Have you heard of 211? I hadn’t. But 35 states or so have 211 phone numbers set up to centralized registries and referral services for “social services and volunteer opportunities in their communities.”
Cool.
No, really. My experience is that, at least half the time, the problem with folks getting access to the right social service resources is not that the services don’t exist, or even that those services have insufficient resources, but that folks don’t know who to go to.
At a time when there is an increased (and intentional) reliance on community and volunteer charities and related services to act as a safety net, a service such as this is essential. And while the Feds have provided monies that can be used in support of such services, there’s a growing effort (after the success of 211 numbers related to Katrina) to specifically earmark funds for this on a nation-wide basis.
Which sounds like a great idea to me.