City, Cook County, United Way unveil new 211 line to help residents find social services

At the start of the pandemic, a mother needed help. So she was given a flyer with 65 phone numbers for various Chicago-area social services.

“As you can imagine, that mother was overwhelmed,” said Sean Garrett, president and CEO of United Way of Metro Chicago, who was telling the woman’s story Friday.

To help solve problems like the mother’s, the city — in partnership with United Way, Cook County government and several philanthropic organizations — on Friday unveiled a new 211 service; it’s free and is being billed as a one-stop shop for people seeking social service help.

Calling 211 will now allow residents in the city and the county to reach a live “resource navigator” 24 hours a day, seven days a week, officials said. Residents may also reach a navigator by texting their ZIP code to 898211.

“If they are looking for food, they can get connected to the right pantry. But we can also ask them, do you need help with your utilities, do you need help with your rent?” Garrett said.

Residents will also be able to do their own social service agency search by going to 211MetroChicago.org.

The system will have a total of 32 navigators with about half working the day shift and the other half split between two later shifts, officials said.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle were among the dignitaries on hand for the unveiling at the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Lightfoot said seeing the community needs during the pandemic helped “sharpen our collective focus.”

“One of the things we learned very clearly during the pandemic is that food insecurity and hunger and all other social issues that come from that … is a real issue here in our city,” Lightfoot said. “What we heard resoundingly in many of those communities is: ‘hold up, we need food. We need other social supports before we can talk about any of these other issues.”’

The help line, which is being operated by United Way, will also track call data to better understand community needs, Garrett said.

“Every single call, web chat and search will be categorized, and we’ll be able to see what types of spikes in different needs we are seeing. What types of gaps do we have and what are the trends?” he said.