News
Help now just a phone call away for Rowan County Residents
lSalisbury Post, Wednesday, March 1, 2006
by Kathy Chaffin
Salisbury's own Sen. Elizabeth Dole made the very first call to Rowan County's new 211 service.
Dole made the call on the service's toll-free number — 1-888-892-1162 — from her office in Washington, D.C. Tuesday. Beginning today, relatives of Rowan Countians can call this number from anywhere in the nation to get information on health and human service resources for their family members.
The toll-free number is also the only way local residents can access the telephone service from cell phones.
Rowan Countians calling from land lines need only dial 211. The service provides information on more than 400 county, state and federal governmental agencies and nonprofits free of charge 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Information is available in more than 120 different languages and can also be accessed online at www.nc211.org.
Once the implementation of the telephone service was announced at the Feb. 8 annual meeting of the Rowan County United Way membership, executive director Bob Lippard began meeting with local agencies asking them to update information previously available through Information and Referral. Information will be updated whenever changes in services occur, he said.
As part of the transition period, calls to Rowan County Information and Referral will automatically be rolled over to the 211 service until the agency is dissolved later in the month. The agency was started 13 years ago after a 1991 community needs assessment rated establishing an information and referral agency as a top priority.
Though the service was only available weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the agency handled 47,494 calls and referrals over the past five years. This averages out to more than 183 calls and referrals a week and 26 a day.
Nora Cartner, public health nurse for the Rowan County Health Department, said the new telephone service will be simpler for citizens.
"Just like 911 is easy to remember, 211 is easy to remember," she says. "Hopefully, it will save them from having to call two or three different places."
It's not unusual for the health department to get calls from Rowan Countians wanting the Social Security office or the Rowan County Department of Social Services, according to Cartner.
"And then a lot of people call that have general questions," she said. "They really don't know where to go, so we get a little information from them and we help them decide which agency is best for them and give them the number."
Phil Barton, director of the Rowan Public Library and former member of the United Way Board of Directors, said he is pleased the 211 service is now available to county residents.
"I took a real interest in it primarily because of the potential of having a 24/7 information and referral service," he said. "While it was a major step forward for us to get Information and Referral here in Rowan County, you pretty much had to deal with your problems between 8:30 and 4:30 or wait until the office opened back up."
Barton said it will take a while for people to get used to the new service. A key to its success, he added, is to make sure that the information on all the agencies is kept current.
United Way staff and volunteers plan to market the 211 service through print advertising, cable television, radio and print press releases, Yellow Pages advertising, church bulletin announcements and business cards.
Cards reading "Got Questions? Need Answers? 2-1-1, Your Resource for Health and Human Service Information" will be distributed throughout the county.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249 or kchaffin@Salisbury Post.com.
