United Way looks to tap COVID relief funds to keep local 211 services alive

When the United Way helped connect residents to the 211 referral service nearly five years ago — enabling access to information ranging from utility or housing assistance to disaster help by dialing three digits — St. Clair County was the last in the state to join.

Now, organizers with the nonprofit said they’re on the hunt for funding to keep it going.

Brent Gillett, the United Way of St. Clair County’s executive director, said the current arrangement of grant funds ends next spring. Originally, he said the plan was they’d be able to raise funds or work with community partners to supplement financing for the program.

But like most organizations, Gillett said COVID-19 set them behind, and he’s hoping local communities’ cut of coronavirus relief funds from the American Rescue Plan will help fill the impending gap.

“I don’t want to put them at bay to say we’re in good shape because in a year’s time I have to decide —  if our United Way campaign (can support it) as far as the amount of revenues we’re able to generate — what services are at the higher end of priorities,” he said. “And information referral doesn’t seem to be a high priority even though we know the importance of it.”

Gillett sent requests to or appeared before local boards late this summer in hopes communities would contribute, telling St. Clair County commissioners in August they were looking for $250,000 to sustain the program for another five years.

Utility companies DTE Energy and Semco, the Community Foundation of St. Clair County, and Acheson Foundation, as well as other private donors have contributed to 211’s local financing in the past.

Local 211 connections go through the northeast service center in Midland, but the funding has also helped keep a local specialist taking calls in Port Huron.

Although “out of the original funders, most of them are still interested,” Gillett said they put those talks on hold.

Utilizing connections with local communities’ federal ARP funding made sense, he said, citing it as “a great place for the community to step up to make sure this service stays viable.”

And also because of how much local residents utilized 211 during the pandemic.

Gillett told county commissioners in August that 211 was able to alleviate 911 and local health agencies as calls flooded in, later adding that they were seeing an average rate from January until now that 28% of calls were COVID related.

According to the last annual 211 activity report for St. Clair County, 23% of more than 2,650 connections and 1,100 searches were COVID-19 related in 2020.

The challenge remains, officials have said, how American Rescue Plan funds will be utilized.

Both St. Clair County, which is receiving an estimated $31 million over two years, and the city of Port Huron, which is receiving $18 million, are still finalizing plans to spend the funds.

Gillett said requests to local communities have been dependent on the size of their population. The United Way asked Port Huron for $25,000, versus requests for as little as $500 to what he called “shoulder communities” on the county’s edge.

The $250,000, he said, would help keep the current service that includes a local specialist at roughly $50,000 a year.

Gillett said he expected to hear from local communities before funding runs out in 2022.

The response has been positive, he said, though for some local officials contributions hinged on whether the county and larger cities chip in.

“Some of them have said, ‘I will if …’ because what they find is sometimes some municipalities feel they carry the burden by themselves, and that’s why we did it by population in that percentage (of) requests.”

For more on the 211 service, which is free and available 24 hours, visit https://www.uwstclair.org/211.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.