Serving the community

The City Helpdesk prides itself in the fact that our staff are part of the community they serve, and as such understand and appreciate the problems and concerns of Portsmouth residents.

We are active in many community-focused activities. These include:

Working in partnership with 101 - We work with Hampshire Constabulary to support the 101 non-emergency number.  Calls to 101 regarding anti-social behaviour, grafitti, noise, vandalism and other similar concerns are passed to the City Helpdesk to be investigated.

Community Involvement– The City Helpdesk is regularly represented at community forums, allowing the exchange of information.  Some of our staff will be attending the Race Equality Scheme Consultation Event in January 2008.

Polish Information Day - The City Helpdesk attended a Polish Workers Information day to reach out to the Polish Community. A Team Leader and Customer Service Advisor represented the City Helpdesk and were able to deal with any enquiries in relation to the number of services that the City Helpdesk can deal with. This was an opportunity for the Polish Community to gain an understanding of the services provided by the City Helpdesk as well as giving them an opportunity to ask experienced staff any questions that they had.

Campaigns – Recent campaigns that the City Helpdesk have been involved in have included the 2006 Winter Warmth Heating campaign, green recycling, bus consultation and tenants home contents insurance campaigns. City Helpdesk was the first point of contact for residents on these projects. If our City Helpdesk staff were not able to answer the questions immediately details were taken, the answers found and residents called back with the information requested.  

Emails - We use our email response to provide additional information about events and services which may be of interest to customers.    

Surveys - City Helpdesk has also been used to gather information from Portsmouth residents by the use of surveys at the end of a call to us. Recent surveys have covered crime and anti-social behavour and methods used by residents to recieve important information. 

Fundraising for charity - Our staff are involved in a wide range of charity events. Recently we have been involved with Jeans for Genes Day, Breast Cancer Awareness and provide ongoing, long term, charity support through our gifts/book club.