By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

With one phone call and only three numbers, 2-1-1, Missouri residents anywhere in the state will soon be able to get local information on emergency housing, legal aid, free food and day-care locations.

The statewide communication network is available through a national program now up and running in parts of Missouri, including Joplin. Cheryl Polk, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the United Way of Greater St. Louis, spoke to the Joplin-area Nonprofit Alliance on Wednesday, and said the 2-1-1 system was operating as of July 1 and is currently undergoing testing in the Southwest Missouri region.

The 2-1-1 program is a telephone number that connects callers with trained operators who assess needs and refer them to one or more of Missouri’s 30,000 nonprofit groups for help. Operators are available on the toll-free line 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, with multilingual capabilities.

In May, the Missouri Public Service Commission ordered telephone companies in the Phase 1 areas of the state to comply with the 2-1-1 program, and the full public launch of the program should come later this fall, according to Kay Archer, director of United Way 2-1-1 Missouri, who also spoke to the Joplin group Wednesday.

The 2-1-1 program exists in portions of 42 states and part of Canada, but Mary Little, executive director of the United Way of Southwest Missouri in Joplin, said Missouri will be one of only 20 states that are completely 2-1-1 integrated.

Missouri’s participation in the 2-1-1 program is being funded by a $4.75 million grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health and a $3.75 million investment from the United Way of Greater St. Louis. The MFH money will fully fund 2-1-1 in Missouri for the first year and 50 percent of the operating costs for the next four years.

“What’s so great about this is we’re in the first phase and it’s not costing (the United Way of Southwest Missouri) one penny; it’s all paid for,” Little said.

The Kansas City area has been a part of the 2-1-1 program since March 2006, and Polk said it will continue to operate separately from the rest of Missouri’s program. The Kansas City program covers 16 counties in its service area.

The 2-1-1 program doesn’t provide any actual services, Polk said, it only directs callers to groups that can help, so the challenge for local agencies now is to collect, provide and update information on all their available programs to the statewide system. The 2-1-1 system will break Missouri into three regions. Southwest Missouri’s region comprises 27 counties, and its data hub will be located in Springfield.

“It’s very important we have information about your programs,” said Martha Love, 2-1-1 resource specialist for the Southwest Missouri data hub. “If you change, add or end a program, it’s important you give that information to us so we can have helpful, accurate information.”

New service