By Lenetta Warren
211 is our region’s only accredited information and referral service available 24/7, 365 days a year. Inflation and increased housing costs are pushing many individuals and families in our community to seek assistance—leading to a 19-percent increase in requests for help from 211 over the past year.
A caring team of Community Resource Navigators (CRNs) answer our community’s call every single day. Lenetta Warren, 211 Contact Center Manager, shares her experience of lending an ear to help the thousands of Kansas Citians who reach out to 211 when they don’t know where else to turn.
My life and career were in a whole totally different direction, when the opportunity to work with 211 on a temporary basis fell into my lap. Seven years later, I’m still here because I love this environment. I love what United Way is doing through 211.
This is the community I grew up in. I’ve always been involved in community work, with my dad having his own nonprofit that helps feed local children. Doing this job, I feel like I’m able to share awareness, help those in need, and empower people in the community.
Since COVID, we’ve continued to see an uptick in our call volume. So many people continue to be impacted by high housing costs. Some are losing their homes, or are in danger of being evicted. With the right to counsel program, we’ve been seeing an increase of people needing help to be connected with legal representation that can help them stay in their homes, so they’re not kicked out on the streets.
You learn to be really attentive while listening, understanding where they’re at. They (the caller) might initially reach out because they can’t afford rent, but as you talk with them you learn they’re also struggling with maybe prescriptions or food or clothing. So what can we do to offset these other barriers?
That’s why I love 211. We have an abundance of resources. If we can’t give you exactly what you need, we can try to find something else that can help. We don’t always know the outcome, but when we have the opportunity to follow-up, if we know we’ve helped even just one person– that is incredibly rewarding.
Sometimes, the work is hard. Individuals get told to call 211. They’re hoping we have a magic wand to fix all their issues, with the funds directly in our hands to help. But we are here as an information and referral service. We are empowering our community members to go out and try to get the assistance themselves and we’ll do everything in our power to help them.
I’m grateful leadership recognizes the toll our job can take. After we’ve taken an especially challenging call, they ensure we have time to take a step back and reset and provide any needed support.
I pride myself on coming to work each day knowing there’s someone on the other end calling who really needs even just an ear to hear and listen to their story. Knowing you’re doing something that’s impactful to someone else, that I can take control and help another individual, whether it’s food, finding them somewhere they can go, transportation needs, I can search my database and can find help for them and their families. It’s an overall sense of joy, a sense of, ‘I’ve done something great today.’
When people give their dollars to support United Way and the work of 211, I hope they know it can really help in opening up resources that can benefit someone in need on the other end. It’s a big impact. We’ve been around over a hundred years, so being able to give back for such a great cause, you can stand proud to know you’re contributing to what we’ve been able to do and what I know we’ll be able to do in the future.
