Voice Mail for Hurricane Ike Evacuees

The story has all but disappeared from the National media, but the after effects of Hurricane Ike are still being felt acutely by people in Galveston and other coastal communities. Many people forced to evacuate have landed in other Texas cities like Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, and many are without a reliable means to communicate with friends and loved ones. Some may not have arrived with their mobile phones, and many may not have had mobile phones to begin with. Arriving in a strange city with only the clothes on your back is scary enough; imagine not having a way for people to get in touch with you.

The Community Voice Mail programs in Austin and San Antonio are now working with other local charities and FEMA to make free voice mail boxes available to Ike evacuees in those cities. Not only will recipients be able to provide this number to their friends and loved ones, but they can also receive broadcast voice mail messages from our local CVM Managers providing them with accurate, timely information about available services, etc. Obtaining accurate information during and after an emergency is very difficult, and we hope these Community Voice Mail boxes will help.

Houston was also hit hard by Hurricane Ike, and while the Houston CVM office hasn't officially reopened for business, CVM clients in that city are still getting broadcast voice and email messages about emergency services from Scot More, the Houston CVM Manager. Take a look at the Houston CVM blog to see the information that Scot is making available to his clients and others in the city. (These blog postings reproduce information sent by broadcast voice and email messages to CVM clients in Houston).

Finally, if you want to see some amazing photos of Hurricane Ike, be sure to see the set of photos compiled by the Boston Globe. The photo above was taken from this archive. It shows a block in downtown Houston located approximately 6 blocks from the Houston CVM office. Wow. (Photo credit: AP Photo/David J. Phillip, Sept. 13, 2008)

Three New CVM Sites!

We're very happy to announce that Community Voice Mail is now being offered in Albuquerque (New Mexico) and South Florida, and will soon be offered in the Inland Empire of Southern California. Thousands of social service agencies in these areas will be able to provide Community Voice Mail numbers to their clients, and start broadcasting information about job opportunities, housing availability, local training events and other resources directly to them. Congratulations to the agencies hosting these new CVM programs, and thanks for showing leadership in your communities.

CVM Available Now in:

• Albuquerque, New Mexico: Hosted by the Metropolitan Homelessness Project
• South Florida (Broward County): Hosted by the Coalition to End Homelessness
  

(You can read more about South Florida CVM on their blog).

CVM Available Soon in:

• The Inland Empire of Southern California (Counties of San Bernardino, Riverside and parts of Los Angeles): Hosted by Inland Empire United Way

This the second Los Angeles-area CVM: read this for more about the program in Central Los Angeles. A complete list of the 43 CVM sites around the U.S. can be found here.

CVM Client Survey Results

From time to time, we ask the people who use our service some questions to find out more about how they use it, and how we might improve it. Earlier this year, we sent a survey (by voice mail, of course) to more than 11,000 active CVM clients, asking them a set of questions about the phones they use, their use of email, the kind of information that is most important to them, and also what their lives would be like if they didn't have their Community Voice Mail number. About 1,700 people responded, and we learned a lot:

• Our clients find "free" phones. 71% say they use the free phone available at many social service agencies or other locations when they want to check their voice mail or return calls. 19% regularly use payphones, and 10% use a mobile phone.

• Our clients are wired. 59% have an email address, and use it on a regular basis at public libraries or other locations with free access to connected computers.

• Our clients use mobile. 21% own mobile phones, and likely purchase prepaid minutes available everywhere.

• Our clients want information. Clients overwhelmingly indicated that they are most interested in receiving information about employment and housing. Clearly, stable employment and a safe place to live are important to our clients.
  

This is great data, and we're already acting on it. For the past 8 months, CVM clients who provide email addresses when they sign up automatically receive brief notification messages in their email inboxes whenever they have a CVM voice mail message waiting for this. This indicator helps our clients know when they should find a phone to check their messages. We've also created email distribution lists ("listservs") that we're using to send by email the information we're also sending by broadcast voice mail. So, client with email addresses are getting regular announcements about jobs, training opportunities, community events and other useful information. On the mobile front , we're formulating projects that will put low-cost phones in the hands of our clients, to help them achieve their near-term life goals. The mobile projects will be extensions of the pilot projects we conducted in Houston and Minneapolis/St. Paul last year, using phones and service generously donated by Working Assets (now Credo). Finally, many CVM programs around the country are providing information about jobs to clients through voice and email messaging, and working with local WorkSource/One Stop agencies to coordinate activities. There is a lot more we can and will be doing in this area. Matching our clients to viable employment opportunities is a great fit for our technology and the CVM federation infrastructure. Stay tuned.

