New Social Services Platforms Launch on @LinkNYC Tablets
New platforms to help connect New Yorkers and visitors to local social services are now available on LinkNYC kiosks.
The tens of thousands of people who use them each week can now access the newly relaunched ACCESS NYC site, the City’s one-stop shop for New Yorkers to find and apply for City, State, and Federal programs and benefits—from SNAP food assistance to IDNYC and beyond.
Additionally, through a partnership with the award-winning software program Aunt Bertha, local non-profit and social services will be available on LinkNYC’s kiosk tablets in all five boroughs, bringing access to housing, food, health, legal, education, and other services to the streets of New York.
Jen Hensley, General Manager of LinkNYC told us “We envisioned LinkNYC as a platform to connect all New Yorkers and visitors to services that could improve their quality of life, and we’re proud to partner with ACCESS NYC and Aunt Bertha to bring access to social service providers directly to people in all five boroughs,” said “Whether you’re looking for the nearest health clinic or food pantry, or you have questions about affordable housing, you can now find valuable resources in your community just by visiting a Link. We look forward to continuing to bring civic innovation to New York City streets to benefit New Yorkers and visitors on-the-go.”
Anne M. Roest, Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications said “LinkNYC is already uplifting New Yorkers by providing access to the largest, fastest, free municipal wi-fi system in the world. We’re deepening our commitment to serving all New Yorkers by bringing ACCESS NYC and Aunt Bertha front and center. Now, any New Yorker can walk up to a Link and have these valuable services at their fingertips.”
The Link tablet home screen will feature a direct link to ACCESS NYC’s new mobile-friendly portal, where New Yorkers can find information about and apply for public benefits they may qualify for. ACCESS NYC is always available on Link tablets through the 311 app, available on the home screen. Users need to answer a few short questions and a customized list of potential benefits and programs will be generated.
To access the Aunt Bertha social services site on LinkNYC kiosks, a user should start a tablet session and select Find Resources on the tablet screen. The app will launch and generate a list of social service providers in the surrounding zip code of the kiosk. Users can also search for a specific category of services (housing, legal, transit, health, food, education, and more) and access the results in different languages.
Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks added “Our City has made an extraordinary effort to make it easier for New Yorkers in need to get assistance. ACCESS NYC is an effective tool to connect New Yorkers with a wide variety of city, state and federal services and making it also available on LinkNYC kiosks is not just smart—it’s the right thing to do. At the Department of Social Services we have already made progress in this direction and we will continue to look for innovative ways to expand accessibility of services even further.”
In January, the network celebrated reaching more than one million registered users on its Wi-Fi network less than a year after publicly launching on the streets of New York City. More than 1.3 million people – more than the populations of the cities of San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, or Denver – opted in to use the free gigabit Wi-Fi service, with approximately 40,000 new users joining the network each week.
For more information and to find a Link near you, visit link.nyc.
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