In Kern County, 2-1-1 service will be provided by the Community Action Partnership of Kern (the Partnership). The Partnership currently provides Information and Referral services through its HelpLine program. On October 1, 2007, the Partnership will be launching the 2-1-1 system. HelpLine/2-1-1's multilingual phone staff undergoes professional training that prepares them to assess callers' needs and assist them with navigating a maze of human services agencies and programs. 2-1-1 is for everyone:

• Adult children seeking services for elderly parents
• People who want to donate time, money, or goods to a nonprofit organization
• Laid-off workers struggling to feed their families
• Disaster victims seeking loved ones, housing, food, counseling
• Teachers, clergy, and agency staff seeking help for their clients

The goal of 2-1-1 is to create a simple uniform telephone point of access to existing community health and social services. This single point of contact will simplify access to government and non-profit community services and resources by eliminating the need for people to struggle with hundreds of telephone listings attempting to find the "right" phone number for the "right" service or resource they need. Learn more...