2020 Success Stories: 2-1-1 Lake County

2-1-1 is available 24/7, 365 days a year to help any caller who needs quality information and referrals, but in the last year we have seen the number of senior citizens contacting 2-1-1 soar as we’ve developed new partnerships to meet the need of this growing population in our community. We feel our greatest success story for 2020 has been our ability to really assist the senior population in Lake County with their changing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to the COVID pandemic many seniors in our community were not aware of 2-1-1 and the services to which we can connect them. In January 2020 we served 122 senior citizens. By May 2020 that number skyrocketed to 894 senior citizens due to our collaboration on the new Grocery Home Delivery for Seniors Program, which was followed by the summer Drive-Thru Produce Distribution for Seniors Program, both responses to keeping our seniors safe at home, but also healthy and fed.

In mid-January 2021 we were approached by the Lake County General Health District to help answer calls from senior citizens in the 1B category to assist them in registering for vaccines and answering vaccine related questions. In January, senior citizens also began reaching out to 2-1-1 for assistance filing their taxes this year, as AARP has announced they will no longer be doing in person taxes due to COVID-19. 

2-1-1 is proud to be flexible and able to quickly pivot to meet the changing needs of our community—particularly during a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve been excited to partner on new projects to help keep our community members safe and healthy. In January 2021 we served 1,220 senior citizen callers. We have been able to connect these callers to assistance with basic needs that they previously were unaware existed.  We have coordinated with the Lake County General Health District to help register callers for the COVID vaccine and continue to assist callers with registering for food assistance through the new Mobile Food Pantry for Seniors project and for VITA tax clinics.