National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT): national information hotline based in Mining City

For over 25 years the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) http://www.ncat.org in Butte has been serving the nation’s economically disadvantaged population by providing both information and access on technologies that can help them achieve a better quality of life. From agriculture to solar energy, NCAT has a wealth of low to high tech projects geared toward helping people help themselves.

By Paula J. Peters
for inBusiness Montana Standard

According to NCAT’s Executive Director, Kathy Hadley, the national non-profit organization divides its projects into 3 major areas: agriculture, community and energy. Although NCAT’s headquarters are in Butte, various NCAT programs are also implemented out of 3 other offices in Missoula, MT, Fayetteville, AR and Davis, CA.

In a recent interview, Hadley highlighted one of NCAT’s success stories, which has particular relevance as fuel costs continue to rise and this nation slowly moves into spring after one of the harshest winters in recent memory. The project is called NEAR, an acronym that stands for the National Energy Assistance Referral hotline.

“It’s a little project, but it has a national reach,” Hadley said.

Hadley said that NCAT in Butte formed the toll-free hotline in response to a need to provide low-income people with access to information on energy assistance. The incredible advances in telecommunications and computer technology that have occurred since NCAT was created in the 1970’s made setting up a national hotline based in Butte—simple.

Since the hotline began operation in October of 2001, NCAT employees have been helping callers nationwide connect with government agencies, utility companies and private charities who can assist them in getting the energy assistance they need.

The project has been a success and funding was recently approved for operation into the next fiscal year. NCAT’s Operations Manager, Marcia Brown, said that in February alone, the hotline logged a total of 10,500 minutes for the month. Brown said the NEAR hotline is just one of 12 toll-free hotlines based at NCAT.

With the creation of the NEAR hotline, came several new jobs at NCAT. Brown said that the hotline is staffed by one full-time and one ¾- time employee and other auxiliary personnel, as needed. The workers came to NCAT through the Experience Works program; a government funded program that helps older, low-income Americans in the work force.

The hotline has also provided employment opportunities for people from the AFL-CIO’s Project Challenge and interns from the local Human Resource Council said Brown.

Tapping into these resources was just another way to keep in focus of NCAT’s primary goal.

“Our mission is basically to help people, especially the economically disadvantaged, to help themselves,’ Brown said.

The computer and phone skills learned on the job are especially beneficial to lower income employees looking to improve their job skills.

Kay Joslin serves as director of the NEAR program. Joslin talked about the logistics of how the hotline works. According to Joslin, the NEAR number is made available nationwide through sources such as Internet search engines, utility companies or in publications of organizations such as AARP.

Staffed from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Mountain Time, Monday through Friday, hotline personnel answer calls and record the caller’s home state, county, and city or town. Hotline personnel determine the caller’s problem and then access national database of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to determine which regional energy service specialist can best help them with their problem.

“We’ve done a lot of outreach nationally,” said Joslin, who pointed out that historically the southern states, including Arkansas and Texas, log the largest numbers of callers to the program.

Peggy Dennis has worked the hotline since it began operating.

“I feel like we’re really doing some good…especially with the older people,” she said. “A lot of elderly people call because they can’t ‘make it’ because they live on a fixed income. You get some people in tears…they’re cooking on their barbecues because their gas has been cut off,” she added.

Dennis said the calls seem to go in cycles and large surges occur when organizations like the AARP list the hotline number in their newsletter or the hotline number appears in television or radio commercials.

“Sometimes you get so many calls you can’t put down your phone before you get another call,” Dennis said.

For more information about the program, access the NCAT website at http://www.ncat.org.

NEAR can be reached by calling (866) 674-6327 or (866) NRG-NEAR or by e-mail at [email protected].

http://www.mtstandard.com/inbusiness/inbusiness8/ncat.html