By Kathy Chaffin

Salisbury Post ; February 9, 2005

Beginning March 1, Rowan County residents will be able to call 211 with questions about their health and human services needs.

The telephone service will be available free of charge 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will offer information in more than 120 languages. Residents will also be able to access information online.

David Treme, outgoing president of the Rowan County United Way Board of Directors, announced the implementation of the 211 system at the agency's annual meeting of the membership on Wednesday.

"We in the United Way have fully appreciated what Information and Referral has meant to our county in the past in connecting individuals to services," he said. "They were open during the daytime hours to persons who spoke English.

"Using the 211 system, we are now going to have 24-7 coverage to connect people to services not only in English, but in 120-some languages."

Rowan will join 18 to 20 of the larger counties in the state offering the 211 system. "I think this is sort of the wave of the future," Treme said.

As part of the transition to 211, Rowan County Information and Referral will be dissolved on March 31. The agency was started 13 years ago after a 1991 communitywide needs assessment rated establishing an information and referral agency as a top priority.

In the past five years, the agency has handled 47,494 calls and referrals. This averages out to more than 183 calls and referrals a week and 26 a day.

Executive Director Arlene Hankins said she supported converting to the 211 system even though it will eliminate her job. "We thought that it would be an enhancement to our Information and Referral, obviously," she said, "but also a huge benefit to our community. I really hope that it is."

Information and Referral, one of 16 agencies supported with United Way contributions, is only open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. five days a week.

The 2006 budget for the agency is $102,000, with 88 percent of that coming from United Way. Bob Lippard, executive director of the Rowan County United Way, said the 211 system, based on the current number of calls, is projected to cost only $66,000.

Mark Bee, chairman of the 211 Public Relations and Marketing Committee, made a presentation on the system at the meeting. "It's going to be important to market the 211 service," he said, "so that people know it's available."

Among the marketing strategies planned for the coming months are print advertising; cable, radio and print press releases; Yellow Pages advertising; church bulletin announcements; and business cards.

Bee said business cards reading "Got Questions? Need Answers? 2-1-1, Your Resource for Health and Human Service Information" will be distributed throughout the county.

Treme said Rowan was one of the first counties in the state to offer an Information and Referral agency. He praised the agency's staff, which includes Hankins and former executive director Suzanne Carter Storch and former information specialist Betty Young, for doing a good job through the years.

Bee, in his presentation, said Information and Referral "played a critical role in providing written and phone information to those displaced during the Pillowtex and other plant closings."

Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249 or kchaffin@salisburypost.com.