Insider: White Bird shutdown of Front Rooms will disrupt mail service

Presenter: White Bird officially closes its Front Rooms program Dec. 13, though the nonprofit says it will continue to offer a mailing address for clients.

[00:00:09] One insider is now warning that mail service is likely to fail. Volunteer Coordinator Georgia Quinn says White Bird’s senior leadership team failed to set up the needed intern and volunteer programs.

[00:00:22] She talked about the Front Rooms program Dec. 11.

[00:00:26] Georgia Quinn (White Bird, volunteer coordinator): We are the information and referral for the entire agency. So anyone that needs medical, dental, counseling, DUI support, free ID, mail, they call the Front Rooms and we direct them wherever they need to go.

[00:00:40] I’ll have people call in to Front Rooms and ask me for the closest St. Vinnie’s to where they are because they don’t have a smartphone and I will give them instructions to write down and, like, get there.

[00:00:50] Front Rooms historically has been funded by excess money from the global services. And when we realized that that wasn’t happening this spring, we were kind of like, ‘Oh, that’s strange. That’s usually how Front Rooms has become funded.’

[00:01:05] Presenter: Georgia said after nine employees were dismissed, she wrote a letter to White Bird management.

[00:01:11] Georgia Quinn (White Bird volunteer coordinator): Dear Jeremy Gates and Senior Leadership Team: I am writing to formally state that I will not assume responsibility for the White Bird Clinic mail system following the layoffs of nine union workers in the Front Rooms Department.

[00:01:24] In my opinion, this decision stems in many ways from systematic mismanagement within the clinic as exemplified by the closure of an entire department without what I see as a viable plan to continue critical services.

[00:01:37] On Thursday, Dec. 5, I was called into a meeting to discuss the future of my role. I was informed that following the impending layoffs of nine union workers, I would be the only staff member left in White Bird Clinic with knowledge and training on the clinic’s mail system.

[00:01:52] This system, from my perspective, is critical not only for interdepartmental operations—including receiving and sorting mail for every department—but also for serving as the registered mailing address for over 2,682 vulnerable clients.

[00:02:07] During this meeting, it became clear to me that leadership lacks a full understanding of the intricacies of the system. Despite this, I was tasked with preserving this integral program and creating a volunteer-based operation to support a significantly reduced service window of, quote, ‘Monday through Friday, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.’

[00:02:26] I cannot and will not agree to this responsibility, as I believe it is both morally untenable and wholly impractical to be the sole coordinator at my current wage of $18 per hour.

[00:02:37] The layoffs in the Front Rooms Department represent, in my opinion, a blatant act of union-busting. The dismissal of nine union workers as I see it has left critical services in disarray and shifted the burden onto remaining staff without adequate compensation, guidance, or consent.

[00:02:56] In my view, the systematic dismantling of a unionized department is both unethical and sets a dangerous precedent for the clinic’s operations and values. To address these issues and protect the integrity of the clinic, I respectfully request the following actions:

[00:03:11] 1. Reverse the decision to close the Front Rooms Department. Extend operations by at least 60 days to allow time for investigating alternative funding sources. Notably, food services will soon become billable, and the closure has already prompted donors to withdraw or withhold support.

[00:03:29] 2. Implement the volunteer system developed for Front Rooms. Support the implementation of the volunteer system that I have spent over a year-long developing. Additionally, reinstate our relationship with the University of Oregon College of Education placement program, which has historically provided our agency with exceptional interns, offering both administrative and frontline service support.

[00:03:50] 3. Provide proper job descriptions. Deliver official and finalized job descriptions. These descriptions, as I understand it, have been promised for over a year and are essential for clarity in our roles and responsibilities moving forward. If the board can approve $1,500 retention bonuses for select non-unionized departments to ease their worries about, quote, ‘changes in the clinic,’ unquote, I believe it can allocate the same time and resources necessary to support our current vital service.

[00:04:20] I work at this clinic because I’ve experienced the challenges of being unhoused myself, and I’m committed to helping others overcome similar struggles. This work is deeply personal to me, and I take immense pride in offering a hand up to those in need, just as others once did for me.

