The United Way of the Midlands is marking its 13th year of providing a wide array of services to people across western Iowa and in Nebraska through calling 2-1-1. Lena Thompson, the call center’s director, says the program has come a long way since it was launched. “We started as a pilot with three counties,” Thompson says. “Now, we have the ability to cover the whole state of Nebraska, which is 93 counties, and we cover nine counties in the southwest Iowa area.” She says 2-1-1 is a one-stop shop for answers on all sorts of services and aid.

“211 is information and referral primarily,” Thompson says. “We get calls from people who might need rent or utility assistance, a food pantry, back-to-school programs, substance abuse, just a wide variety of things.” The service will continue to expand in the years ahead. “Our future goals are to start doing text messaging and chat services,” Thompson says. “We’re hoping to do text messaging this year and maybe expand into chat at the end of this year or early next year.”

Nearly 57,000 calls were made to the 2-1-1 call center last year and the website was accessed some 47,000 times. Thompson says statistics show nearly 30% of the calls were for utility assistance, 23% were for help with rent and 9% were for food assistance.

(Radio Iowa)