When you ask the people you're trying to help what they need and want, you get a lot of great information! What a concept!

Houston CVM Blog Launches

The Houston CVM program just launched a blog with an innovative purpose: to catalog the valuable information being sent via broadcast voice and email messaging to Houston CVM clients and the agencies that serve them. Scot More, the manager of the Houston CVM program, sends daily broadcast email and voice messages to thousands of CVM clients in the Houston area, providing them with information about employment opportunities, events, health care opportunities and other resources. If you're a CVM client, or a case manager at more than 75 social service agencies providing CVM numbers to people who need them, you automatically get these messages in your voice mail box and a text version in your email inbox. With the Houston CVM blog, you now have a place to view this information on the Web, whenever you want. Broadcast messaging is one of the most important features of Community Voice Mail, and this blog makes it easy to provide this information to those seeking services or providing them in the Houston area.

You can learn more about CVM's broadcast messaging capabilities by watching this brief video, created by the manager of Dallas Community Voice Mail. All CVM programs around the country automatically have the ability to send broadcast voice messages to their clients. It's an innovative, efficient want to communicate information to an often hard-to-reach population.

Wilco Supports Community Voice Mail

Wilco isn't just a great band, but they also appear to be nice people. In February the band (and its fans!) raised $10,000 for the Chicago Community Voice Mail program through the sale of concert posters and premium "Opera Box" seats. An additional $10,000 went to Inspiration Corporation, the agency that hosts the CVM service in the city. Through Wilco's "Causes" program, they occasionally generate money for great organizations in some of the cities in which they play. Thanks Wilco, and thanks to your fans as well.

Discounted Prepaid Wireless in Florida from TracFone

Last month, we learned that TracFone (a large prepaid wireless provider) had been declared eligible by the FCC to receive subsidies from the Universal Service Fund (USF) to provide their prepaid wireless service at a discount to low-income people via the USF's LifeLine program. Today, some of the details of this plan became available in the state of Florida, one of ten states in which TracFone will be eligible to offer this service with USF funds. Based on the press release from the Florida Public Service Commission, qualifying low-income people will receive access to a free mobile phone and 68 free minutes of use per month, with additional minutes available for $.20/minute in $2, $5 and $10 increments.

This is a good start. Previously, USF funds could only be applied to landline phone subsidies, or to standard wireless service with monthly/annual contracts, etc. Neither of these solutions are always of use to homeless or low-income people who lack a home into which a landline can be installed, or who lack a credit record good enough to qualify for a standard monthly plan. In a recent survey, we found out that about 21% of Community Voice Mail clients own mobile phones, and the vast majority purchase prepaid wireless minutes. TracFone may save these clients money assuming the service is comparable in quality to other offerings.

The TracFone subsidy may eventually become available in D.C., New York, Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Delaware, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Apparently, the company must apply for Universal Service Support from each state in which it hopes to provide this service.

Broadcast Messaging Response in Houston

Scot More in Houston today sent me the following email, describing the success he had recently in gathering data from clients using broadcast messaging. The text of the message (about emergency response during hurricane season) is below, and overnight received 110 responses from his clients. Great example of the power of broadcast messaging!

(Scott's broadcast voice message)

"Hi, I work for the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, who supports and manages your Houston Community Voice Mail. This is the first of many Broadcast Messages you will be receiving. By pressing 4 at the end of this message, you will be able to verbally respond to this simple survey question.

Here is the question:

Now that we are in the heart of hurricane season, would it be beneficial for you to receive Emergency Service Information thru your voice mail?

Again, please press 4 at the end of this message to leave your response. THANK YOU and try to stay cool during these long summer days.