Call 211 for Help in Florida

All of you can call 211 for aid soon. Sprint clients can dial it now; BellSouth customers can soon. With hurricane season here, folks are urged to.

By RAGHURAM VADAREVU

LECANTO - Officials at social service agencies in Citrus County had hoped this year that the much-anticipated 211 telephone line would be up and running before June.

They were almost right.

Since May, most Citrus residents and businesses could dial 2-1-1 and be connected to the 24-hour, seven-days-a-week phone line that connects those in need with social services agencies in the county.

Those residents are customers of Sprint.

Customers of BellSouth, who mainly live in South Dunnellon, Citrus Springs and Yankeetown, will have to wait possibly until the end of the month to get the service, said John Marmish, executive director of the United Way of Citrus County.

Marmish's agency is administering the 211 contract for the county, and officials overseeing the 211 line have not yet publicized the service because they want to wait until BellSouth customers also have access.

With hurricane season in full swing, Marmish said people in the county could take advantage of the 211 line to find food pantries, agencies that offer financial assistance and so forth.

Marmish said calls to the line from businesses might get a busy signal because the business has blocked three-digit numbers. To correct the problem, he said, businesses should contact the telephone company.

The 211 information can also be accessed online at

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Once there, visitors can click on the "2-1-1 database" link, which will call up a search page. The visitor can select the specific service he is looking for, from assisted living facilities to AIDS testing, support groups to volunteer programs.

The visitor to the site, which also serves other counties, can narrow the search to Citrus.

The operator of the Web site and the 211 line is called 211 Tampa Bay Cares Inc., a call center in Pinellas County that social service officials in Citrus selected late last year. The call center will have access to a list of social service agencies in Citrus.

The 211 system has taken years to get to Citrus. The Federal Communications Commission had designated 211 for information and referrals.

Last year, the idea gained momentum when the county health department presented results of its first comprehensive look at health needs in the county and found that many residents wanted the 211 telephone line.

The County Commission approved $22,000 for the program, and the Shared Services Alliance, an umbrella group for social service agencies, formed a 211 committee and set about finding a call center. It selected 211 Tampa Bay Cares last fall.

The county will pay Citrus United Way to administer the contract with

211 Tampa Bay Cares. The call center can produce weekly, monthly or quarterly reports, and the county can use them to identify areas of need.

Since most of Citrus was able to access the 211 line in May, there have been 71 callers from the county, the call center reported. Among those, there were 23 requests for information about financial assistance and 13 for housing.

Marmish said he expects those numbers to increase as more people learn about the line. In an e-mail, he said, the "stats on callers (are) before we have announced to the public that the 211 system is fully operational."

Officials hope the BellSouth customers will have access by month's end.

Raghuram Vadarevu can be reached at snipped-for-privacy@sptimes.com or

564-3627.

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've a question: Is this new '211' thing similar to '311' as presented in many major cities? Is it to also supplement 311 service in Florida? PAT]