2-1-1 Story – white label version
Anwering the Call at United Way 2-1-1
Open your calendar. What do you hope to get done today? A webinar? Answer a few lingering emails?
Finish a big project?
Kristen Womack knows what she wants to accomplish today and every day. She wants to give someone
hope.
She knows it’s possible because she is one of the people answering calls at United Way 2-1-1. Like it is
for all of the staff at 2-1-1, all of her days are different, but each one is equally important.
WARM WISHES
It’s a brutally cold Thursday afternoon. Kristen is nearing the end of her seven-hour shift, when she
answers a call. The caller is a young man who is out of money and out of gas, leaving him no way to heat
his truck. He needs a warm place to sleep for him, his wife and their two elementary-school aged
children.
The man had lost his job. There was no money left for rent so the family was evicted. The truck was the
only place for the family to sleep for the past three nights.
I have called everywhere and I can’t find any place for us to stay. Someone told me to call 2-1-1. Can you
help?
Kristen needs to move fast because it is late in the day and shelters fill up quickly on cold nights like this
one. To make it even more difficult, Kristen is trying to get beds for an entire family. Once Kristen
discovers the man is an Army veteran she asks for help from United Way’s Veterans Navigator, whose
purpose is to develop a network so extensive that no matter the need, the veteran is cared for. Those
types of resources are exactly what are required so late on such a cold afternoon. After a few telephone
calls, the young family has a warm place to stay that night and every night as they work to improve their
lives.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Margrite Coffee knows what the day will be like. It is, after all, the first of the month.
Today will be the busiest day of the month, with the most calls for the type of help that is most
requested at United Way 2-1-1. Utility assistance.
Margrite knows how most of these calls will begin. What she doesn’t know is how memorably one call
on this day will end. From the very beginning of the call, the woman on the other end is short with
Margrite. The caller is so frustrated, she becomes mean.
I need help paying my bill now. How can I be in this situation? How come no one can help me? I don’t
know why I am calling you. What could you possibly do?
Margrite remains calm. She knows it is important not to match the caller’s attitude. Give the woman
dignity and respect. Be helpful.
Referral telephone numbers begin to pop up on Margrite’s computer screen. She begins to tell the caller
there are resources available.
The conversation takes a sudden shift as the caller says something unexpected and memorable.
I am sorry. I didn’t know if you could help me. Thank you for being there.
A NEW BEGINNING
The woman calling didn’t need Patt Harvey’s help paying an electric bill – she needed help to start a
whole new life.
The caller’s name was Teresa, Patt remembers, and she was only 18. The only family she had ever
known was no longer a part of her life. The only city she ever knew as home was simply no longer.
The woman was a refugee from Hurricane Katrina. A church bus that took supplies down to New Orleans
offered return rides to Kansas City. When Teresa first got here, she got initial help from the church and
from several social service agencies. Long-term help would have to come from somewhere else – the
Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The worrisome Teresa was clutching her FEMA application when she dialed 2-1-1.
I don’t know how to get a hold of anyone. I don’t know how to do this application. I don’t know how to
read or write. Can you help me?
Patt found out that Teresa did know how to form individual letters. That was the only start the two
women needed. Then – very, very slowly – they worked together. Letter by letter became word by
word. After 90 minutes, the four sentences needed to complete the application were done.
Patt gave Teresa her phone number and she called back about a month later. The application was
approved. Teresa received $1,000. She had a place to live and clothes to wear. And she was getting a
new job through the Women’s Employment Network.
LENDING AN EAR AND A HAND
Jacquelyn Jordan wasn’t needed that Saturday afternoon to help someone start a new life. She was
needed to save the life someone already had.
Although it is clearly urged in all communication that 2-1-1 is not for emergencies, those calls do
happen. Like it did that Saturday when Jacquelyn was working taking not only calls from the Kansas City
region but also – since the call load is lighter on weekends -handling 2-1-1 calls from other cities.
Jacquelyn answered the call. It was a man on the other end. He was calling from St. Louis. He wanted to
kill himself.
Jacquelyn alerted another staffer in the call center who immediately began contacting law enforcement
in St. Louis. Jacquelyn kept the conversation even and calm. She asked the man about his life and his
troubles. She offered concern and care, and, most importantly, stayed on the line with him until the
police arrived.
I think he was just looking for some help.
And that’s what your gift to United Way makes possible for more than 100,000 callers every year – help,
support and hope.