City in Sound; Community Referral Service

This is Jack Angel with city and sound, stories out of Chicago, city of the greatest movement on earth, city of all things, one among them, aid to the distressed. Community referral service, just a moment I'll connect you with the work on duty. The work of the community referral service is best described in its own name, wherein the urgent calls of people in need are referred to the particular agency which can help them most. There are many who call each with a separate problem, each gets a separate response. This is a task measured with conscientious care by a trained staff of caseworkers who never run out of cases. Well, we're here with Miss Marion Trainor, who's the director of the community referral service, and I suppose I should begin properly by asking her just to whom and what do you refer? Well, Mr. Angel,

we refer people to the many and varied health and welfare resources in the community when they're in need of help and don't know where to find it. They can find it here. They can find out where to get the help that they may need. Actually, you don't render the specific services here, but you do know where to refer them. That is right. How did all this come about? Well, community referral service was established just at the close of the war period in 1945. It was an outgrowth of the Veterans Information Center, which had been a voluntary agency serving returning veterans. It was established because the various lay and professional people in the community felt that there is a need for a centralized information and referral service for not only the returning veteran, but for the whole community

when they were in trouble and needed to know where to get some help with it. Now, I'd dare say the great percentage of your calls are from none, veterans, are they not? Well, actually, it's hard to find a family in which there isn't a veteran or hasn't been one, but the problems do not specifically relate to veterans' problems. So what we get out here is that anybody is free to call the agent? That's right. People from all walks of life from a busy executive who may call us about care for an agent relative, about a nursing home or a home for the agent, to a widowed mother who may call asking for a day nursery information so that she can go to work to support her children. Surely. Miss Trainor, this is a sustaining commercial, but would you repeat for us your telephone number? Our telephone number is Randolph -6 -0363. Randolph -6 -0363, which is a number that people who need you should certainly remember. Yes, indeed. We

hope they will. Here's Mrs. Marjorie Hopewell, a caseworker with cases. Well, this, when I think, is an interesting situation, and it's a little bit different. A 17 -year -old boy, a telephone, asking for suggestions in locating a foster home. I explained to him that a foster home for a 17 -year -old was a little difficult to find and wanted to know some of the circumstances of it. So I could try to be as helpful as possible. At that point, much to my surprise, he told me the home was for himself. He said that his father had died several years ago, his mother, a few months ago. Since that time, he had been living with relatives. He was quite unhappy in the relatives' home, and they were not happy at having him there. They are a childless couple and have been unaccustomed to a teenager, and he is sure that he has been quite a disrupting factor

in their household. He said he was quite independent that having lived alone with his mother, who worked, that he had to take care of himself and plan his days pretty much on his own. He does have money. There is an estate so that he would be able to pay for housing and continue his education in the public school's set -up. Since it is difficult to locate a school for a child of this age, I suggested that I refer him to a family service agency who would be able to help him with overall planning. This was done, and we hope that by now the boy is in a satisfactory situation. As a referral agency, do you always have an opportunity to follow up on these cases? Yes, we do. Within a week or so now, talk with the agency to be sure that the boy has followed through and

to learn what they were able to work out for him. This will help us in making referrals for other situations. What kind of a staff do you have here, Mr. Trainer? Well, I think we have a terrific staff. We have a staff of 10 people. Seven of them are professionally trained social workers and three invaluable office workers. One person who devotes a great deal over time to keeping up all resources, resource material for us. We are an awful lot about social workers today. What on your view is a social worker? A social worker is a person who likes people who has been interested enough in helping them to go beyond a college education into graduate work and to learn how to best help people with problems. Well, this is a pretty remarkable field, isn't it, Mr. Trainer? Because the financial compensation isn't very great. Yet the need is so great that we need a lot of people with that

concept. That is true and it's increasingly hard to get trained social workers for. There are many unfilled positions in the social work field. And you have seven of them here. You have seven of them here and we're lucky. I can see that they're all busy. Who pays for this? Well, community referral service is a department of the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago and as such is largely supported by community fund. Mrs. Murray Joed along is a case worker here at the Community Referral Service which never runs out of cases, I understand. Is that right Mrs. Lowell? That's very right, yes. I see you're working on a file in your hand there. That looks rather impressive. Well, now that is a call that I received a couple of weeks ago from the personnel director of a company. They were concerned about a 34 year old man who was becoming industrially blind. He had worked for them for 13 years starting when he was 21. He was single. He lived alone.

