1. A partnership between DCF Circuit 8 and The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners

2. 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

3. 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 …

4. 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!

5. 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

6. SERVICES PROVIDED  Services …  Mail applications, directions to application sites in community  Answer questions regarding process and FS policy  Referrals to other agencies as needed  Answer simple case specific questions  Referrals to Call Center for detailed questions regarding ongoing cases  Encouragement and support, from a REAL person!

7. PERFORMANCE DATA Number of Calls per Day N=821

8. PERFORMANCE DATA

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

10. 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!

11.  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

12.  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

13. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE….  Will monitor local participation rates for Alachua County December 2007 – 19,151 FS Participants December 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 …