FAQs

Photo Credit: IRC

What’s the best way to reach service providers to include on the map?  

Colleagues in other sectors within your organization can be a good starting point as they are likely familiar with other organizations providing services in that sector.  Working Groups and other coordination spaces can also be an important resource. These are typically divided by sector (eg. Health, Protection, etc.) and so are a good way to identify organizations providing services related to those sectors. Finally, if you haven’t already, we recommend searching to see if there are any other service mapping initiatives in your context and seeing if there are ways to collaborate. 

What do I do if it is taking a long time to hear back from service providers?

It sometimes takes some time to establish good relationships with service providers. A first contact should be established prior to sending a form to be filled, and often you'll need to spend some time explaining purpose of the service map. If things are still taking a long time, you might want to mobilize other colleagues who may have better contacts with the organization or understanding of their functioning. Do not hesitate to raise this to your supervisor to brainstorm strategies to improve, simplify and speed up the validation process. 

How often should I update the service map?

This will depend on your context, in particular how often services are changing (closing down, changing their hours or availability etc.) At a minimum, service entries should be reviewed and revalidated at least once every 3-4 months. In addition to reaching out to service providers to ask them to revalidate their entries on a regular basis (frequency depending on context), you can help ensure that the service map is kept up to date by asking service providers to proactively reach out to you if there are any changes. 

How do I ensure that the services I am mapping are quality services?

Signpost does not guarantee that the services on the map meet a specific standard of quality. However we do recommend removing services from the map that we have reason to believe are not meeting basic standards in a way that may actually be causing harm. This could include (for example):

• Clearly discriminatory practices
• Multiple and ongoing reports of abuse that are not being addressed
• Requests for payment for services that are expressed to be at no cost

This is a nuanced decision so we recommend discussing with your supervisor and other colleagues as relevant. 

What do we do if we get negative feedback on one of the services on the map?

When collecting service information you should be asking service providers if they have a client feedback mechanism (a way for clients/community members to lodge complaints or give feedback about services received) and include that in your data entry in the comment fieldin Directus. That way if one of Signpost’s users reaches out with feedback on a service on the map, you can give them information about that provider’s client feedback mechanism so that the user can deliver their feedback directly. 

If you are receiving feedback on a service provided by your own organization/office, you should be directing that to the client feedback or AAP focal point in your office for them to track, investigate if relevant, and close the loop.