Dial 211 for direct access to thousands of resources

Thousands of resources are available right at the end of your fingertips through a free service, called 211 Community Connect. It is a free, 24-hour hotline and all one has to do is pick up the phone.

“Resources for food, for housing, rent assistance, utilities. Resources for all those things and never before was there one place to go to get all that information,” said Ginny Foat, the executive director of the Mizell Senior Center: “It’s all encompassing. You just pick up your telephone and dial 211.”

Foat said that as far as she knows, most of the local calls are for housing or food assistance, but they also have included questions about cultural arts and library resources. For seniors in Palm Springs or the homeless in the east Valley- it’s an invaluable tool.

“A lot of the homeless individuals have low-income phones, so they’re able to call,” said Tom Cox, the program director at the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission.

For low-income people who don’t have access to the internet, it can be a lifesaver. Inside the CVRM is a cooling center and at night, an emergency shelter.

Anyone can call and speak with a trained specialist. The referral line also partners with SafeHouse of the Desert, which provides immediate help to youth and families in dire situations. It has connections to the county HELPline, which took in a reported 8,000 callers in crisis last year.

“For our nonprofits, community-based agencies and governmental entities, 2-1-1 can alleviate administrative burden and reduce costs associated with managing information and referral services, allowing affiliated organizations to focus on serving, rather than finding clients,” Chief Executive Officer Marie Davis told KESQ and CBS Local 2’s Katie Widner.

“I just handled another suicide case last week and that probably could have been prevented,” said Jeff Horton, the Veteran’s liaison for the City of Desert Hot Springs. “This is a high thing for our Vets because its a suicide hotline as well as health care and getting rides and so forth.”

Horton said he was surprised to learn of the Veteran’s network the hotline offers. 211 is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can help people in more than 120 languages.