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Director of Health and Human Services responding to #207378 re: the teen snow shoveling program.
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To the Honorable Board:
This is in response to #27 on tonight’s agenda [#207378] about the Senior Snow Shoveling Program. This weekend was the first major snow event this season and only have data from the weekend, which I have shared below. I am not sure what other information you are looking to obtain, but I do hope this is helpful. Chris Hosman does an excellent job coordinating this program and spent hours on the phone fielding calls from Seniors and student to ensure the matches were working.
The Teen Snow Shoveling program, which had 41 senior participants in 2015, now has 116 enrollees. Thanks to an increased presence in print and online media and outreach by the Health and Human Services Department, the program has tripled over the past 3 years. As the program continues to grow, we continue to seek out new and creative ways to ensure the needs of residents are met. For the past two years, we have implemented a procedure where enrolled seniors can contact the Community Services Manager directly throughout storms in cases where there is difficulty reaching the youth. Another strategy to maximize flexibility in the program is to have a small number of seniors contact the Community Services Manager directly when in need of assistance to be paired with youth on an as needed basis. Not all seniors that sign up utilize the program on a regular basis and this helps to ensure that youth that were paired with seniors that are not utilizing the program can still pick up jobs in their neighborhood. Over the course of the last storm, numerous seniors reached out with questions and requiring assistance and all were contacted in a timely manner. Also, seniors who reached out and were not signed up for the program received the necessary information on how to sign up for future storms.
Teen Snow Shoveling Program Report January 24, 2019
Chris Hosman, Community Service Manager
Data:
116 Enrolled senior citizens
51 Enrolled Youth
111 seniors were paired directly with youth
5 seniors were informed to contact me directly if they require shoveling assistance
Complaints:
2 seniors were paired with youth that did not show up
Issues:
One senior was concerned that all her dealings were with the parent of the youth. The senior was concerned that the youth would not be reliable.
One parent raised concerns over the tone of an interaction between a senior and a youth.
3 seniors had difficulty contacting their assigned youth. On the same day, they contacted me on my cell and it was immediately rectified.
One unmatched senior called me for shoveling assistance. While I was in the process of contacting a youth, a neighbor completed the job.
One unmatched senior contacted me and was paired up with a youth that hadn’t received other calls.
One senior called to let me know they hired a contractor instead.
One senior contacted me to have her car shoveled out. I secured a youth, but someone had already assisted the senior. The senior lives at Capen Court. Due to the potential volume of seniors living in Capen Court who require assistance shoveling spaces for their cars, this needs to be revisited.
7 seniors were paired with youth that could not be reached and/or were unavailable. The seniors contacted me immediately and were paired with alternate youth who completed the job.
2 seniors, side by side neighbors, were assigned a youth who was unavailable. The son of one of the seniors contacted me and we continually tried to reach one another. In the meantime, the senior’s son completed the shoveling job.
One senior reported that a youth told them the program was not in service because it was too cold. Unfortunately, I just received this information today. I have removed the youth from the list as this was not the case.
One senior reported that a youth was a no show. Unfortunately, I received the information on Tuesday and it was too late to rectify it.
I recently learned that another snow shoveling program is also providing services to residents. I am working on gathering more information regarding this program to ensure there is no confusion between the two.
Please contact me if I can be of further assistance.
Doug Kress
Director of Health and Human Services