About the Community Assistance Network
The Community Assistance Network launched on October 1, 2005. The purpose of the program is to bridge the gap between those who call Lee County's public safety services for assistance and social service agencies who provide valuable programs to the residents and visitors of our county.
The program is unique
It allows field providers to make referrals electronically, and the information is transferred to the United Way of Lee County. The United Way's 211 staff retrieves the referrals via secure servers and proceeds with the referral, returning to the site to update the record with the results of the 10-day follow-up. Once completed, the information is shared with the field providers that requested the initial referral.
The program fills a valuable need
Lee County's public safety agencies respond to tens of thousands of incidents each year -- nearly 75,000 EMS incidents in 2005 alone -- and many of these individuals requested assistance not available to these providers. The primary way these services were provided was to transport them to the local hospital, tying up beds in emergency departments and further straining the system. As our public safety agencies continues to be a "catchall" for the needs of the community, we have to find new, intuitive ways to fulfill these needs.