QUESTION
How does the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) assess its service efficacy and address diverse immigrant needs?
1:01:39
·
5 min
The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs assesses service efficacy through hotline and email inquiries, and addresses diverse immigrant needs by hiring multilingual staff and conducting field outreach.
- Over 4000 hotline and 1183 email inquiries were received, indicating a substantial demand for services.
- A detailed breakdown of inquiries and resolutions are to be provided at a later date.
- The MOIA has identified a need for materials in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Mandarin, Cantonese, Bangla, Wolof, Fula, French, and has recruited teams that speak these languages.
- For hotline assistance, an average of four staff members respond to calls daily, while a separate six-member outreach team ('boots on the ground') engages communities directly.
Alexa Avilés
1:01:39
So can you talk to me a little bit about how you assess the work of the providers to inform how Moya is gonna shift, you know, its programming to be more responsive, talk to me a little bit about what that specifically looks like, and the the cadence with which you do that analysis.
Miguel Santana
1:02:02
So first, I know you've mentioned in terms of how many inquiries are we getting through the Ashmoi hotline.
1:02:10
Improve terms, as it relates to the hotline, we had over 4000, 4000 inquiries, and that's just caused alone.
1:02:19
In terms of email in inquiries.
1:02:21
We had over a 1183 email inquiries.
1:02:28
So that's that's the breath of it.
1:02:29
And, you know, it's broken down by month, and we can provide that at a later date.
1:02:33
So that Great.
Alexa Avilés
1:02:34
And and the issues.
1:02:35
Like, what are these 4 thou what are what are they telling us?
Linda Lee
1:02:38
Yeah.
1:02:38
At least 4000.
Miguel Santana
1:02:39
If we can if we have the data to support that, to indicate exactly what the Quest is, what the services, and what referrals came out of that.
1:02:49
So we can definitely produce that at a at a later date.
Miosotis Muñoz
1:02:53
And and also in terms of languages because we're in the field, we we don't have to wait until all these studies are done.
1:03:00
We know firsthand in real time what are some of the specific needs for additional language appropriate services.
1:03:09
So for example, we've seen, of course, there's a need for Spanish material and resources, but also we have our Haitian Creole, our Chinese dialect, which is Mandarin Cantonese and food journeys are Bangladeshy, but also with the African community, Wolloff, Follani, French, has been added.
1:03:32
So we've hired teams that are from the communities that speak the land language and are in the best position to also have their pulse at all times in the community.
Crystal Hudson
1:03:49
Yes.
1:03:50
I did have a couple of follow-up questions.
1:03:53
One is, how many staff do you have answering those calls?
1:03:57
You said 4000 calls?
1:04:00
4000 calls in what span of time?
Miguel Santana
1:04:03
That's during calendar year 23.
Crystal Hudson
1:04:05
Okay.
1:04:05
So last year.
1:04:06
So how many how many staff do you have answering those phone calls?
1:04:09
And what's the rate of resolution for those calls?
1:04:11
Is everybody getting a response to to both the the calls and the emails?
Miguel Santana
1:04:17
Yeah.
1:04:18
I mean, we have, on average, four step that are answering the hotline on a daily basis.
1:04:24
And, of course, I I can't give you the rate right now, but we can circle back and provide you that in terms of resolution.
Crystal Hudson
1:04:30
Okay.
1:04:30
And so it's
Miguel Santana
1:04:30
also gonna close out those types of inquiries.
Crystal Hudson
1:04:33
And so 4 staffers that are solely answering the hotline.
Miosotis Muñoz
1:04:38
For the hotline, but also the boots on the ground, that's the outreach.
1:04:42
So external affairs is comprised of our constituency hotline, which also includes all the 311 calls.
1:04:51
So when even if they can't remember the hotline number 311.
1:04:55
They call 311 and 311 sends them to us.
1:04:58
So we're really excited to know that we're able to follow-up on these cases and and and and know that not only is the constituency service, a resource for those that may not feel comfortable meeting with someone that they can call.
Crystal Hudson
1:05:17
And those the 4000 number includes those 311 rerouted calls.
Miosotis Muñoz
1:05:22
Yes.
1:05:22
Okay.
1:05:22
So it's the hotline and the 311.
1:05:24
And, also, the outreach team That's a separate component.
1:05:28
We call those the boots on the ground.
1:05:30
They're the ones that are out there every day doing IDNYC, going to all the different h and h, receiving all these requests for cultural events because that's when people feel comfortable.
1:05:41
When they invite you to their cultural events, You're you're building trust, you're you're building a sense of comfort, and and again, we have to meet people where they are.
1:05:53
And we have to meet communities where they are.
1:05:56
And we have, right now, 6 members, we also rely on volunteers.
1:06:02
We have a volunteer program.
1:06:05
We we encourage our inter generation by having and working with the interns program.
1:06:13
And this is part of how we're able to help expand but also help bridge that intergenerational app as well.
Crystal Hudson
1:06:23
Thank you.
1:06:23
And then how how large is that outreach team?
1:06:25
The boots on the ground, if you will?
Miosotis Muñoz
1:06:28
Our boots on the ground is I would I include now if you include myself and the assistant commissioners and gather which we're out there and everybody sees us, so it's it's 6 staff have members that are out there every day.
1:06:43
Just bringing back real time information and being able to resolve matters in real time.
1:06:50
It's 6, 8 in total because I love being part of the boots underground.
1:06:56
I do not want to be sitting behind the desk as many of you have seen me out there.
1:07:01
And, of course, my my case management back background.
1:07:04
So that helps tremendously.
1:07:07
And just about everyone who does outreach has a background.
1:07:12
A very strong background in case management.
1:07:15
So we are in the best position to respond and and connect to the appropriate agencies as we're looking to follow-up and address a lot of the cases.