The company felt that he could not continue in the factory job that he was doing. In fact, he couldn't do that job any place. He had been such a good worker that they wanted to put him in another job in the plant but they didn't feel that either he or the equipment would be safe if they did this. So they felt they were going to have to lay him off. He had not been told of this. They wanted to have some kind of plan for him when they told him that they'd have to release him. So they called to ask what suggestions we would have for such a man. Well, now what happened here Mrs. DeLong? We didn't talk with the man here. We talked only with the personnel director. I suggested that he let me talk with the Illinois Division of Rehabilitation, which is a state agency that tries to help any handicapped person become independent when they cannot carry on the kind of work they've done before. They would probably give him a medical examination first to determine if anything could be done to improve the man's eyesight. If not,

then they would give him aptitude test to see what kind of work he would be best able to do and then would put him on a training program to try to equip him for another type of job. What's your background for this kind of work, Mrs. DeLong? College, of course, and graduate social work at one of the universities in this area. How long have you been with this agency? About nine or ten years. Kind of interesting work. A very interesting work, yes, indeed it is. We feel that we're really helping people. Mr. Traitor, when someone calls in with a problem, how do you know what or where to refer him? Well, our case workers talk with the inquirer long enough to determine with him his actual problem and then choose the appropriate community resource to meet that need. The worker calls the agency, discusses the whole situation, ensures

the acceptance of the case, calls the applicant back, describes the service that will be offered to him and tells him how to go about making the application to the agency. About how many agencies are there then that you have to refer to in the council? Well, they tell me that the directory is published by the Welfare Council contains over 500 organizations. I've never counted them, but they're designed to give service of one kind or another to people in metropolitan Chicago. You must have quite a phone book here. Do you ever refer people back to private sources, their own doctors, their own clergymen? That happens sometimes. That's in the nature of a problem that may need only some counseling. Often we're able to give counseling in the office in a one brief interview that will take care of the situation and maybe then referred back to the client's pastor as helpful. We receive many

referrals from churches and pastors as well as personality departments in industry, nurses and visiting nurses, other professional people. And it's possible not only to call you but to come in and see you here at 123 West Madison. Good morning Mr. Gonzalez. What can I do for you? Well, I come here to see if I can get some help. What is your problem? Well, it's the place where I live in now. So the owner told me they have to move out. So now I've been unemployed for six months. Now after that I am out of compensation too. So last week I received a check from a welfare department by 72 dollars. So I gave him 45 dollars for the rent. So Saturday I come to my room and tell me that I have a balance. That I owe him a balance of 39 dollars. If I don't give him the money but I have to move out.

So I don't have money to pay rent in other place. I have to stay there. Is your apartment a furnished apartment or an unfurnished apartment? Well, part of the furnished mine, a part of his owner. Do you know that he has, do you rent by the month or by the week? Oh, by the week. By the week. And have you explained to the landlord that you are out of employment? Yes, he knows that. Is he willing to wait for you? Well, I thought that right now I can pay quickly because I get the check every month. From the welfare department? Have you talked to your worker, Mr. Consali? Yes, he had been in my room. She was there, she interviewed me over there. Is she willing to talk to the landlord about it? Yes, she talked to him. She called me by the telephone. When was that? Well, she called him last week. Do you want me to call the social worker?

Well, they called him. And did you fix the deal? Yes, because she has to wake her up in the morning. Would you like me to talk to the worker today? Well, if you can. I think that she might be able to help you. Is this ever a kind of a measurement of our economic times? For instance, now that we're in a recession, do you have more calls or less calls? We have more. I often think we all do. I often think of community referral service as a kind of barometer of the economic and social situation in the city. For instance, when there's a great deal of unemployment, it affects us in different ways and we notice it in different ways. There are less calls from mothers wishing day nursery care for their children because there is an employment for them. There are more people in the office for referrals for financial help or telephoning as for that. Others are

asking where they can go to secure employment. And it's a very noticeable thing. Actually, I think we were one of the first to notice the influx of newcomers into the community, the Puerto Rican and Spanish -speaking particularly. And that is why we were fortunate to secure a Spanish -speaking worker to deal with them. We're here now with Mrs. Sanovaeba Beatles, who is a Spanish -speaking case worker but who certainly doesn't confine her work necessarily to people who speak Spanish. That's right. I do take a regular case load plus this Spanish is speaking people. What's a little bit of your background, Mrs. Beatles? Well, I am a graduate from the National University of Mexico City and I attended the New York School of Social Work. And your care, your desk here is piled high with these case cards. What are some of them concerned?

