Phone Banking: Hurricane Crisis Cleanup Hotline (In-Person)

Crisis Cleanup (www.crisiscleanup.org) is a website tool and hotline used throughout the US.  It connects disaster survivors who need property cleanup assistance with volunteers who can help. The hotline is staffed by volunteers like you who work from home as they have time.  Survivors call the hotline, phone volunteers take the call, and enter the information on the website.  Volunteer organizations claim cases, do the work, then close the case. Everyone is working from the same list which minimizes duplication of efforts and saves time, so more people get help.  All services are free.

This event will gather phone volunteers together to take phone calls and support each other. Food will be provided. 

REQUIREMENTS:

• A computer with internet access (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Edge internet browser).
• A phone (cell or landline).  Your phone number is always kept anonymous from callers.
• Computer skills to proficiently navigate websites and enter accurate data while speaking on the phone with a survivor.
• The hotline is open 7 days a week from 9 am to 8:30 pm (of the time zone of the incident).  Volunteers are NOT required to schedule work times or fill quotas, but having some sort of schedule is important. A good goal may be to plan on a few hours per week, depending on need and your availability.  One hour per day for seven days is better than seven hours a day for two days straight. Watch call queue levels to determine need. Volunteers can work longer hours if desired, but please be prudent and pace yourself to avoid burnout!   Phone volunteers cannot choose but take calls for all open incidents.

CRISIS CLEANUP PHONE VOLUNTEER TRAINING VIDEO AND USER GUIDE:

• Introductory video for all Crisis Cleanup site users: crisiscleanup.org/training
• Detailed phone training: https://youtu.be/ZxfxD73rSpQ 
• User Guide PDF: https://tinyurl.com/CC-User-Guide (not required reading but contains detailed info for reference) 

GETTING STARTED

1. Sign-up to volunteer by clicking register on this page.
2. Within a couple days, you will receive an email invitation to create a user account (check your junk email, if necessary, for the link).
3. Create your user account by clicking on the link in the email invitation.
4. Once you’ve watched the training videos, you can log on and start taking calls.