OPINION

Editorial: State must support 211 help line

Heading into the final days of the legislative session, the Indiana General Assembly has a critical choice to make about a critical program serving Indiana — 211 Connect2Help.

Lawmakers can either allocate $2 million a year in the state budget to support the hotline, or, as they have in past years, punt the duty to the philanthropic community.

But this year isn’t like others. This year, the hotline’s existence may well depend on what lawmakers choose to do. The House agreed to appropriate the $2 million, wisely seeing the need to finally provide state support for 211, but the Senate has not. The measure is in conference committee, with time running out in the session.

The philanthropic community, stretched thin financially, is growing tired of supporting 211’s entire $4.5 million annual budget. Without steady funding from the state, chances are the hotline will operate in fewer communities and for fewer hours a day.

Lynn Engel, president and CEO of 211 Connect2Help, has been sounding the alarm about that danger for weeks, most recently during testimony this month at the Statehouse.

“I honestly worry about whether 211 will still be here if we don’t get some help,” she said. “There is such a thing as donor fatigue.”

If the hotline’s reach is reduced, many vulnerable Hoosiers, with few resources on hand to handle a crisis, will be hurt.

Last year, 211 fielded more than 600,000 calls from people seeking everything from a list of domestic violence shelters to escape an abusive spouse to financial assistance to get their heat restored during the winter.

During last January’s debilitating snowstorm and subsequent deep freeze, 211 dispatchers helped residents find warm, safe places to go, and ways to get there. For other residents, 211 found transportation to hospitals for dialysis and to pick up essential medications.

Those are requests for help that without 211’s intervention may have turned into full-blown emergencies. In a very real way, the 50 employees who work for the nonprofit avert crises in our communities.

That’s worth $2 million a year in Indiana’s budget.

It’s time for taxpayers to step up to support a program that serves so many. The 211 hotline shouldn’t be the philanthropic community’s responsibility alone. The General Assembly must recognize that and approve the appropriation as part of the state’s new budget.