During the pandemic, East Enders have called 311 more than ever.
“If you’re not sure, call 311,” Vanessa Baird-Streeter, the Deputy County Executive, wants to encourage residents.
Embraced in almost every major city in the United States, 311 was originally adopted by municipalities to help curtail the congestion of the 911 system for emergency calls. According to the county executive’s office, Suffolk followed New York City’s lead and became the first suburban county in the state to implement the call system in May 2019.
Since its implementation last year, the Suffolk311 call center has received over 110,000 calls from residents across the county, 91,661 of them between March and September of this year. Starting in March, the county began to see a major uptick. There were more calls that month -- 8,524 -- than in any month since the 311 system went online in Suffolk, and they only spiked from there. There were 17,000 calls in the month of April and 23,336 calls in May.
“At the height of pandemic, we were receiving 1,100 calls per day,” Ms. Baird-Streeter said this week.
Among those calls, the most common were from residents seeking Covid-19 test sites. The second and third most common inquiries have been related to human services, including food insecurity and unemployment services, and then senior citizens requesting protective face gear like masks. The call services responded to and delivered on 11,000 face mask requests since the onset of Covid, according to the county executive’s office.
Calls can range anywhere from reporting stray dogs, potholes, or vandalism to seeking mental health and legal services. According to Ms. Baird-Streeter, the types of calls varied depending on the stage of the pandemic.
“Initially, calls pertaining to businesses and whether they were following appropriate protocols and food insecurity were high,” Ms. Baird-Streeter said. “And then it became information on reopening guidance and how they can open correctly.”
Residents can call 311 seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. For calls after hours, tickets are generated with the inquiries and operators get back to the callers the next day. Prior to Covid, the hours of operation were limited to just Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“We want to make sure people are connected to the resources they need,” Ms. Baird-Streeter said of the extended hours.
Residents can inquire about food assistance programming like food pantries and distribution, how to donate plasma, unemployment services, legal consultation, resources for those applying to the supplemental nutrition program (SNAP), call to report a business that may be violating safety procedures, and so on.
If a question comes through that an operator does not have the answer to, he or she will redirect the inquiry.
The call center is staffed by around 15 operators who are trained to handle calls from every corner of Suffolk County. There are bilingual operators trained in both Spanish and English. If a caller speaks another language, the website translates to six of the primary languages spoken in the county.
So far, 311 is only accessible by telephone. Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone’s office is working on expanding accessibility to texting and mobile applications, similar to the system set in place in New York City.
