COVID-19 Inbox Project

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

The COVID-19 Inbox Project’s purpose was to provide vetted and timely answers to the public and Operational Area Emergency Operations Center (OA EOC) partners as the county’s COVID-19 response evolved. The project created/implemented curriculum to train Disaster Service Workers (DSWs) assigned to operate hotlines/email inboxes during OA EOC activation. The project created training resources (from federal/state/county public information, government/OA partners and subject matter experts), shared development opportunities, conducted briefings to ensure DSWs’ professional growth, and answered 1,017+ diverse inquiries during the period of 3/20/2020-7/5/2020.The project is still active, and its inclusive methods were replicated by 4 County of San Diego OA EOC processes. Furthermore, the project was shared with other county departments to potentially implement the curriculum on a larger scale and improve future OA EOC activations. Overall, the COVID-19 Inbox Project directly increased public and county employee knowledge, and provided resources to constituents in an organized and timely manner by: filling gaps in the availability of county services, improving the administration of an existing county government program, upgrading the working conditions/training for county employees, enhancing citizen understanding of government programs, providing information that facilitated effective public policy making and promoting intergovernmental cooperation/coordination in addressing shared problems.