There is a tremendous variety of problems, especially unemployment, housing, medical care, marriage counseling. And I could tell you on and on about different types of problems. Do you find that there are an enlarged group of problems with Spanish -speaking people who come here? Is that growing? Well, I think it's the fact that they know there is an agency to help them and they come to us with these different problems. Can you think of any particularly interesting cases that you've had recently? Yes, I could tell you about one very interesting, this mother telephone in our office. She could not speak a word of English and she was very relieved when she found out that I was able to speak Spanish. The problem was that she was going to enter the municipal tuberculosis sanitarium. She was the only support of the child, a four -year -old child,

and she lived emergency placement for the child. She had a great deal of feeling about going through the court because she felt that if she was through the court, that she might lose the child. My interpretation of the loss of Chicago was able to tell her that she would not lose custody of the child and that this would be the proper referral. At that particular time, you were probably the most important person in her life. Probably, and she was very relieved to know that she would find the worker at the family court who would be interested in her problem. And that would be helpful to her in planning for this child. This must bring a great sense of gratitude to you, Mrs. Bee. Yes, it does. Okay, now you said that everybody who has a problem can call in, Ms. Trainer, do many do this. Yes. How many? I would

say, well, three -fourths of the monthly volume is from telephone calls alone. We average from 1 ,400 to 1 ,500 requests for information and referral service each month, and of those three -fourths come to us and are handled completely by telephone. I see. Well, Ms. Trainer, what are some of these problems that you hear each day and each week? Well, Mr. Angel, they simply run the gamut. Everything from when, what month does the landlord have to turn on our heat to, can you send us to an agency that can help us save our marriage? It can be a legal problem, some serious personal problem of an individual, serious medical situation, or a need for psychiatric health or financial health. I remember that we've chatted a few years ago when they dropped rent controls, and you said that that was about the highest

volume of calls that you'd ever have. It was in anyone given month. In fact, Mr. Angel, we had 600 calls in three days. Mostly in high debt, in that recall. Indeed, saying, can the landlord really raise our rent 50%, and one person calling saying, what is the President Congress planning to do about rent control? We can't second -guess Congress, can't we? No, we certainly can. And then there was the man from New York who called in? And in the midst of all this trouble, called to ask if we knew of a chess club operating in the loop, to join. Well, that's quite a service you provide. Ms. Dorothy Hayes is a case worker with a couple of very interesting cases in point here about some of our older problems. Problems of our older people, perhaps I should say. This one is a man who

came to our office very upset and crying and pacing the floor. A few minutes earlier, the secretary in a psychiatrist's office had called our agency to say that this man had come referred by his lawyer. Psychiatrist was not there, but she felt that he was so upset that he should have some immediate help. We talked with him, and he was so upset that he was hardly able to tell anything about his difficulties. He could only indicate that he had been married very happily and his wife had died, and now with a second marriage, it wasn't working out as he had hoped. Because he was so upset, we felt we had to get him to some help immediately. We called Mental Health Centers, which is the state mental hygiene clinic here, and the social worker said that an interview would be possible at once. The man went there and later we had a report from Mental Health Centers saying that a psychiatrist was able to see him at once

and he was going to have continuing appointments. So that you knew that he was cared for? Yes, this one we knew the ending. It was a very fortunate moment when he turned your way instead of possibly another way that he could have turned. Yes, because I have no way of evaluating as a social worker how deeply serious this was emotionally, but I think that he seemed rather desperate and this kind of person can sometimes make a real mistake and decide to do something dangerous to himself. These moments are very important. Ms. Trainer, you hear these problems day after day, every hour of the day, week after week, and it's very obvious that you enjoy it here very much. Do you ever take these problems home with you, ever become a part of your worries? Physically, I do. One learns to become objective about these things. This is a question that has been asked of me for over 20 years. My usual

response, and I truly feel this way, is that usually most social workers and myself included are so concerned with finding or helping the person find a solution to their problem that we concentrate on that rather than on that. And the depressing aspects of the situation. Kind of makes you forget your own problems once in a while. Yes, indeed. Don't have much time to think of your own. Many people less fortunate than we are. Indeed. Well, thank you very much, Ms. Trainer. Thank you, Ms. Trainer. The Community Referral Service. Guidance for a boy headed for trouble. Or a mother who fears for him. Direction for a worker with no work. Or a tenant with no rent money. A family made homeless. Or an emotionally disturbed child. They come in all manner of degrees. And the Community Referral Service takes

them all as they come. The deep problems of the city are resolved in years, not moments. And there is much in the ear to listen and the heart to help. This is Jack Angel with George Wilson, an engineer whose recordings here have imprinted city in sound.