Adding Neighborhood Designation To Requests

Many zip codes cover a large geographic area, which can mean churches that are, in fact, several miles away from the point-of-care respond to a request only to find out 1) a different network church in the same zip code would be better suited to make a connection with the child/family in need; 2) delivering the items is much more difficult than expected.

This is less of an issue for rural churches, as citizens are used to traveling large distances + don't have to fight traffic, deal with traffic lights and city speed limits, etc. For urban churches, however, traveling 10-, 15-, or 20-miles one way for a delivery (which is possible within certain zip codes!) could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour each way, on busy (oftentimes cramped) streets -- and if this happens on multiple occasions, a church can become hesitant to respond to requests.

As a Regional Manager, I have assisted with a few open requests by asking the Agency Worker for a "general location" of the child/family in need -- nothing overly specific, of course, but enough to help me pinpoint which church(es) in my care are best suited to make a connection. I have had great success with this strategy, as I am then able to approach a church with the assurance that meeting the request would mean making a connection with a child/family close to them.

It would be wonderful if this more detailed information was available to churches the moment they read a new request. By seeing the delivery neighborhood when first reading the request, a church will immediately know if a request is well-suited for them, and this could greatly help with response times.