2-1-1 Celebrates 10 Years of Connecting Callers

United Way’s 2-1-1 information and referral service is celebrating 2-1-1’s 10th anniversary along with the 24 other 2-1-1 Texas centers that blanket the state. While United Way of Tarrant County has connected callers to information about critical health and human services in North Texas for almost 40 years, the advent of 2-1-1 made the local service part of a unified, 24-hour network with an easy-to-remember phone number. Locally, 2-1-1 is a program of United Way in collaboration with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

The past decade has seen tremendous growth and change for United Way’s 2-1-1, whose nationally-accredited staff mainly links people to the most appropriate community organizations and government agencies in Erath, Hood, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise counties. Though the staff size has roughly doubled, the number of calls is almost six times larger. Just over 43,000 calls were received in 2002, compared to 246,528 last year. What remain virtually unchanged are callers’ requests for help with the most basic needs such as electric bills, rent payments and food. 

2-1-1 has increasingly become an information and referral resource for local initiatives such as those promoting child abuse prevention, free tax preparation centers for low-income working families, and the importance of choosing quality child care. It also plays an important role in natural disaster response by providing information about evacuation routes, emergency shelters and recovery services in the event of hurricanes and tornados, floods and wildfires.

One of 2-1-1’s strengths is its flexibility. During overnight hours, for example, calls to United Way’s 2-1-1 here are seamlessly handled by 2-1-1 information and referral specialists in Houston. In 2008, United Way’s 2-1-1 answered more than 20,000 hurricane-related calls, most of which originated along the Gulf Coast. That year the local 2-1-1 formally established a disaster volunteer program that has trained more than 100 volunteers to supplement the professional 2-1-1 staff in times of disaster.

Government grants enable 2-1-1 to ramp up its staff when there is increased demand for specific kinds of information. Additional professionals were brought on board during the fall of 2009 to help respond to H1N2 flu-related calls. A recent grant awarded by the Texas Veterans Commission made possible a new 2-1-1 Military Specialist to assess the needs of people who inquire about veteran services and provide information about local programs. Funding from the Area Agency on Aging helps 2-1-1 to assist older adults and those who care for them.

While information about individual calls is strictly confidential, statistics collected by 2-1-1 about the number and kinds of needs in various communities are useful to community planners as well as area Offices of Emergency Management, the Texas Division of Emergency Management and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as they prepare communities to be safe. 

As the 2-1-1 Texas information and referral network prepares for its second decade, the statewide 2-1-1 resource database software is being upgraded to improve the ability of the community to access information about available services in all 254 Texas counties. There are more than 60,000 state and local health and human service programs out there. Luckily, you have 2-1-1 to help you find the service that’s right for you.