Helping Now Matters

Need strikes when we least expect it. It can come in the middle of the night. It can come in the suburbs. Need takes on many faces. Faces not unlike our own.

• Tom can’t pay his rent and is about to be evicted.
• Betsy’s son is being threatened by a drug dealer at her school.
• Ron has just been laid off but his disabled spouse needs his health insurance coverage to get the medicine she needs.
• Jackie needs a hot meal and a warm place to sleep.

With almost 8% of Central Iowans living below the poverty line, there is tremendous need. People don’t know where to turn. They’re feeling so overwhelmed that it’s paralyzing. That’s when United Way 2-1-1 can help. 24 hours a day. 365 days a year.

Rather than connect people to emergency services, as 9-1-1 does, 2-1-1 connects people to resources, direction and guidance in finding community resources in one easy phone call. 2-1-1 provides callers with information about, and referrals to, human services for every day needs and in times of crisis.

Over 35,289 Central Iowans called 2-1-1 in 2004.

Click here to search the 2-1-1 assistance database