2-1-1 One Week Away From Operation

The non emergency social service hotline 211 is one short week away from full operation.

Starting Tuesday June 30th residents of Muskingum, Perry and Morgan Counties can dial 2-1-1 for help in non-emergency related cases on anything ranging from food pantries to county and city information. “They may be calling for food assistance to be connected to a food pantry to get a zoning card for that, they may be calling for child care resources or shelter or maybe some volunteer opportunities, they want to volunteer somewhere.” Says 211 Coordinator Audrey Foster. “We have all that information in our database and we’ll be able to access that for them to help them get directed to the right agency and organization that they need.”

41 of Ohio’s 88 counties already participate in the 2-1-1 program, making now a good time for southeast Ohio to bring the service to its residents. “we’re seeing more and more people asking for food assistance and probably a lot more assistance that people will need in social services to maybe get to that right place, to the right number, to the right person to help them so its worth it. Its been an adventure but I’m glad that we’ll get to the actual process of serving the people.” Says Foster.

Starting June 30th the call center will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure callers are pointed in the right direction.