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News

Merged 211 covers Triangle, Triad

By Ray Gronberg, The Herald-Sun
August 25, 2005   10:26 pm

DURHAM -- A United Way service that helps put people in a 10-county region in touch with health and social-service providers is now being run out of a call center in Research Triangle Park.

The merged operation covers counties in the Triangle and the Triad and could be the forerunner of a "211" center for the entire state, organizers said during a news conference Thursday.

Already, four counties have indicated that they plan to join the effort by early 2006, said Priscilla Taylor, chairwoman of the United Way of North Carolina's 211 committee.

Taylor and other officials spoke during a ceremony at the offices of the American Social Health Association off Emperor Boulevard. The association is running the merged 211 operations for Durham, Orange, Chatham, Wake, Guilford, Forsyth, Rockingham, Randolph, Davie and Davidson counties.

Burke, Catawba, Avery and Watauga counties will join next year.
The Charlotte and Asheville areas have separate 211 operations, officials said.

The United Way's 211 service works somewhat like the phone company's 411 information line or a county's 911 dispatch center, in that a person looking for help need only call a short, easy-to-remember phone number to begin the process of getting it.

The 211 center exists to help connect people to services such as food banks, insurers, transit agencies and child-care centers. People can also call it to learn about volunteer opportunities.

As more 211 centers open, the state and the country are developing "a seamless process where [people] know exactly what to do and where to go" to link up with the multitude of service agencies that exist, said U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, who was on hand for Thursday's ceremony.

Burr is pushing legislation in Congress that would authorize the government to subsidize 211 centers.

"Thirty-one states have a 211 presence, but until 100 percent of North Carolina and 100 percent of the country is involved, we haven't finished our job," Burr said.

URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-640016.html