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october 3, 1991
THE HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
palo Alto, California
Attention: policy and Services Committee
REVIEW OF PE'NINSUL1t. __ ~'I!.~ INFORMATION AND REFERRAL SERVICE
Members of the Council:
Report. in Bri~:f
This is an informational iteD t.-J the Pol icy and Ser-"ices committee
.and no Council action is requested. The purpose of this report is t,o
assess the effectiveness of the services provided by the Peninsula
Area Information and Referral Service agency {PAAIRS). This agency
formerly was known as Palo Alr.o Information and Referral service.
The Human Services Div~sion held t~o focus group hearings last spring
to obtain community input on the City Council's ·People in crisis"
priority. Approximately 20 members of the community ~ere invited,
all of vhom represented organizations that provided service in one of
the three designated areas:
I} Domestic Violence,
2) Teens at Risk, and/or
3) Homelessnes:3~
Many salient i ~ . ~s .:ere raised during tr.e hearings, 'Which ... ere
sl:.ID1lIarized in a report by staff is.sued to the Human Relations
Commission. One of the dominant tile!':les to el!lerqe involved the
perceived lack of local information and referral services, and called
into question the effectiveness of the City-sponsored PAAIRS age~cy.
From those hearings three activities 'Were identified ",'hich the Hu:tlan
Services Division and/or the Human Relations Commission .... ould
undertake in the current fi seal year to address the "Feople In
Crisis n priority:
1) Develop and organize meetings with human service providers,
2) Develop a homeless child care project, and
3) Explore organizing a p-.lblic information campaign to heighten
the a\o'areness of services and resources available to people
in crisis.
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The policy and Services COD~ittee~ in reference to the thir~ ite~,
recommended that a review of PAAIRS be undertaken in light of the
com.."'lIents ma.de at the focus group heC:irings. The council, an J'uly B,
1991, approved the reconmendation.
MethodOlogy an~ Fin~ings
The process of assessing the effectiveness of the information and
referral agency PAAIRS was accomplished in four parts~
1.} In-deeth follQw 9P discussior:s 'With _thee ___ agency representatJves
who attend~d the spring focu~oup hearin~
Many agencies at the two public fe-rums stated that they 'Were unaware
of what services 'Were available to the "'at risk population." A
higher profile of FAAIRS services was mentior.ed as a major need by
many particirants. Development of a Resource Hot Line \I'as 2ncouraged
by more than one agency representative. These comments culled from
the hearings formed the basis for contacting severdl nO:lprofit
agencies in the area. Via telephone interviews, they ~ere asked to
elaborate en their concerns and suggestions relating to PAAIRS, and
the responses are summarized belov:
a) Higher visibility of the services offered by PAAIRS is
needed. It was felt that PAAIRS did not market themSElves
aggressively enough in the community. There ~as an
acknowledge~ent by some that this is much easier said than
done. It was noted that most who use the se~~ice will be in
crisis, and this population is not easily targeted.
b) PAAIRS may be a duplication of E'xisting service5~ A fe ... ·
stated that they have their own mini information and referral
program and people tend to go to a specific source for
information, not to a generic I&R service (although it was
noted that ~hese mini l&R's relate to the agencies' o~n area
of expertise and seldom provide comprehensive services).
c) PAAIRS needs to keep better documentation of services avail
able in the community. Many mentioned that Pl~IRS staff needs
to be more familiar ",ith types of ~ __ ervices of fe-red by organi
zations so that they can ref~r people appropriately.
d) Services need to be available at niqht~ veekends and
holidays. Since many crises happen during non-business
hours, tbere was surprise that no new phone technology ~as in
place which would give 24 hour coverage. For example, a
touch tone phone system that allO'. .. ,s a-:=cess based on the type
of information desired is needed. An sao number .'as cited as
a major need of the organization.
