the report example produced from the mock calls.

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Oaem 211 ontario presentation june 13 2013

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