2-1-1 connects people to professionals trained in navigating the confusing maze of health and human services. These services address diverse needs such as food banks, employment, clothing closets, adult daycare, shelters, and rent assistance. 2-1-1 calls cover a wide spectrum of needs, including:

• A social worker in a nursing home reports that an elderly man has broken his glasses and cannot afford a new pair. Who could pay for new glasses?

• Human Resources manager surveys the company’s supervisors and learns that most third-shift absenteeism is caused by childcare issues. Where can he find information about quality childcare close to the plant that operates at night and on the weekends?
   

• Parents worry that their teenage son may be taking drugs. What can they do to help their child?
   

• A young woman with three small children has just been abandoned by her husband. He has taken the car and the checkbook. Where can she go to find help?

• A single business owner with a home office is fighting breast cancer and is too sick to work.  If she loses her house, she loses her business. How does she survive without income?

Three simple digits, 2-1-1, connect the community to a universal service that provides critical quality information to people in a confidential, convenient way—and doesn’t label them as sick, poor, abused, old or in any other way—everyone uses 2-1-1.