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For:nation of a public information call1paign high.1.ighting
PAAIRS services4 A fe'll( agencl' representatives had never
he~rd of PAAIRS4 Many organizations stated that they did not
receive any referrals from PAArRS. (When these individual!:,;
were asked if they performed communication audits with their
clients to track how those clients found their service, most
stated that no communication audit was performed) ~
Need for more networking, more roundtable discussjons to
learn whatts trout there"', more qua!'teIly m.eetings among
agencies and PAAIR$. There 'Was some skepticism that the
Inter-County Coalition developed between PAAIRS and San Mateo
I&R officials would be successful, but all gave high marks to
the ne~ executive director of PAA-IRS for attempting this
regional effort~
Outdated information~ PAAIRS needs to update its files more
frequently, especially its ?alo ~lto Library System's
computer file, in order to keep the information current.
Al though the alJove conunents wel."e
feedback which emanated from
f?llowinq emerged:
repeated by many, there was positive
these telephone discussicns~ The
a) PAAIRS provides a very important service to the community.
Some stated that they refer r.o PAAIRS quite a bit and the
agency seems to be u~atinq now in a timely manner.
b} The landlord/tenant program is strong~
cJ Round table forums sponsored recently by PAAIRS have been
good. Outreach seems to be improving. The transportation
forum~ senior services presentation and the funding forum
were cited as useful.
d) The-P~~IRS newsletter received high mark.s by tr.any who stated
that an improvement ~as needed and had been accomFlished.
eJ Many respondents sa id that the new executive director has
made some i~portant changes in the program. Most fe1t that
the new executive director was very qualified to lead the
agancy through the needed transitions.
2) A comprehensive review QJ __ the PAAIRS aua!'terJYHand end of th.e
yea~l;eports to th __ ~_Sity of Palo .Alto __ ~_nd ______ conmarison o_L_~ccom-
plishments to toe Contract' 5 "SC:9~ ______ of Serv ices"
PAAIRS received $33,000 trom the city of Palo Alto Human Services
Division contract budget process for the year 1990-91 and $12,000
from COIDlDunity Development BlOCK Grant (CnBG) funds for a total of
$45,000. Under the agree~ent, PAAIRS provided general information
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and referral regarding community hUlnCln services, dispute mediation
services and special ized landlord/tenant information , and arranged
for rental housing disput.e :nediation services.
The contracted scope of services stated that PAArRS ... ·ould:
a) provide information and referral to approximatEly 2,000 call
ers, p'.lblish five newsletters to a mailing list of 350 co~u
nit:r~ agencies, host four rOl.Jn.d table meetings, and produce a
1991-92 directory of services which 'Would be mailed to at
least 25 agencies and stocked in the public library.
b) with regard to the tenant/landL:rd counseling and informatio!l
services funded by CDBG monies, provide approximately 2,000
c,allers with information about housing regulations and/or
available alternatives for dispute resolution; and pr~vide
increased visibility regarding its rental housing information
program through public service announcements, ads in local
publications, and increased speaking engagements.
c) Provide initial needs assessments, inform callers about the
mediation process, and accept between 75 and 100 cases for
mediation under the guidelines developed for the mediation
services compo~ent funded by City general fund monies;
provide accurate records reqar:jing each mediation case,
submit a monthly log of assigned cases to the Mediation Task
Force and participate in mediation training ~orkshops.
According to its final report submitted at the closure of the fiscal
year 1990-91, PAAIRS provided 1,649 units of service in response to
telephone requests (out of a contracted 2,000). PAAIRS did exceed its
fourth quarter projection of 500 by 24 units. During this time frame,
a Spanish-speaking resource specialist was hired and three volunteers
were recruited to update its I&R data.
PAATRS published five ne'Wsletters ar'.d initiated the inclusion of
PAAIRS_NEWS. It met its goal of hostifi9 four round table discussions
by holding an additio~al one in the fourth quarter. The a~ency also
printed 6,000 copies of its 19~0-92 Directory of Services,
distributed copies to over 100 agencies/individuals and submitted 500
copies to libraries. These figures represent an increase over what
was mandated in PAAIRS' scope of services.
