State to launch 211 service hotline

After a quiet pilot test, Maryland officials plan to publicly launch a statewide, 24-hour hotline to connect residents with health and human services next month.

Starting in mid-October, residents can dial 211 for information on public services including day care, substance abuse help, food pantries, medical care, domestic abuse and homeless shelters ? the list is endless, according to Saundra Bond, associate vice president of the United Way of Central Maryland.

Bond said Maryland is behind 40 other states where the three-digit hotline is already available. Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and five locations in Canada also use the number, said Bond, the founding chair of the state?s task force organized to plan and implement the system.

“We?re a little late in getting this up and running, but you can see it?s sweeping the nation,” she said.

The state began testing the system at four existing resource centers in Prince George?s, Wicomico and Frederick counties and Baltimore City in 2005, Bond said, and already receive 200,000 calls per year. After a one-year public test run, the state still needs funding to permanently operate the system.

Just how much and where the money will come from remains unclear. Inquiries made to the state?s Department of Health and Human Services, which is overseeing the task force, were not returned by press time.

The system has been in the pipeline for several years, according to Del. Dan Morhaim, D-District 11. Morhaim was one of several lawmakers to sponsor legislation in 2004 that reserved the number for the project.

“People have different needs ? job training, housing, health care,” Morhaim said. “It?s worked elsewhere, so hopefully it will help people get more things solved on the front end.”

He said the line will free up 911 lines and help residents avoid the frustration of calling several bureaucracies for simple questions. More than 135 information and referral services in Maryland respond to about one million calls each year ? not including toll-free government numbers, according to task force literature.

3-digit numbers in MD.

» 911: Police, fire, ambulance services

» 311: Non-emergency Baltimore City services

» 711: Maryland Relay Service (for the hearing impaired)

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