If you or anyone you know has ever been in need of a service, you may have been told to call IMPACT. But what exactly is that?
Put simply, IMPACT is Milwaukee’s central access point for people in need. The nonprofit organization has served Southeastern Wisconsin since 1960.
Services
Vickie Boneck, IMPACT marketing and communications director, said the organization has three sister programs that rely on one another for enhanced efficiency for clients and system partners.
Those services include IMPACT 211, IMPACT Coordinated Entry and IMPACT Connect.
IMPACT 211 is the service that most people are familiar with. The hotline connects people in crisis to family, health and social service organizations that provide the service or services they may need.
“We get people to a place that will help them solve their immediate emergency and then create a space for them to have long-term sustainability,” said John Hyatt, IMPACT president and CEO.
IMPACT Coordinated Entry offers resources and help for people experiencing a housing crisis. The system allows IMPACT’s team to prioritize those with the most severe needs.
IMPACT Connect is a fairly new program. It provides the framework for partners across social service sectors to coordinate care.
A less known but equally important part of IMPACT’s work is IMPACT Planning & Evaluation.
The Planning & Evaluation team evaluates programs and initiatives and provides recommendations to help address issues like substance use and mental health.
“We also research community needs, identify best practices, build evaluation capacity, promote continuous quality improvement and support program sustainability,” Boneck said.
Critical to the community
Julie Divjak, vice president of community impact for United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County, said when there is a community crisis, IMPACT is often the first call leaders make.
Divjak mentioned several instances of crisis where IMPACT helped streamline services for those impacted. Most recently, the organization was called in to help when the U.S. Department of Labor issued a phased pause in operations for Job Corps centers across the country, including the Milwaukee Job Corps location, which is operated by Horizons Youth Services.
“Thankfully we don’t have a lot of major disasters in this region,” said Bob Waite, IMPACT’s senior account manager. “But what is important is that if something does happen, things can be ramped up really quickly.
“Our role, then, is to do whatever is asked of us in terms of maintaining information on resources that are made available over the course of the disaster recovery, and things change daily in terms of the resources that are needed.”
Divjak said it’s important to know that IMPACT is not a government agency.
“While the work they do is critical, IMPACT is a grassroots 501c3 organization,” she said.
Challenges
According to IMPACT 211’s 2024 end-of-year report, the organization’s crisis helpline had 234,408 contacts through phone calls, text messages, chat sessions and online resource database searches
Hyatt said IMPACT receives support from local philanthropic groups and government agencies, and while they are heavily relied on, IMPACT has the same struggles as every other nonprofit.
“Our community is impacted by government contracts and government grants and what’s available to us financially. It’s challenging to work with what we have and what we can’t control, and then the wind blows in a different direction,” he said. “We’ve been here for more than 65 years, but there’s no guarantee.”
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