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PA 211 is a lifesaving resource that is currently backed by the United Way of Pennsylvania and funded by the state's government.
PA 211 was designed to help individuals in human service emergencies. The PA 211 website states that "211 allows all residents of Pennsylvania to have access to customized health, housing and human services information in one place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 211 is a one-stop resource to find information about community services; no more guessing or unnecessary calls. Language services are available in more than 170 languages and dialects."
The goal is accessibility to everyone and anyone who needs it.
"The 211-service started early 90s is Georgia," Emily Aubele, vice president of PA 211 United Way of Pennsylvania, said. "It was a collaboration, or product of work, with United Way Atlanta, I believe. It (211) took information and referral services in communities and combined them all into a more cohesive operation throughout the many communities in Atlanta."
She added that 211 in Pennsylvania came to be after the networking and sharing of ideas from United Way Greater Atlanta. PA 211 is celebrating 25 years in Pennsylvania.
"In the late 90s early 2000s, the United Way of Southwestern Pa., formerly Allegheny County, took this idea and started to build it out," Aubele said.
She explained that it spread originally by region and then by county.
"Other regions across the state decided that they wanted 211 call centers as well," Aubele said. "Some of these (211 call centers) are supported solely, or predominately, by the United Way and others sit in community crisis centers. In 2017, work started to unify call centers as a statewide program. They were run independently in counties; different database systems for logging resources."
Aubele described the United Way as being the parent organization that looks over the whole enterprise under a state umbrella rather than having each county have their own individual system. Combining the systems into one database allows PA 211 to gather specific information that allows them to pinpoint specific needs in different parts of the state. Aubele added that PA 211 works to analyze this data and find co-occurring needs to provide additional resources to those areas.
"We can go right down to your zip code to tell you where help is available in your area," Aubele said.
PA 211 is currently housed under the United Way although previously counties had their own separate organizations, according to Ronald Frick, president of Lycoming County United Way. He explained that through the United Way, each of the counties have access to a financial fund of $24,000 yearly. The state also allocates $750,000 of the budget to the program annually, Frick added.
Due to the relief efforts that PA 211 contributed during the pandemic, the state granted the organization $4 million. This allowed for PA 211 to continue and now grow to the size it is today with the capabilities that it has through database technologies.
Frick said that through data collected, the United Way is also able to see the top requests by county and region. Frick demonstrated that the data shows housing and shelter as the number one request in Lycoming County with utility needs following. This database information is public and available at pa.211counts.org.
"We now do special project work," Aubele said about the future of PA 211. "We connect with hospitals and health systems… We are the front door to most housing assessments in the states."
Aubele also explained that working with health care allows there to be a side of accountability for the assistance PA 211 provides. PA 211 provides the information to get help needed, but it is up to the person requesting aid to pursue it.
When one calls PA 211, by dialing 2-1-1, visiting PA211.org or texting their zip code to 898-211, they will be connected to a real person who lives within the community they are located and has expertise about available resources within that specific community. Aubele shared that there are currently 11,000 agencies statewide.
"It's a play off of 911," state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, said.
He said that it should be one of those numbers you remember with 911 (emergency services) and 988 (mental health services).
"I think the whole idea behind this is to implant 211 into people's minds with the same level that 911 is. That's the place to go if you have questions on any of these things," Yaw said. "The whole idea behind 211 is to say, 'okay, it has been entrenched that if you have an emergency you call 911.' If you have a nonemergency, if you have a family problem, if you have a food problem, if you have a drug problem, or whatever it is, or you don't have housing or you need clothing, there should be a common place, a central location that you go to get help."
"Something I remember I heard frequently was people would call 911 because there was nowhere else to go," Yaw said.
Yaw shared that the origin of this idea in Pennsylvania began over 50 years ago with hurricane Agnes. He shared that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area set up a helpline to help provide flood information and resources available to those in need at the time.
"211 is set up to direct the person to the right place, at least get some help and/or assistance in the problem that they have," Yaw said.
"There is a side benefit too," Yaw explained. "The side benefit is that it takes some of the responsibility away from 911 and the real emergency calls. Because these calls are coming in and there's a communicator that's tied up with one of the aforementioned issues...they're not going to just hang up on them, but on the other hand that takes away from maybe a fire emergency or something like that. It's a benefit to the 911 system."
Currently the United Way is working hard to advocate for the program. They have advocacy groups in both Washington, D.C. and Harrisburg trying to persuade the federal and state officials to provide more funding and extra efforts to make 211 a nationwide system.
For more information, visit www.pa211.org.