With regard to the media~ion services component~ PAAIRS accepted 52
cases out of the expected 100. However~ it screeneC 175 potential
cases this past year. PAAIRS r8sponded to 1,780 callers requesting
information about rental housing regulations and practices, or 89% of
the 2.000 proj ected total. PAAIRS staff participated in mediation
training ~orkshops in January and February.
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In addition to the contracted services listed abcve, PAAIRS developed
a community outreach plan in order to publicize PAAIRS services~
These activities included presentations to six variou3 groups in the
Palo Alto area, (e.g., police, high schoal students, the Board of
Realtors, etc.), t~o display informaticn booths at the Main Library
and the Child Care Task Force-sponsor'ed Parer.tForu::n event,
development of a nMediation Workshop" for presentation purposes, and
a networking session ~ith busi~ess o.ners sponsored by the Chamber of
Commerce.
J) TwQ meetings between the HumciTl Service Administrator and the
PMIRS Executive PJrecs,9r
Staff met with the ne .... executive directo!' of PAAIRS, Mary McQuaid, on
two occasions (6/19 and 7/23) to revieW' some of the concerns
previously described. She stated that it has been a somewhat
difficult transition, not only because the previous executive
director left before she was hired; but the resource specialist who
had been with the agency for four years resigned shortly there-after.
Since the Palo Alto office is a two-person operation, this resulted
in a lack of continuity in relatior.ships 'With the community in
general and ~ith community service agen~ies in particular.
Mary McQuaid spcke of the need to increase the visibility of the
age.ncy through a series of methods. Her round table I:leetings ..,ith
nonprofit groups in the community had been sparsely attended for the
most part, although some topics were drawing more participants than
others a The fundraising forum drew fifty-two participants: while the
ho:meless seminar and the stress management workshop drew only four
each. With regard to the Peninsula Area Resources Directory, it was
thought that distribution should be ~idened to reach more agencies
and people in need.
The PAAIRS director ale~ raised the issue staff menticned in regard
to the referral function. As stated earlier, :many agencies at the
public forums last spring stated that their clients ~ere not being
referred to them by PAAIRS. Ho'W-ever, when staff quer';'ed the agency
representatives as to how they tracked their clients' referral trail ..
most agencies said they did not perform communication audits to learn
how their clients ~ere made aware of its existence. Obviously, to
ascertain whether cl ients utiliz.ed PAAIRS in their search.. they
should be asked by the agencies contacted ho. they found out about
the agencies' services. Until that is done, it is unfair to assu~e
that PAAIRS is not referring clients to the appropriate source~
Mary McQu~id stated that, although the organization reached 89\ of
its targeted goal for its tenant/landlord co~nseling and information
program, the media outreach was SUbstandard. This \lias due to interim
staffing problems~ She feels confi~ent that 'With the hiring of a
Spanish-speaking resource speCialist, their outreach in this area.
especially among the Hispanic population, .... i11 increase. She plans to
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develop a
population.
residences,
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public information ca~paig~ to target the Hispanic
With 45' of the total population of the city renting its
this service has enormous pote~tial.
.Ks. McQuaid also .... as unhappy 'With the 1.::>w number of cl ients ..... ho
utilized the mediation services com!?Qnent, (52 cases out of the
Expected 100), but stated that ~any more clients vent through the
intake process (123) and solved their dilemma without formal
proceedings. She expects that mediation services ~ill increase this
year and feels comfortable .ith the service remaining at the
projected level; in addition, PAAIRS "wrill assist cl ie:1.ts to'Ward
satisfactory resolution short of mediation.
