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	United Way’s 2-1-1 Calls Spike in Down Economy November 15, 2009 You've just lost your job. The bills are piling up. The rent is due. You can't afford day care anymore. What do you do? A call to United Way’s 2-1-1 call center could help. It's a national crisis center that helps people find services available in their communities. As the recession takes its toll, and more people lose their jobs and their homes, the demand for help increases while financial support services decrease. Nationally, more than 14 million calls were placed to 2-1-1 call centers in 2008. This is a 44 percent increase from 2007. In 2008, 2-1-1 Marshall County answered more than 3,500 calls for health and human services. Of these calls, 32 percent were newly low-income or needy persons (due to job loss) requesting basic needs, including food, utility and rent assistance, homeless shelters, health care issues, and transportation. “This year, United Way’s 2-1-1 call center has seen a 30 percent increase for basic needs over the past 11 months compared to the same time last year,” said Betty Terrell, 2-1-1 program director. “A lot of the calls are coming from people who have never asked for assistance before. These families used to be a two income household, now they're a one income or no income. This is a true indication of how widespread the recession really is. They've tightened their belts as much as they can to make the budget go as far as it can, but still need assistance.” In addition to keeping up with the high number of basic needs calls, the general public is calling to find out where they can get the H1N1 flu shot, or the safety of the H1N1 flu shot. 2-1-1 operators are also getting calls from older adults to find out if they're in the H1N1 priority group. “We're getting information from the Alabama Department of Public Health, said Terrell. “We also use the flu.gov website and the CDC website; whatever tools are available to get answers for these folks." 2-1-1 operators answer calls during the week from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. At night and weekends, calls are handled by the Birmingham crisis center operators. For health and human services assistance, callers can dial 2-1-1 or 582-0506.

United Way’s 2-1-1 Calls
Spike in Down Economy

November 15, 2009
You've just lost your job. The bills are piling up. The rent is due. You can't afford day care anymore. What do you do? A call to United Way’s 2-1-1 call center could help. It's a national crisis center that helps people find services available in their communities.

As the recession takes its toll, and more people lose their jobs and their homes, the demand for help increases while financial support services decrease. Nationally, more than 14 million calls were placed to 2-1-1 call centers in 2008. This is a 44 percent increase from 2007.

In 2008, 2-1-1 Marshall County answered more than 3,500 calls for health and human services. Of these calls, 32 percent were newly low-income or needy persons (due to job loss) requesting basic needs, including food, utility and rent assistance, homeless shelters, health care issues, and transportation.

“This year, United Way’s 2-1-1 call center has seen a 30 percent increase for basic needs over the past 11 months compared to the same time last year,” said Betty Terrell, 2-1-1 program director. “A lot of the calls are coming from people who have never asked for assistance before. These families used to be a two income household, now they're a one income or no income. This is a true indication of how widespread the recession really is. They've tightened their belts as much as they can to make the budget go as far as it can, but still need assistance.”

In addition to keeping up with the high number of basic needs calls, the general public is calling to find out where they can get the H1N1 flu shot, or the safety of the H1N1 flu shot. 2-1-1 operators are also getting calls from older adults to find out if they're in the H1N1 priority group.

“We're getting information from the Alabama Department of Public Health, said Terrell. “We also use the flu.gov website and the CDC website; whatever tools are available to get answers for these folks." 2-1-1 operators answer calls during the week from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. At night and weekends, calls are handled by the Birmingham crisis center operators.

For health and human services assistance, callers can dial 2-1-1 or 582-0506.