Social services hotline looks to cities for funding

By Jennifer Larson
The Desert Sun
August 21, 2004

RIVERSIDE COUNTY -- For emergency help, residents of Riverside County dial 9-1-1. Now for social services help, they’ll be able to dial 2-1-1.

The California Public Utilities Commission has given the thumbs up to the Volunteer Center of Riverside County to launch and operate a social services hotline for the whole county.

"It means that it’s going to get a lot easier to get help, to get connected to the service they’re looking for," said Gary Madden, director of the center’s information and referral division, the Inform Riverside program.

To access the hotline, callers will dial 2-1-1 and reach a call center, where trained volunteers will ask about their situation and redirect them to the appropriate agency.

The 2-1-1 hotline will become operational 24 hours a day, every day, for Riverside County residents by July 1, 2005.

"Until then, we’re planning," said Madden, ticking off a list of things that must be done in the interim. "We have to turn the switches on, we have to test it, we have to make up a little bit of a funding gap, we have to expand to 24-seven."

Madden says there are still plans to develop a call center branch in the Coachella Valley, too.

"The staff down in the desert have the direct knowledge of the local resources, of the roads, of the areas not to go at night -- things you just can’t get in a database," he said.

It won’t be a moment too soon, said Dick Schroeder, director of the Indio Senior Center.

"It’s a concept that’s been thrown around for years," he said. "There just really are not clearinghouses for social services availability, none that people can access easily."

Schroeder speculated that the people who will benefit the most from the new hotline will be seniors, the disabled and people living on a low income. Also, agencies like his will be able to use the service to make referrals "because we don’t always know what else is available," he said.

Funding is the next big hurdle for the Volunteer Center. Madden said it will cost about $624,000 to operate the 2-1-1 hotline during its first year. The program does receive money from the United Way, First Five Children and Families Commission, and some other organizations, but the center is still about $140,000 short.

Inform Riverside officials are asking valley cities to chip in to the tune of about 13 cents per resident to make up for the gap in funding. So Indio, the valley’s largest city, would pay about $7,700 on behalf of its population of roughly 59,000 residents. Smaller cities would pay proportionally less.

Then comes the marketing. Supporters hope that 2-1-1 will eventually become as ingrained in people’s minds as the well-known 9-1-1 emergency services line and the 4-1-1 information line.

"It won’t help anybody unless we get that information around" to the public," Schroeder added. "Local agencies are going to have to get the word out."