The PAAIRS executive director realizes that the services are very
marketable to private businesses and wants to develop a serles of
Brown Bag seminars earmarked for employees. Directory distribution
and special program flyers citing PAAIRS ser~ic~s ~ill also be made
available to corporations in the area. She noted that not much in
this area had been attempted previously.
Ms. McQuaid also ~ants to avoid duplication ot services 3nd hopes
that the various round tables, quarterly meetings of human service
agencies, and coalition meetings could be streamlined. The develop
ment of PAAIRS Intercounty Coalition between San Mateo county and
Santa Clara County will help in this area, she believes. Perhaps,
PAAIRS could act as a c] earinghouse for these types of groups for
consolidation purposes. With agenda plan.'1.ing centrali~ed in the
PAAIRS office, d;;.plication could be minimized.
The executive director wants to target the senior population for a
s.eries on mediation outreach and is currentlr developing presen
tations at Lytton Gardens, Stevenson House. and other locales.
Comments from Senior Coordinating COUncil staff indicate that not
much had been done previollsly but ne'" efforts have begun this year
with which they are pleased, atld they hope for rr"ore collaboration in
the future.
Ft:.rthermore, Mary Mcquaid noted the following goals for improving
PAAIRS services through tha upcoming year:
a) continue to reach an 80% satiSfactory rate in the mediation
services,
b) Consol idate the Mountain View and Palo Al to offices into on~
Palo Alto location;
c) "Get the basics in ordcrn, includ~ng wider distribution of
the biannual Peninsula Area Directory:
d) Maintain the PAArRS Board of Directors I e::fectiveness through
additional seminars, retreats, advocacy techniques, etc.
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4) .E..vall..lation of~ibr~_~~tem PAAIRS cor;QJd.t __ '§' __ l:;'~
PAAIRS has a file on t~e city's library computer that may be acce~s~d
by mombers of the public ;as 'Well as a"gencies 'Who possess cornp'..lters.
The valu~ of this resource is: that it is available at any time that
the: libraries are open and can accept dial-in f;-om computers 24 hours
a day.. Of course, it carmot be assumed that clients in crisis 'Will
always possess the knolj;'ledge necessary t,o visit the litora't"Y and/or
dial in to the computer and access the needed information.
This activit}· represents the fore.frent of information and referral
service-sJ ho,,",ever, because a new compute_riled directcry is being
developed that 'Would tie in a listing of all Bay Area health and
human service providers. O~her listings include an information file
of hobby clubs I business clubs, communi~y groups and professional
organizations operating in Alameda, Contra Costa, MarinI San
Francisco and San MateC' counties. Listings for Santa Clara County
i!lre nO\i being added. ~lrje service is called BAIRS (Bay Area
Information Retrieval Systen) ..
BArRS may very well revolutionize the information and referral system
as we know it. CUrrently, there ere human service core centers
located throughout the Bay }t.rea that perform services :lIr.J.ch like
PAAIRS. However, as computers become the norm in households and
libraries, the need for st.crefront. I&:R's to dispense referrals to
clients in need May become dim,inished. To continue to o!fer a PAAIRS
file tc the local population when there is a Bay Area-loride system in
place could toe duplicative. The. PAAIRS file could be merged 'With the
BArRS file and PAAIRS could be responsible for updating the PAAIRS
segment of the BAIRS file down the road. BArRS has not yet reached
the point where it is ready to offer its array of service~ to santa
Cla~a County, but that time is drawing near. It ~ill be important to
evaluate whether: I} reso~rce~ should be allocated to strengthen the
PAAIRS computer File System~ 2) leave it as is~ or 3} merge the
PAAIRS file ~ith the BArRS information.
There are. problems ..... i th the database as it cu:.-rently exists. The
PAAIRS file is in need of regular updating. The Library system does
not currently allow PAAIRS staff to dial in to amend the file because
of comprehensive new software releases recently loaded onto the
library's computer. This has been the case only for the last co~~le
of weeks, bo~e.verl and library staff expects the problem to be ~orked
out withi~ the next fel,{ "'eeks. EVen in the past under the old
system. updates ~ere not done by fhAIRS in a timely ~anner~ Much of
the information is outdated and ne .... information is non-e:x:istent.
