Lifetime Achievement Winner: Faed Hendry

Faed’s name is synonymous with Information and Referral or systems navigation. He is often called the “Guru of Information and Referral,"; a conservative estimate puts him at over 70,000 hours of field experience.

In addition to his work with FindHelp Information Services in Canada, Faed was also instrumental in developing the Canadian Information and Referral system and sharing knowledge with the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems (AIRS). He has been affiliated with AIRS for more than 20 years, serving on many Committees and in the roles of Board President and Vice President. He continues to serve the field through his work as an Accreditation Consultative and Site Reviewer.

Person of the Year Winners

This award is given to I&R staff within our three core certification types that exemplify community resource specialist excellence!

Lori Griffin - CRS

Lori has worked for Mile High United Way for ten years in the 211 Call Center. She uses AIRS Standards in all her training and inspires everyone to get certified (and even holds a yearly study group for those taking the test!)

Sasha Reinoso - CRS - DC

Sasha has been associated with the I&R world for over 12 years as a Call Specialist and Database Curator. Her knowledge of the industry and passion for doing everything with perfection shines in every area of her work.

Sarah McFall - CRS - A/D

Sarah has dedicated 29 years of service to the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging as a licensed social worker. She embodies what it means to provide our aging and disability population with respect, concern, and empathy.

Innovation Award Winners

211 Northeast Michigan

Through strong community relationships and a dedicated funding source, 211 NE MI has helped 500 individuals and distributed over $142,000 in supportive funds to address critical needs such as; home repairs, dental work, car repairs, rent/mortgage assistance, childcare, and utilities.

211LA

The creation and maintenance of the 211LA Taxonomy offers a standardized hierarchical set of terms and phrases that efficiently retrieves information maintained within I&R databases. The first edition was published in 1987 and allows for effective

reporting and for multiple databases to share data seamlessly via using the taxonomy as a standardized language.

Pennsylvania 211

Working with their communications provider, this team developed the use of translation technology within their chat application. Many positive impacts have resulted, including helping customers at community agencies connect to critical resources that might not otherwise have translation services.

VIA LINK

After Hurricane Ida, nonprofits and government agencies did not have access to useful data about the damage caused by the storm or the needs of residents. The built a team that created a cutting-edge set of dashboards that combined FEMA and 211 data.

Area Agency On Aging Region 9

Previously, callers in need would leave a message and wait for a return call. Now, a daily staff is charged with live call responses, and callers are being served as quickly and efficiently. This allows for fewer duplicate and return calls and has made the experience more efficient and pleasant for the caller.

Each year, there are organizations going through the Accreditation process that really shine! From their service delivery through calls, chats or texts, to the maintenance of their resource database, everything is done with excellence. This year, there were 3 organizations, that achieved accreditation in 2022, that were chosen as the first-ever recipients of the award: 211 Texas - United Way for Greater Austin (Austin, TX) Greater Columbia 211 - People for People (Yakima, WA) 211 - United Way of Connecticut (Rocky Hill, CT)