By the numbers, for the people

To give you can idea of the amount of communication that is involved in my AmeriCorps*VISTA position, here is a summary in numbers:

• Average number of emails sent daily: 28
• Average number of emails received daily: 15
• Number of phone calls (incoming and outgoing combined): 3-15 (depending on meetings and trainings where I can't answer my phone)
• Average number of in person meetings/outreach per week: 4 (this doesn't count all day trainings)

I do at least one training a week in Franklin County, this week I had a second training in Clark County, meaning I trained a total of 17 people in my region just this week to be counselors.   I also got two new site notifications this week, our network is growing so fast!

Granted I am working in Franklin County so I most likely have to field more communication than some other regions, but can you imagine how many lives my program is touching if all 12 other people in my position across Ohio are communicating about the same amount with people in their regions?

Then I think about all the people who aren't being connected.  Despite all of our efforts, there are still plenty of people out there who are struggling to get by, who are eligible for assistance, yet they aren't accessing the programs that can give them a step up to self-sufficiency.

The challenge in the coming months is not to see how many more people I can meet, how many more emails I can send, or how many outreach events I can attend, but rather to communicate with the right people, strategize in appropriate ways, and attend the most relevant outreach events to get as many people connected as possible.  What is the point of putting effort into a new site if they don't have the capacity to serve clients? It's so easy to get pulled into the numbers game, talking about numbers of new sites and numbers of counselors, but it's so important the our focus here at my organization stays on how many clients we are helping through the system.

I am working on outreach strategies for some of my more rural counties, do my readers have any ideas about how you would like to see the efforts to connect low-income Ohioans to public benefits mobilized and utilized?

Goals, plans, and challenges

Yesterday I had a weekly meeting with Zach, where I got to unload all my built up questions. I always have an inner battle (common for an ESFJ like myself), as I pride myself in being self sufficient in motivated, but at the same time ask tons of questions of those around me to solve my curiosity. So having a weekly meeting with Zach allows me an outlet where I avoid emailing and approaching him ten times a day. We also shared anecdotes that help explain concepts from his views on customer service.
(Need to back up here and explain more) > As Zach just stepped up to manage more people in the organization, he is meeting formally with the team to cover his expectations. In the last meeting he went over customer service goals (accurate, accountable, available). I shared about my experience with a past college course in which I had a leadership position and my professor was pretty much non existent, so I had to be proactive (and responsive) in accomplishing our class goals.
Okay, back to the present day, one on one meeting. After shared my exciting news (things like “I had my first voicemail on my phone!” and “I got my first call for a new site!” “I feel important!”), we reviewed my 2 week/4week/2month work plan. I am barreling through the first section as I visit sites in the area and learn more about the Benefit Bank. Zach told me to let him know when I wasn’t feeling challenged anymore and we would have to work out other things for me to do. I for some reason immediately thought that I was off track or not doing what he expected of me and was about to launch into a description of my detailed plans and my completed work. That is, until he said I was accomplishing tasks much quicker than he expected and he just wanted to make sure in the future I was always being challenged. Oh. Okay!

Right now the challenge is to not lead any sites or counselors astray and to represent the Benefit Bank in a professional way. It's inwardly focused, bolstering myself, but I am beginning to see a shift the more I get established. My challenge will soon come out of a solid expertise base and become outwardly focused, ready to conquer my focus counties. Are you ready for this, Franklin/Clark/Champaign/Logan county?