====== About VOICE ======

===== Background =====

Government benefit portals, healthcare providers, housing applications, and employers increasingly require a working phone number capable of receiving text messages, or a personal email address, or both, to create an account, confirm eligibility, or stay in contact. For people whose phone service is intermittent or expired, or whose email accounts have become inaccessible because password recovery was tied to a phone number that no longer works, these requirements create specific and compounding obstacles:

  * A government benefits portal sends an SMS verification code that expires within minutes, to a number that is no longer active. The account cannot be accessed or recovered.
  * A caseworker has no working contact number for someone and cannot confirm a housing appointment before the time slot is reassigned.
  * An email account used to apply for housing becomes inaccessible when the phone number linked to its password recovery is disconnected.
  * A benefits determination letter arrives at a number or address the person no longer has access to, with a response deadline that passes unnoticed.

Stable communications access is a practical need for navigating services and systems, and also how people stay connected to one another. VOICE addresses both.

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===== Program Components =====

^ Component ^ Description ^
| **Community phone line** | (314) 246-0395. Calls go to voicemail, transcribed automatically by Google Voice. Transcripts are delivered to a shared coordination system where a volunteer team from multiple partner organizations works to relay each message to the right person, organization, or service. |
| **Managed email** | Email addresses at voicestl.org are assigned for receiving government correspondence, benefits notifications, and account verification. A shared monitored inbox and a private individual account are both available, depending on the situation. |
| **In-person support** | During drop-in hours at 816 Allen Ave, a phone is available for outgoing calls, and digital navigation support is available on a walk-in basis for account creation, password recovery, benefits portal navigation, and identity verification. |
| **Authentication support** | In-session assistance with SMS verification, identity verification through ID.me and Login.gov, Lifeline enrollment, and account recovery. Requirements vary by portal and agency; a volunteer works through the specifics of each situation. |
| **Digital fax** | An organizational fax number receives documents from government agencies, medical providers, and benefits administrators and delivers them to the coordination team as PDF files for recipient notification. |
| **Information board** | A physical board at 816 Allen and a corresponding digital version list current resources, session hours, and community messages. Both are updated before each session. |
| **Message coordination** | A shared system logs every incoming request from every channel and tracks it through to resolution. Caseworkers from partner organizations across the city participate in this system and work together to relay messages to the right person. |

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===== Confidentiality =====

Privacy of the people who use this program is taken seriously. The monitored nature of the shared email inbox is disclosed to every person before an address is created, in plain language and without pressure. Correspondence received through the program is shared only as required to fulfill a specific active request, and only with volunteers directly involved in that request or the person to whom the information belongs, and not with third parties without explicit prior consent.

VOICE is a new program and its practices are still developing. Protecting people's information is central to how those practices are being designed, and the approach will be refined as the program grows. Questions about how specific information is handled can be directed to the program team at [[mailto:info@voicestl.org|info@voicestl.org]].

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//Program documentation is published under a [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/|Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License]].//