People say you learn something new every day

But some days you learn more than others. This is especially true when you get a chance to work with someone who has as much experience as my boss, Zach Reat, the outreach programs manager for The Ohio Benefit Bank. Just the other day, I traveled with Zach to a Life Skills Back to School event, and learned about a fantastic resource for a traveling benefits counselor like me, which is also extremely useful to benefits counselors helping clients that might be in from out of town or who have family members in different counties.
 
As a mobile enrollment specialist who travels to different counties on a daily basis, I frequently need to refer clients to community resources, even when I am not familiar with resources available locally. The first thing that comes to mind during instances such as these (other than referring the client to a local OBB site that might have more knowledge regarding local resources) is to refer someone to their local community resource directory through the Ohio 2-1-1 network, which provides referrals for local food and clothing distributions, free legal aid, or any other local assistance that is designed to help clients meet their particular needs.
 
However, not all of these community resource directories can be reached by dialing 2-1-1! Luckily, there’s a map for that. Zach referred me to a fantastic web page, which I now keep bookmarked on my computer, that shows whether the Ohio 2-1-1 network is active in a particular area, and lists the local call center contact information for each county. 

Check it out: http://www.referweb.net/ohio/ 

A "Golden" Opportunity

I have been told on more than one occasion that I have developed quite the obsession with Golden Buckeye Card applications. In fact, what’s not to love? 

The Golden Buckeye card offers 5% discounts at a number of restaurants, $0.29 drinks at McDonalds, and (most importantly) allows one to get discounts on his or her prescriptions through the Ohio’s Best RX program that is included with a Golden Buckeye card. However, the benefits of using a Golden Buckeye card are only part of the reason that it comes up so frequently in my conversations with clients. The truth of the matter is that I talk to so many people about whether or not they might be potentially eligible for a Golden Buckeye card because most clients are unaware that the age requirement is waived for adults with a permanent disability. It’s an awesome thing for a counselor to be able to tell a client that all we need in order to apply for his or her Golden Buckeye card is to see a Medicare card or a letter from Social Security stating that the client is permanently disabled. 

The icing on the cake is that by applying with a counselor from The Ohio Benefit Bank, a client is able to walk away from the experience with a temporary Golden Buckeye card that he or she can use until their official card arrives in the mail. This is a fantastic way to introduce someone to the OBB, and to transition into checking if a client might be potentially eligible for any of the other benefits offered by the State of Ohio. So if that’s not worth obsessing just a little bit over, what is?

-- Tyler