Despite low unemployment rates and a fairly strong economy, the number of homeless and food insecure continue to rise. According to the recently released State of the Homeless 2019 report, as of January, in New York City alone, an all-time record number (63,839) of men, women and children slept in shelters each night. And, according to Feeding America, 40-million people struggle with hunger in the U.S., including more than 12-million children.
If you run a shelter or food bank, chances are you have more to do and more to process every day. That’s where having the right social services software can help you focus more on providing food and shelter and less on paperwork and processes.
When your mission is helping those in need of food and shelter, you have a lot of pressing needs. Your caseworkers’ time is at a premium. The less time they spend processing information and data, the more time they can spend actually helping those who need it most. You may not have thought about a software solution for managing food banks, shelter and clothing as a way to give clients more personal care, but it can if it frees up your caseworkers’ time significantly.
How Social Services Software Can Help
Clients can spend less time being processed and move on quickly to getting the services they need if you are using our identification and outreach program. This includes bar-code scanning to help locate a returning guest or client. It also can link the information needed to transfer or refer clients to necessary services and treatments by linking your data to informal support systems.
With the right social services software, your caseworkers can conduct ongoing evaluation of your client’s progress and needs. This allows caseworkers to access information that lets them know when there’s a need to intercede on a client’s behalf and ensure they receive the appropriate services. There is also a resource development component you can use when there is a need to create additional services or resources to address your clients’ needs.
Spend Your Time Where It’s Needed Most
“FAMCare has allowed us to eliminate the need for paper intakes, speeding up the overall intake process,” says Jennifer Trotter, Program Director for United Against Poverty. “The system has facilitated improved communications between caseworkers in multiple locations – which is a great advantage for how we serve our clients.”
The work you do is important. And the need keeps growing faster than budgets and funding can keep up. Which means caseworkers need to do more with less. Having the right social services software can take some of the burden off them and let’s them put their efforts where it’s needed most. FAMCare can help you put together a solution that works best for your organization. And we’ll give your people the training, information and backup needed to make sure everything runs smoothly.
