LOUISVILLE, Ky. - February 25, 2008 - Smoothstone IP Communications collaborated with Louisville Metro Government, Metro United Way 2-1-1, The Louisville Urban League, The Housing Partnership, Legal Aid, the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors, The Crisis information Center, Seven Counties Services, Inc., and 40 volunteers to hold the Louisville Foreclosure Prevention Hot Line on February 21 and 22, 2008

Traditionally Metro United Way 2-1-1 connects people to counselors who can assist callers with health and human service needs 24/7. With the rise of foreclosures in Metro Louisville, Metro United Way 2-1-1 recently became the Louisville Foreclosure Prevention Program's contact point for distressed homeowners to speak with counselors who provided assistance in opening a line of communication between individuals, their lenders and community agencies to help the borrowers stay in their homes. Additionally, the project also served as a means to raise general awareness with the public about Metro United Way 2-1-1 services.

Smoothstone provided 30 IP phones to the project and worked with Metro United Way's primary 2-1-1 call center to ensure foreclosure-related calls were routed appropriately to the temporary foreclosure call center within the Metro United Way headquarters building. Smoothstone created a call flow to distribute those callers into 3 unique call queues based on the caller's mortgage status. Smoothstone's portal application, ITC, allowed call center workers to view real-time data about call activity which helped match the number of volunteers to the various call queue volumes.

By the end of the first night, the Louisville Foreclosure Prevention Hot Line answered over 500 calls with a collective talk time of approximately 47 hours. Roughly 50% of the calls were from people behind in their mortgage payments, but had not yet received foreclosure papers. Another 25% of these callers had been served with foreclosure papers, and the remaining 25% wanted general information.

'I appreciate Smoothstone's involvement,' said Joe Tolan, President of Metro United Way. 'The results were incredible and demonstrate just how important technology is to our organization. We plan to submit a report to the United Way of America about the success of this program, highlighting the key role Smoothstone played in the project.' 'Our Louisville Foreclosure Prevention initiative is an important effort to keep residents in their homes and keep neighborhoods intact,' said Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson. 'Having a local company like Smoothstone involved with the hotline helps insure that homeowners in need are getting timely advice and allows Metro Government to quickly and accurately measure the success of our foreclosure prevention work.'

'Smoothstone traditionally services mid-size enterprises with their telecommunications needs, but this effort was truly about playing a part in bettering our community. Metro United Way has been a long-time client of Smoothstone, so we were honored to be a part of such a noble endeavor', said Christopher Assif, Executive Vice president of Smoothstone.

About Metro United Way:
Metro United Way's mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of our community. For 90 years, Metro United Way has worked diligently to create the most vital, caring community in the nation, while at the same time respecting the diversity that makes that community unique. With our agencies and partners, we help provide vital services to individuals and families and connect people to needed services through 2-1-1. 2-1-1 serves a twelve-county area that includes Bullitt, Carroll, Jefferson, Henry, Nelson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble counties in Kentucky, and Floyd, Harrison and Clark counties in Indiana.

###