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Contact: Erin Dunbar
Director, 211 Portage
330-297-1424 ext. 119

 2-1-1 helps Portage County community get connected

Ravenna, Ohio (November 17, 2003)—The launch of United Way of Portage County’s 211 Portage information and referral service makes giving and receiving help just a dial tone away.

The recently nationally instituted 2-1-1 service, will allow Portage County residents the opportunity to receive the help they are seeking simply by punching 2-1-1 on their telephone key pad. United Way of Portage County’s First Call for Help operators will now act as the central answering service for 2-1-1 incoming phone calls from the community. Callers from the area will be linked without charge, with non-profit services and organizations that will help answer their question or fulfill their need.

With the creation of 2-1-1, operators will be able to field even more calls and direct even more community members to the appropriate services for help. 2-1-1 will strengthen the community by uniting people in the area that want to help with people in the area that need help. Now, individuals and families seeking services or volunteer opportunities can call 2-1-1, a universally recognizable number that makes a critical connection between callers and the appropriate community-based organizations and government agencies.

“The partnership with United Way of Portage County and the Alliance for Information & Referral Services, which enables 2-1-1, focuses on the need to make services more accessible to those in need,” said Erin Dunbar, Vice President of Community Resources. “With 2-1-1, we’re breaking down the barriers between those who need help and those who can help them.”

Spearheaded by United Way and the Alliance of Information & Referral Systems, 2-1-1 is an easy to remember telephone number that connects people with important community services and volunteer opportunities. 2-1-1 builds on America’s capacity to strengthen the way people access help and engage in civic life. Today, 2-1-1 reaches approximately 50 million Americans – about 18 percent of the U.S. population.

United Way and Alliance of Information & Referral System’s goal is to ensure that about 50 percent of the U.S. population has access to quality community information and referral services through 2-1-1 by 2005, expanding to 100 percent in the near future.

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United Way, 218 W. Main Street, P. O. Box 845, Ravenna, OH 44266
steve@uwportage.org, Phone: 330-297-1424, Fax: 330-296-3813