Liberty, NY – The Sullivan County Department of Social Services (DSS) is excited to announce a new way for the community to access all the services available to them.
“A fillable form at https://sullivanny.us/Departments/familyservices enables anyone to request support with life’s challenges from the Department, plus a growing list of community partner agencies,” explains Sullivan County Health & Human Services Commissioner John Liddle. “When users complete the online form, they are entered into a secure, coordinated network of community resources, powered by Unite Us.”
Unite Us (www.uniteus.com) is a software solution that’s designed to bring sectors together through technology to drive the collaboration to identify, deliver, and pay for services that impact whole-person health.
“As of today, there are 23 different organizations serving Sullivan County that are connected to the platform, and we are working every day with Unite Us and partners in the community to add more organizations. This network also connects us to hundreds of agencies across New York State,” notes Deputy Commissioner of Social Services Giselle Steketee. “The best news is that this referral service is absolutely free, and it saves people from having to reach out and provide their information to a host of different providers. One request for any of the services posted on the website will get the process of getting help started, and connections to each needed service are usually established within 48 hours.”
When the system was first tested in Sullivan County in September, it was able to connect someone looking for assistance with food and housing at DSS. Sullivan Allies Leading Together (SALT) and the Sullivan Fresh Community Cupboard were able to deliver a package of emergency food assistance within an hour.
“What excites me most about this platform is that we are now truly able to give the community access to the dozens of available services we provide alongside our partners from a single access point,” says Liddle. “It’s all too common for folks in Sullivan County to think that we don’t have resources to help those in need or that critical services can only be found by travelling outside of our County. Through this solution, we are continuing to improve our capacity to deliver vital health and human services, and Unite Us is making it much easier to access the robust network of resources we already have.”
The County and its partners are also starting to get specific data on services that are needed in the community that are NOT currently provided by a member of the network.
“Collecting data on what we don’t have is important as well, because that demand signal helps us reshape what we provide to meet community needs and to present winning arguments to State and Federal agencies for additional funding,” Steketee notes.