THE HUMBOLDT COMMUNITY SWITCHBOARD

SIMPLE DIRECTIONS

The Humboldt Community Switchboard, also known as Simple Directions, is a community service designed to provide support, information and referral to community callers searching for resources to meet a need or needs.

We encourage the community to feel free to call about anything -- food, shelter, support, environment, work-related and recreation-related questions, specialized services, access issues, etc. We encourage you to memorize our easy phone number

441-1001  (one thousand and one ways to help)
From outlying area, call:  1-887-460-6000  toll free.

hcs.northcoast.com

ALL CALLS ARE FREE AND CONFIDENTIAL

Back in 1992, the need for such a service was identified.  Community residents reported finding it difficult to match their needs with the great diversity of human services in Humboldt County.  There seemed to be services for every conceivable need, but access to these services and a good match between what the caller needed and agencies provided was difficult to achieve.  Following up on the identification of that need, a large number of organizations and agencies as well as volunteers participated in fleshing out what such a service would look like . Among them were the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commissions, which developed the original concept; the Humboldt Child Care Council, the Humboldt Community Network, the Humboldt Area Foundation, the Human Services Cabinet and the Employment Training Department, all of which worked on or funded parts of the developmental work.  The service was designed in close cooperation with all the existing hot lines in the county.  Through combined vision and hard work , it is now operational.

We help in two ways:

We have constructed and are maintaining a data base of over 1000 service resources available in Humboldt County.  The database contains detailed, regularly updated information provided to us by the agencies and organizations about the services they provide, including geographic location(s), transportation to the service, target groups served, eligibility requirements, costs , hours of operation, waiting lists and any other pertinent information which helps the caller make informed choices.  This database is accessible by either calling the Community Switchboard number or by searching it on a website (http://hcs.northcoast.com).

When you call us, a friendly, live person, trained in the use of the data base and in carefully listening to the caller, will respond and can help you think through what your needs are and will help to match your need to the resources most likely to work for you. Volunteers and staff trained to listen save callers time and frustration.  The resulting referrals are much more likely to work, thus also saving agencies frustration when they are not the right resource for the caller.  It is a win-win situation.  If no service in our database seems appropriate, we will work with the caller until some resolution of the need is obtained.  In the process, we will learn what services are difficult to find, and will be able to pass on that information to those responsible for planning and community needs.