Information Clearinghouses

That's the word for it: information clearinghouses. In my quest for services, whether it's a government or nonprofit agency, that is what I have encountered with each call: I am given a list of more phone numbers to call of other information clearinghouses. But rarely any actual help. There is someone at a desk working from a directory of numbers that they give to the caller, and at the other end of all those numbers, are other people sitting at a desk with the same directory of numbers. And the bottom line is always: we can't help you, but try these numbers. 

All of the so-called autism/disability orgs in my area are like that. I envision a closet-sized empty room with a dusty desk, one phone number directory, and one zombie worker taking calls and reading off phone numbers. In modernized orgs, there is a computer where the zombie worker also routinely copies/pastes links into reply emails. Redirecting. Redirecting. Redirecting. 

This has happened to me with small local nonprofits, school district services, and even celebrity nonprofits like Autism Speaks. All I ever receive as replies are more phone numbers and web links. Redirecting. Redirecting. Redirecting. 

Information clearinghouses work toward creating an illusion of presence, offer nothing tangible, and soak up valuable resources that could be allocated to something "real."