Wood County

Earlier this week, I attended a day-long training seminar in Bowling Green called Wood County No Wrong Door.

This was the event I was supposed to attend on April 15 when I stayed back in Toledo to do taxes instead.

The premise of No Wrong Door is that every social service agency should learn about the services found at other agencies in the area, so that no one seeking help is ever turned away with a "Sorry, we can't help you" but instead is pointed to somwhere that can.

The most useful part of the training -- besides all the awesome resource guides that we will definately be utilizing in planning future events and outreach in Wood County -- was all the instruction on talking with someone in need.

Engage. Direct. Assure.

The ENGAGE portion involves listening and asking useful questions like What county do you live in?, Is there a minor, senior or veteran in the household?, What other agencies did you already call and what did they tell you?, Do you have a shutoff/eviction notice?

After you've gathered all the necessary information, offer them services or DIRECT them to the most pertinent agency.

And finally, ASSURE them by giving them your name and number and telling them to call you back if they have trouble reaching the agencies you directed them to or if those agencies can't help.

That last step makes people feel like someone cares, that someone isn't just pointing them somewhere else and washing their hands of the matter, but is offering further assistance, and is there to work with them toward meeting their needs.

We have actually already reguarly been doing the last step, but it felt good to be validated in that. So that was cool.

However, the bad news for our outreach future in Wood County is that much of it appears to be inaccessible by GPS.

Fellow VISTA Maureen and I have tried on several occasions to lccate different agencies only to find that the GPS brings us to a residential neighborhood or, as pictured below, what is supposed to be the Wood County Health Department in what is actually an empty field.

Mysteries...