According to the PUIRS Executive. Oirector, there 'Was no languag~ in
last y~ar's contract \..-ith the City which called for updating the
library file. Staff has included that language in this year's
contract.
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sti!!lff sought to deter:J:l.ine the level of usage of the PA.AIRS computer
file.. The latest statistics available ace culled from th~ period
July through December of 1989 and sho~ a strong usage factor, '3,~27
tot.,l searches; 3155 PAC's (Public Access Catalog) and dial-ups and
272 library and PAAIRS staff accesses). Unfortunately, due to the
fact that several neW" releases of so!'t~are were installed in the
library's computer system last month, many changes "Were made to the
statistic31 programs. These changes resulted in PAAIRS being unable
to dial into th~ system for update purposes and has also made track
ing the number of requ2sts ft'om the current period impossible. The
software vendor. oynix/ is ~orking on the problem and staff hopes to
have comparative data regarding FAAIRS usage in early October.
conolusion
staff's review of the Peninsula Area Information and Referral Service
has determined that the agency is performing the functions for which
the City funds it. A related issue is that of the expectations that
human service agencies have in regard to PAAIRS. A strong
information and referral organization is an important supolement as
each agency's marketing and outreach activities are limited by bUdget
constraints. However, these agencies must recognize that those same
constraints also bind the PAArRS organization.
Obviously, there is validity in many of the perceptio~s that human
service organizations shared regarding PUIRS services in the spring
meetin<js and in subsequent conversations which staff conducted.
Between the period when the prior executive director left and the new
executive director came on board, service delivery fell through the
cracks. A period of orientation after the new executive director
came on hoard also resulted in diminished service levels. However I
rapid impr;:)vement has been noted by most agency representat.i ves in
recent months.
As a result of this revie;.,' and evaluation, Staff and the PA.~IRS
executive director have established the following goals~
1) Cor.sclidate the two PAAIRS Offices (P~,lo Alto and Mountain
View) into one Palo Alto main office.
2) Investigate the feasibility of installing a Resource Hot
Line/ Crisis Line. ~ith a telephone number that. can be easily
re~embered by the public.
3) Educate the human service nonprofit commu~ity on the avail
ability of dialing into t.he PAAIRS Library File via computer
access from any agency office.
4) Encourage community nonprofit agencies to perform communica
tion audits to track ho .. their clients "Were referred to them.
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5) Develop t public i:lf'orrnation campaign, hei9~tening the
profile of PAAIRS t role in the comr.:unity.
6) Wbenever a person is receiving sUbsidized service via the
city's Human Service General Fund support, the eligibl~
participant should be encour~ged to call or visit PAAIRS for
information regardinq other resources available~
7) PAAIRS should seek means to widen the distribution of its
Peninsula Area Directory to every agency and household in
Palo Alto.
8) PAAIRS staff needs to continue to become m~re familiar with
the types of services offered by the v2Irious agencies ~.:l they
can refer clients to the appropriat~ program~
9) continue the strong outreach element that has been developed
under the new Executive Director's tenure.
Staff will continue to 'Work with PA..ZLIRS and l!'.oni tor progress toward
accomplishment of the 90als~
Respectfully submitted,
David Martin
Ad l:a6.z~~n S~rvices
e Fleming
istant C~ty Ma .er
Relat:ed CMR's: 281:91, May 16,
Report on "People
2:20:91, April 4~
Plan to Implement
in Crisis"
Paul Thiltgen
Di~ector, Community Services
1991, Human Relai:ions Commission
in crisis" Priority
.1991, Human Relations Commission
the City Council Priority, People
cc: HUman Relations Commission
Mary McQuaid, Executive Director~ PAAIRS
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