Linking Residents To Social Services

Plans Call for Regional Referral System

In the next year, Washington area residents who are looking for a food bank, help for an elderly parent or counseling in a family crisis will be able to turn to the Internet.

Organizers of a new Web site say that entering a Zip code and information about the problem will bring up a list of local organizations that offer the appropriate services.

The site is the beginning of what planners say will be a regional system to help residents negotiate the complicated maze of social service and government agencies in the region's myriad jurisdictions.

Planners say their ultimate goal is a 24-hour regional "211" telephone hotline with trained operators who will connect callers to information and help. The hotline would replace scores of unconnected telephone referral services that confuse the public, they say.

The hotline also would give area residents a simple, easy-to-remember way to deal with a crisis. For example, a Capitol Hill resident could find help for a suburban relative facing eviction without negotiating an unfamiliar bureaucracy or phone book.

Organizers say the system also would be invaluable in emergencies, such as a terrorist attack, by offering residents a coordinated way of getting information and advice.

Officials say that while they work out the details of a telephone system, they have opted to put a database of the information on the Web.

"Technology is not as good as the human touch," said Chuck Bean, chairman of the Greater Washington 2-1-1 Work Group, which is helping coordinate the project. "But, as the region figures out the structure of the 211 call centers, this is something we can do in the interim."

In the past five years, 211 hotlines have mushroomed across the United States. In 2000, United Way of America led the effort to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to set aside 211 for regional information and referral systems. The commission left it to the 50 states and the District to designate operators for their 211 services.

The FCC action "really gave us a huge momentum," said Kelly Levy, national director for 211 at Alexandria-based United Way of America.

There are 156 active 211 call centers reaching an estimated 119 million Americans. Thirteen of the centers operate statewide.

In 2002, a Brookings Institution report urged the creation of a 211 system in the Washington area, noting that the current information and referral network here is "disjointed, complex and haphazard."