As I was nearing retirement from the Air Force, I received briefings reminding me that the world outside of the military is nothing like the one inside of it. It’s a dog eat dog world out there; companies only care about their bottom line; companies won’t help anyone else unless it’s beneficial for them, etc.
When I came onboard with AIS, however, I was told that our Managed Services practice provides pro-bono support for the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center. I was taken aback to learn that AIS is the total opposite of what I’d been taught. This company really cares for the community — and doesn’t just say it, but proves it.
About Grassroots
Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center is the only homeless shelter in Columbia, Maryland that provides beds and round-the-clock support for those in need of professional crisis intervention, suicide prevention, or outreach services for personal, situational, mental health, and domestic violence crises. In 2018, they fielded 38,914 calls on their 24-Hour Crisis Intervention Hotline, served 2,028 clients in their various shelters, and ensuring the safety of 262 children. While Grassroots is a private non-profit agency and receives funding from grants, private foundations, community donations, and local businesses, it’s simply not enough to ensure their IT is ready to handle the day-to-day demands Grassroots volunteers endure.
Grassroots was lucky to have a volunteer donate their time to providing IT support. Unfortunately, there’s only so much one person can do for an organization like Grassroots. They continue to grow and face new IT challenges each day.
Providing 24/7 Support for a 24/7 Organization
AIS offered to help Grassroots’ volunteer IT person manage their needs and growth at no cost. Our Managed Services team worked with them to define their needs and bottlenecks so we could best support them. The result was an arrangement where the Grassroots volunteer IT staff handle onsite demands, while AIS Managed Services support any IT needs that can be handled remotely, 24/7/365.
In the past year, we’ve helped resolve over 100 different issues ranging from account creation/deletion and email connectivity problems to agency-wide network outages. Managed Services resolved each one of these tickets with a 100% satisfaction rate. Along with resolving tickets, the Managed Services team also provides basic IT training to Grassroots counselors to help increase their understanding of the system… so that they can quickly get back to the important work of helping people.
Service Before Self
In the Air Force, one of our core values was service before self. It’s refreshing to see that AIS is a company that puts community service ahead of self. It makes this veteran honored to work with this company and their support of the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.
