CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With several months left in 2020, the number of calls to 211, a health and human service information hotline from the West Virginia United Way Collaborative, is already more than double the number of calls for all of last year, according to the latest tracking data. 
COVID-19 is the main reason for that, said Brett White, chair of the West Virginia United Way Collaborative and executive director of the United Way of Marion and Taylor Counties, of the spike in calls.
“211 was built for an instance like this pandemic,” he said.
“It just makes it so much easier for individuals to have that one number to call to be able to find resources, get information and not have to search Google and search around the internet to try to find all the answers they’re needing.”
As of Monday morning, White said 16,920 calls to 211 had been answered.
In 2019, the total call number was 8,217.
“Our individual call specialists can sit there with them and walk them through their problems and help get the resources they need anywhere across West Virginia,” White said.
The service with trained and certified specialists is available 24/7 as part of a partnership involving the United Way, First Choice Services, the state Department of Health and Human Resources and others.
“If you need to know the hours of your food pantry, if you’re looking for child care assistance, if you need help with utility bills or rental or mortgage assistance, if you’re experiencing homelessness or needing to know where the nearest shelter is,” White of examples of the information available via 211.
“Really any health and human service information is kept in our system and everybody across the state is sharing the same database.”
Other potential referrals included addiction, counseling and mental health, crisis and emergency, disabilities, domestic violence, emergency and disaster relief, human trafficking, veterans, jobs and education reentry issues.
In addition to calls to 211, online chat assistance was available and those seeking help also had the option of texting their zip code to 898-211. An alternative phone number was 1-833-848-9905.
“We’re making sure that we’re keeping all the resources updated every single day so that we make sure we have the most current and accurate information to give callers whenever they call in,” White said.
The United Way Collaborative is made up of the 14 United Way organizations across West Virginia. Together, those organizations launched the revamped informational line in April 2019 as their first joint project.
The 211 program dates back to the 1990s with operations under a different nonprofit.