[00:04:36] Urgent call to the rest of the clinic: Take this email as a cautionary tale. In my opinion, allowing this precedent to stand will endanger the livelihoods of your colleagues and the welfare of the clients you serve next.

[00:04:49] I look forward to your response and hope the organization will take immediate steps to address this matter with the seriousness it deserves.

[00:04:57] Presenter: That’s White Bird Volunteer Coordinator Georgia Quinn, who is asking for 60 days to successfully transition the client mail service. But White Bird has already announced it will start again next Monday. On Dec. 11, Georgia Quinn.

[00:05:11] Georgia Quinn (White Bird volunteer coordinator): Next week, I either don’t have a job, or I don’t have a job when it comes to White Bird Clinic, because they are essentially like, I told my manager last week, like, ‘Excuse my French, but they’re expecting me to pull a magic carpet out of my butt, fly around the lot and drop volunteers.’

[00:05:27] This is a ginormous mail system that if they want to continue this process of laying off this entire department, even if they paid me a million dollars and I wanted to, it physically would not be possible. And I couldn’t be responsible for 3,000 vulnerable people’s mail.

[00:05:44] I originally did work in Front Rooms. I was a part of the unionization process, but I took my current position in admin as volunteer coordinator for the specific reason of we were always told at Front Rooms: ‘We have no money, there’s no money, there’s no money.’

And we didn’t have a volunteer coordinator. So I was like, ‘Well, I will do it and I will bring the volunteer program back into Front Rooms.’

[00:06:06] Tried to restart that last spring for Front Rooms because all of this has kind of has been run through Front Rooms. I feel like it would be pretty hard to run, almost impossible to run a volunteer program without Front Rooms.

[00:06:19] I mean, volunteers trained me. That’s been a huge, huge aspect of White Bird.

[00:06:24] Presenter: She said the transition could succeed, if given more time. Georgia Quinn.

[00:06:29] Georgia Quinn (White Bird volunteer coordinator): I feel like the least that they can do is give Front Rooms at least 60 days. Even if it was to close down after those 60 days, our clients and our entire clinic needs that amount of time to make an adequate plan for how to transition these services and how to tell our clients and what are we going to tell our clients. Because they’re handing out flyers offering this new mail time that is to start on (Dec.) 16.

[00:06:58] Yet I was brought into a meeting on (Dec.) 5 and told that I will be the last person with any kind of real training from the past like five years on the mail system really. And it’s a very intricate system. There’s lots of different aspects that go into it. And Front Rooms has developed this system with consensus over years and years.

[00:07:19] Presenter: Georgia said it takes six months to a year to fully train a new person on the mail system.

[00:07:25] Georgia Quinn (White Bird volunteer coordinator): Just sorting and distributing the mail on shift is a position called ‘receptionist.’ It’s one of our leadership positions in Front Rooms, and it takes minimum six months to get signed off. I believe it took me closer to a year. It takes people six months to a year, usually, to get fully signed off on just holding that position. The program coordinator of Front Rooms itself is who technically oversees the mail system.

[00:07:53] I have so many direct communications with Jeremy Gates and all of leadership. I’ve built a whole plan that’s been ready—systems and tracking—but every single time, it was a different excuse. Every three months. The last excuse I got was that Front Rooms needed to be back in the 341 building: ‘Oh, we’re going to wait until they’re back in the building.’ Well, they got a week in the building until I got the layoff email.

[00:08:17] We need to make a plan and we can’t be on Dec. 5 start announcing when the service will happen when I am allegedly the only person able to take it on.

[00:08:29] Presenter: She said White Bird should be transparent with the public about its revenue and expenses. Georgia Quinn.

[00:08:35] Georgia Quinn (White Bird volunteer coordinator): I would love management to open the books. And although on ProPublica there is some public information, I think our clinic would really appreciate seeing and knowing where our money comes from and where it’s going.

[00:08:48] Presenter: Volunteer coordinator Georgia Quinn warns that White Bird’s mail service won’t survive the shutdown of the Front Rooms program. She’s asking 60 days to work out the transition.

[00:09:00] KEPW has asked White Bird to schedule a press conference with local media to respond to Georgia’s letter.

Front Rooms image and text courtesy White Bird website.