This campaign seeks to raise critical dollars for 2-1-1 Alameda County, the free, three-digit phone number available 24/7, in multiple languages, for greatly needed health, housing, and human service referrals. Every year Eden I&R starts from $0 and has to raise the full budget to cover the myriad costs associated with operating a 24/7 call center.

Services include comprehensive referrals provided by trained Resource Specialists from our constantly updated databases of over 84,000 units of affordable housing and over 2,900 health and social service programs & agencies, and updated bed availabilities obtained twice a day, every day, from 18 emergency shelters.

For the fiscal year end that ended on June 30, 2016 2-1-1 provided 156,527 referrals to 101,523 callers. Unduplicated callers were 99% low income, 44% living with a disability, and 29% single mothers with minor children. Nearly half of the calls were related to emergency shelter and housing needs. Other top needs included food assistance, legal aid, health care, utility assistance, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, and employment assistance.

Following is but one example of the more than 100,000 calls handled by 2-1-1 Alameda County every year:

An Oakland resident called for assistance with a large utility bill that she had been unable to pay. The caller informed 2-1-1 that both she and her adult son, who lived with her, have disabilities. In recent weeks, both she and her son had suffered ill health which had caused them to lose income. She was very worried that not paying the bill would result in the power being shut off which was dire since both she and her son rely on electric medical equipment. Since the caller had no money and the cut-off date was looming, there was insufficient time to apply for Season of Sharing for bill payment assistance. She was emotional and frightened so the 2-1-1 Resource Specialist inquired if she needed assistance calling PG&E. The caller agreed immediately. 2-1-1 called PG&E and spoke with a supervisor and was able to work out a payment plan in line with the caller’s budget, with the first payment deferred until the caller received her SSI check. The caller was extremely appreciative of 2-1-1’s assistance.

Another caller recently served by 2-1-1 left the following message on our feedback line:

Every person I have spoken with at 2-1-1 has been overwhelmingly positive. Having a resource like 2-1-1 is amazing; just having real life people, not an automated system which rarely understands what you are saying, makes all the difference. 2-1-1 has been the best part of my homeless experience, and I am just getting out of homelessness. I refer 2-1-1 to all the people I meet.”

Your gift will go a long way in helping us serve over 100,000 callers for the seventh year in a row.