Everyone knows about 911. What about 211? People in West Seattle’s five zip codes made 2,200 calls to the help hotline in the past year, according to stats you can check here. Today’s an awareness-raising day for the service, according to this news release we received:

Saturday, February 11, is 211 Day, celebrating the go-to resource 211, which has helped over 5 million Washingtonians, since its inception in 2006, providing “No Wrong Door” access to needed services with professional live assistance.

211 is an essential component to the continuum of service provided through Washington’s three three-digit dialing services. The readily recognized “911” handles emergencies, the recently instituted “988” responds to possible suicides and mental health crises and “211” assist callers with overcoming the many other life crises such as housing uncertainty, job loss, loss of electric and other utilities, health care and legal issues.

The 211 service not only provides personalized assistance to our safety net, it also collects information about the many demands on a community’s social and health resources. Visit WA.211counts.org to review demand for services in your Washington community such as by school, legislative or congressional district.

“211 is a critical state resource that connects people in need with live, in-person skilled assistance”, states Dona Ponepinto, CEO of the United Way of Pierce County; “however, to meet 211’s significant call volume growth these past few years and boost our capacity to serve more people, additional resources are needed from the state to meet the demand.”

This week, advocates for the 211 service have been talking to legislators in Olympia about correcting historic underfunding of the program. Call volume for 211 has doubled since the start of the pandemic and yet funding has been stagnant, causing an increase in call response times. Advocates seek sufficient funding to increase operating hours to be consistent with 911 and 988 (24 hours, 7 days a week), decrease call wait times, and enhance the 211’s extensive community resource database used to make service referrals.

211 provides referrals to local agencies around the state – here that would include agencies such as the West Seattle Food Bank, which offers emergency assistance to help people from becoming homeless.