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2-1-1 Northeast Michigan Offers Help and Celebrates

 

Do you need help with bills, an unfortunate situation, or need help in general? 2–1–1 Northeast Michigan, the number and business to call for getting it, and we sat down with the Interim Executive Director to learn more. Chiara Cameron–Wood, Executive Director for 211 Northeast Michigan, said, “2-1-1 is actually a three digit number, just like 9-1-1 or 4-1-1, and the ideas get people connected into community resources, and the service is 24/7. The first one actually started down south after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and they realized they needed to centralize whenever people can access that information, so they brought that all together in like a database and put this number out there 2–1–1.”

Chiara Cameron–Wood, Executive Director for 211 Northeast Michigan

2–1–1 helps alleviate those with problems the best they can with the services provided in the area the caller is from, and if they can’t, they return to the area to help try to make the changes so that those services can be provided. Cameron–wood said well, I mean housing. There’s a huge issue for everybody, especially housing that people can afford. One of the things that I want to make sure is that two and one is a database, right? It is one of the services that already exist, besides having that database with all the information about the resources. We also capture information about each of the different colors and be able to come back to the counties. Be able to come back to the community with that information and say here the services where there’s not enough.

After all the work that has been put forth, the company celebrated February 11th as 2–1–1 day for the company, appreciating all the workers that made it all happen. Cameron–Wood said, “Each person who calls needs somebody warm, and they need somebody who they can trust, and in 15 seconds they establish that relationship, so we’re celebrating them. We’ve done a lot of pictures, sent gifts to all our staff, and even this morning, I was part of a chain where everyone in the state, a lot of state leaders were saying happy 2-1-1 day, thank you for everything you do. So it’s really a gratitude for that and then awareness like the opportunity to be here in Alpena to talk to you.”

If your in need of help you can go to https://www.211nemichigan.org/home.html or call 2-1-1