United Way Director David Ross spoke to city commissioners on Tuesday about the importance of Owensboro’s newly adopted 2-1-1 program — a free and confidential information and referral service that was implemented locally on March 21. The program provides assistance to residents seeking information about health and human services. Ross said the United Way provides information for over 1,700 services via 2-1-1.
“The main reason people don’t get help is because they don’t know where to get help,” Ross told city commissioners.
Since going live nearly two months ago, the 2-1-1 line has received 174 calls from residents in the community. Ross and United Way Project Coordinator Blaine Mathew are operating a marketing campaign to spread the word about 2-1-1 with the goal to make the program so well known throughout the community, dialing the number will become instinctual for residents seeking answers.
“Once we saturate the community with information, the people who need services will automatically know to dial 2-1-1,” Ross said. “We expect at least two years to get fully functional.”
The 2-1-1 service offers assistance for financial issues, domestic violence, mental and physical health, aging and disabilities, workforce development, animal services, housing and much more, Ross said.
Residents can dial 2-1-1, call 844-965-1596 or they can text their zip code to 898211 to reach a 2-1-1 customer service representative who can provide information about an agency or organization that would best meet the caller’s needs. Online services are also available here, and the 2-1-1 app can be downloaded on Android devices.
So far, Ross said, most of the calls received via 2-1-1 have been related to housing, shelters, utilities and healthcare. Out of the total calls, 58 were related to housing, 18 to homeless shelters and 14 to rental assistance.
The goal of 2-1-1 is not only to provide local communities with an accessible, streamlined support service program, but to help United Way understand the truly pressing needs in the local area.
“If we had 130 calls for housing, then we know there’s a housing issue,” Ross said. “We’ve never had a breakdown like this before — where we can identify how many calls come in for shelters, or for housing or rental assistance. We’re doing a community-wide needs assessment right now.”
Ross said 2-1-1 will likely divulge major societal differences that affect the needs of Daviess County residents as compared to ten or more years before. United Way’s campaign has remained what Ross called “flat” for quite a while now, and hasn’t added new organizations to the list of 22 social service programs that United Way funds.
While homeless shelters are not funded by United Way, Ross said that can be due to several things. Organizations must complete annual audits to receive assistance and must qualify as one of the community’s most prevalent needs. Even more, Ross said, the programs United Way funds are often the ones that work to combat homelessness.
“Homelessness is often the fruit of the need — the root is usually related to something else,” Ross said. “Homelessness is more complex now than it’s ever been.
However, Ross said, United Way’s 2-1-1 program should be able to take a closer look at what Owensboro and Daviess County needs most, and the more phone calls the program receives, the better.
Ross said Hancock County implemented its own 2-1-1 program on Monday, and United Way has plans for five other nearby counties to adopt the 2-1-1 services as well, including Webster, McLean, Ohio, Union and Henderson counties.
“We want every agency in the seven-county area entered in — we want to quit sending people all over town,” Ross said. “The more data we have in our system, the better our outcomes will be.”
