Community Voice Mail connects people with services, opportunities, and each other
When a person is phoneless and disconnected from society, a chronic deprivation of power and resources occurs. Without a phone, access to employment, training, health care and housing is denied. The current system requires you to phone, fax, email or google a website for advancement of any kind.
The City of Prince George has found a solution to the disconnection problem that has been depriving people for so long. It has launched a program called the Community Voice Mail. This program allows people to regain their power to make positive changes in their lives by connecting to services that have a shared value in reducing poverty.
The Community Voice Mail program provides free voice mail phone numbers to people without a phone. Removing the stigma, participants personalize their voice mail by using their own voice to tell service providers to “leave a message.” Twenty-five community service providers are all connected to this program, by distributing the free voice mail numbers, ensuring that they will never lose contact with their clients.
An additional feature of the program, pulling the community even closer together, is the broadcast message sent out every week to inform people that are cut off from society, a list of workshops, training events, employment fairs, free haircuts, free holiday dinners and anything else that the city has to offer to address challenges. The clients and front line workers receive this broadcast and pass on the information to others. The Community Voice Mail program is a pivotal example of community engagement, born out of a need for social innovation.
The service successfully meets people’s needs, allowing them to move on to a better life. As people exit the program, new clients enroll, creating a new cycle, this time with success embedded into the system. Re-organization is at work here.
The Community Voice Mail has been so successful in Vancouver, B.C., Prince George, B.C., and Calgary, Alta., that there are plans to launch the program in Winnipeg, Man., and Terrace, B.C. The opportunity remains wide open for scaling up. Let us dive in further and connect Canada and witness the incredible success as communities pull together.
Learn more:
- Learn more about the Community Voice Mail program here
- For more on connecting community, join Tamarack for Community Engagement: The Next Generation – March 7-9, 2017 in Vancouver, B.C.
- Learn about the Aboriginal Housing Society of Prince George (AHSPG), the host agency for the Community Voice Mail program
- Read this media article and watch a video about the Community Voice Mail program
- Find more resources to reduce poverty at vibrantcommunities.ca
Originally published on the Tamarack Institute website.