2020 ANNUAL REPORT • SVDPCINCINNATI.ORG • 9
ANSWERING THE CALL The Call Center has always been on the frontlines of St. Vincent de Paul’s outreach with its neighbors. But, following the decision to suspend walk-in services last spring, the phone lines quickly became an even greater point of communication between St. Vincent de Paul’s neighbors and its network of staff and volunteers. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Call Center was primarily staffed by in-house volunteers, supervised by Call Center Manager, Adriana Howard. But as volunteers were asked to stay home over safety concerns, St. Vincent de Paul’s Social Services team quickly jumped in to help answer calls for help. “It was like divine intervention,” Howard recalls. She says bringing employees into the Call Center from other departments has not only kept operations running, but has helped grow understanding and connectivity across the organization. “It’s helped those in Social Services to have an understanding of what happens in the Call Center, and vice versa.”
Vincentians have also been a source of support, with some Vincentians fielding calls for the Call Center, from the safety of their own homes. That is possible thanks to recent tech upgrades, including a switch from paper records to a digital data tracking method. Those upgrades couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for St. Vincent de Paul. This year, the volume of calls for assistance increased by almost 5,000 to a total of 47,701. Nearly half of all calls received were from neighbors looking for help with rent or utilities. “We now have the right lenses moving forward,” Howard says. “There’s a lot more collaboration happening in the Call Center than ever before.”
CALL CENTER: BY THE NUMBERS Top forms of assistance sought on calls: Rent: 14,387 Utilities: 8,814 Thrift Store Vouchers (clothes, furniture, beds): 6,931 Seasonal Programs: 3,503 Food: 2,503