Nebraska & SW Iowa's 2-1-1 call center renews it national accreditation.  With a considerable increase in calls over the past few months, this accreditation ensures the call center will be continue to provide a lifeline to families over the coming year.

Calls on Disaster Services, Housing/Utilities, Food Assistance & Transportation Needs Grow
Nebraska & SW Iowa’s 2-1-1 Call Center Renews Its National Accreditation

(Omaha, Nebraska) – Third quarter statistics for the 2-1-1 Call Center show a considerable increase in four main areas of need in Nebraska and Southwest Iowa. 

Flooding in the Missouri River basin this summer caused a spike in calls regarding local disaster services, with more than 3,000 inquiries about evacuation plans, road closures, shelters and other helping services.

But calls also increased from people seeking information or assistance on housing, utilities, food and transportation. 2-1-1 call specialists in Omaha are available around the clock to residents of Nebraska and eight southwest Iowa counties.

“The summer flood came right on top of the economic pressures many of our neighbors are already facing,” said Karen Bricklemyer, President and CEO of United Way of the Midlands. “Our role at 2-1-1 is to connect callers with the programs nearby that can help them solve a problem, whether it’s a personal crisis or one that affects many people in our community.”

Nearly 60% of the flood-related calls came from Pottawattamie County residents, with 18% from Douglas County and 5% from Sarpy County.

Requests for food assistance during the third quarter of 2011 jumped 61% over the 2010 call rate. 2-1-1 refers people to food pantries in their home community, some of which are hosted by United Way’s year-round partner agencies.

Calls about housing, rent and utility issues increased 49% when compared to the third quarter of 2010. The majority of callers sought assistance with gas or electric bills, rent or mortgage payments or home rehabilitation.

Transportation needs such as car repairs, bus tickets and gas money increased 69%. Calls from people who needed consumer or legal help rose 42% over the same time period in 2010.

Since local needs often outnumber the resources available to those who request help, many public and nonprofit human service agencies require that certain qualifications be met before aid is dispensed. 

Based on discussions during the confidential calls to 2-1-1, the call specialists are able to identify the specific programs for which individuals and families may qualify. Call specialists are available around the clock; the calls are free and confidential.

Here’s an example of the connections 2-1-1 can make for callers in 2011:

• “B” is a 76 year old Pottawattamie County resident who fled her home when the flood waters rose.  She used what little she had to move into a hotel, but that quickly used up her funds.  B’s daughter, who is disabled and lives hundreds of miles away, contacted 2-1-1 for help. The call specialist advocated on her behalf with a Southwest Iowa organization that helped B find a safe place to live, and some financial assistance, too.

Call Center’s National Accreditation Renewed for Five Years

Nebraska’s 2-1-1 call center recently earned another five-year accreditation from the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems (AIRS), a national body that promotes and enforces high professional standards for 1,200 information and referral centers across the U.S. and Canada.

Accreditation is a multi-phase process that assesses more than 200 distinct operational components and culminates in a detailed onsite review.  The rigorous process takes nearly a year to complete. AIRS accreditation provides:

• Objective evidence of achievement in the areas of service quality and effectiveness, community involvement and organizational stability
• Demonstrated commitment on the part of local leadership to meeting the highest standards in the field

2-1-1 centers in the United States answered more than 16.4 million calls in 2010. Right now, more than 254 million Americans (84.6% of the entire population) can dial the three-digit number and connect with local health and human services.  In answering non-emergency human service calls, 2-1-1 takes some pressure off of communities’ 9-1-1 emergency lines.

Nebraska’s United Ways, some county and state offices and other organizations worked with the Nebraska Public Service Commission to build a public-private-nonprofit partnership that led to the creation of Nebraska’s 2-1-1 system in 2002.  The call center is hosted by United Way of the Midlands, which operated a daytime-only call center serving the Omaha metro area for nearly three decades.  2-1-1 stepped into the spotlight during Nebraska’s “Safe Haven” crisis in the fall of 2008, providing critical referrals for troubled families. The service went statewide in 2010; it received more than 65,000 calls in 2010, and has become a valuable resource in times of public emergency, including more than 3,000 flood-related calls just this past summer.

United Way of the Midlands, its donors and volunteers advance the common good of the Omaha metropolitan area by providing our neighbors life-changing opportunities in education, financial stability and health. UWM celebrates 88 years of service in 2011. People in the metropolitan area received services through United Way Community Care Fund programs 584,668 times in 2010.