With internet search engines mere keystrokes away, you might think all the knowledge in the world awaits the commands of your fingertips, but the breadth of those cyberspace files also might leave you confused about where to begin.
Established as the Information Line of Richland County in the 1980s, First Call 211 exists not only to direct people to community information but also to offer a local, personal, helping hand.
“We’re not the telephone directory,” Terry Carter, the Information & Referral Librarian said. “Our purpose is to help the caller identify, prioritize and kind of help them frame their need, and from there we can direct them to organizations and agencies that can help.” Call operators are trained Information & Referral Specialists and offer 24/7 assistance.
“What I absolutely love is that I’m local and the callers are not talking to some disembodied voice,” Carter said. “It’s not ‘those people’ or ‘that organization.’ It’s all us.”
A partnership between the Richland Library and the Richland County Job and Family Services, First Call 211 established its current name out of a desire to better reflect its purpose. “We wanted them to think of calling us first before they try to go out and navigate the system,” Carter said.
Needs range from the common to the more obscure. Carter recalled once receiving a call from the granddaughter of an employee of a former manufacturing company in the area, who needed to know if she was a beneficiary on her grandfather’s life insurance policy.
“I went through some resources and was able to find out that’s actually the CBS Corporation in New York that administers that life insurance policy,” Carter said. “I was able to give the woman a number and address that would have been difficult to find by just exploring the CBS website.”
Requests don’t need to be unusual to keep the office busy. “You never know what the next call will be,” Carter said. “Even if it’s a particularly common call, it’s always new to the person who’s calling us.”
In addition to the call center, First Call 211 maintains a searchable database of community information and works hard to develop and maintain relationships with all the organizations in the database.
“The services are always changing,” Carter said. “While funding may be available at a particular time, in a month or two the money might be expended and that service won’t be available until the next allocation of funding.” By staying in close contact with organizations, First Call 211 can be confident that their referrals are always current and accurate.
First Call 211 is also active in connecting the service providers to better fulfill the needs of the community. If a church wants to offer a meal, they can look at the free meal calendar put together by First Call 211 to find a time when meals aren’t already offered by other organizations. “We link them up with other entities so they can talk with them and learn from their experiences so they’re not reinventing the wheel,” Carter said.
Throughout its existence, First Call 211 of Richland County has been an invaluable resource. “If it didn’t exist, it would put individuals back at knocking at doors that may or may not offer the service they’re looking for,” Carter said. “When you have to ask for help it can be very humbling, and that’s one of the things I absolutely love about being part of the library. We’re neutral territory.”
“For me the best part of the job is knowing I’ve given referrals that can help,” Cheryl Barretta, an Information and Referral Specialist explained. “It’s been a big eye-opening experience.”
“You never know what the next call will be,” Terry Carter said. “Even if it’s a particularly common call, it’s always new to the person who’s calling us.”
