Good Samaritan Hospital and the United Way of Knox County are working together to better connect local social services with the people who need them most.
The organizations this week announced the launch of Wabash Valley Connect, a referral platform for social services and programs that exist here.
Wabash Valley Connect is meant to make the process easier for those people facing the need for social services and to help them find the appropriate programs, whether it be for food assistance, shelter, healthcare, transportation or even financial assistance.
Wabash Valley Connect is part of a social network that can be accessed via www.findhelp.org. This service connects people and programs, making is easy for residents to find social services within their community.
The website greets visitors by asking for a zip code. Visitors are then taken to a page where they can select from assistance finding food to financial assistance and even educational opportunities. Legal and employment resources, too, are available, and most areas of assistance have sub-categories — such as community food gardens or food pantries — underneath each to help people find exactly what they need.
Many of the resources are local, but the webiste also connects visitors to regional and national resources as well.
The site, too, can be used by nonprofits to coordinate their efforts and for providers to integrate social care into the work they already do.
“One of the problems primary care providers are facing all over the country is providing patients services that insurance does not cover,” said Dr. Lee McKinley, a clinical professor of medicine at Good Samaritan’s Internal Medicine Residency Clinic. “Examples can include missing appointments because of no transportation or not having adequate nutrition because the patient does not have the money to buy food.
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