The City of El Paso, Texas tapped Cisco's networking infrastructure and digital services to connect residents in crisis with a range of social services that provide basic needs, housing placement, emergency shelter, and street outreach. The El Paso Helps online portal will also support the city and its social services organizations in making "increasingly data-driven decisions," El Paso's Sustainability and Climate Officer Nicole Ferrini told SDxCentral.

El Pasoans experiencing homelessness can access the portal by visiting the El Paso Helps website, where they’ll be connected to individuals offering resource assistance via Cisco's Webex platform. "Our focus has been on unhoused community members given the challenges El Paso has faced, but this model is a launching pad to expand to more individuals in need," Ferrini said, adding that the program "is truly unprecedented in the way it prioritizes direct access to another human being facilitated by technology."

"There’s nothing more frustrating than needing urgent help, not having transportation to get help, not knowing where to go, or trying to navigate an automated phone system and never reaching a real person," she said.

The portal also helps the city keep its finger on the pulse of the community's greatest needs. "Over time, we have every intention of continuing to increase services and align resources to drive the greatest impact," Ferrini noted.

The city leader explained that Cisco provides “thought partnership” not usually found with corporate vendor partnerships. “From the beginning, we feel like we’re joined by the common goal of leveraging technology to tackle the problem at hand,” Ferrini said.

“What has been so wonderful about working with Cisco is that, when I called up Cisco and came to the account team, I wasn't requesting a specific technology, I was requesting help solving a problem. The Cisco team rolled up their sleeves and brought a level of expertise, given their presence supporting so many cities across the United States, that allowed us to tailor a solution that made the most sense for the City of El Paso and our community members in need.”

Cisco VP of State, Local Government, and Education Gary DePreta told SDxCentral that Cisco is ideally suited to partner with the city because of its layered technology approach to powering the portal. Following the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable communities, the outreach program is “an example of where innovation born out of necessity proved that digital public services supporting the unhoused can be delivered quickly and safely,” DePreta added.

Webex utilizes various security frameworks like end-to-end encryption for data protection in transit and when stored in the cloud. DePreta also touted the platform’s cloud-native delivery as “essential for El Paso Helps’ environment since it connects residents with nonprofit providers wherever they are without the need for dedicated infrastructure,” he explained.

Looking ahead, the El Paso Helps program holds “immense potential to be replicated in other geographies,” DePreta noted. Although many city and local governments have pushed online portals and cloud calling centers for community members in need, El Paso’s program “goes a step further to quickly connect community members” with a real person who can help navigate different social services. In this way, the program is a "model for other cities looking to replicate a more personalized delivery of social services powered by technology,” he added.