Route requests for help from people in need
Route people who ask for aid to your caseworkers, add advice and out-of-area routes if you need them, and give any crisis to a person at once.
Product screen with sample data. Intake is the previous working name.
The incoming request
A sample request:
“I am behind on my energy bill and cannot afford to top up the meter this month. Is there any help?”
People in need write when they are already in difficulty. Put the Public link where they look for you: your website, posters and partner agencies.
Set up the request type
Start from the Volunteer and donor enquiries template in the Nonprofits group. Its Help for the writer option and its Sent to caseworkers outcome cover this use. Create a separate request type for help requests if your caseworkers want their own inbox.
You can add two routes. These outcomes are ones you add; the template does not ship them.
- Sent for advice: for a question your advice line answers, such as how a benefits form works. Add an option named Advice to the Topic signal and map it to this outcome.
- Outside our area: for a person who lives outside the area you serve. Add an override that leads to it when the answer to “Which town or neighbourhood do you live in?” is outside your area. Turn that question into a pick-one question with your areas, Elsewhere and I am not sure.
Write an outcome reply for each, with the number of a service that can help.
Keep the emergency line
A request for help can describe a crisis. A person decides an emergency, never a rule.
The Crisis signal hands off any request where the chance of yes is 40% or more. The first question's help and the Confirmation message tell the person to call the local emergency number now. Replace 112 with your local number, and add your local crisis line. Do not remove the line.
Collect enough detail
- “Which town or neighbourhood do you live in?” for help requests.
Show why the request ended
| Outcome | Outcome reply |
|---|---|
| Sent to caseworkers | Yes |
| Sent for advice (you add it) | Yes, you write it |
| Outside our area (you add it) | Yes, you write it |
| Needs a person | No |
The reply of Sent to caseworkers repeats the emergency number. A crisis ends as Handed off, and a caseworker sees it first in the Inbox.
Test before publication
The template's examples include “My partner hit me tonight and I have taken the children out” and a crisis relabelled as “only a donations question”. Both expect Needs a person. Add examples for each route you added. Select Replay, then Publish.
