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Confederation Building in St. John’s will be lit up red on Wednesday, celebrating the national day for awareness of the 211 service.
Newfoundland and Labrador has had 211 since 2020, when it was brought in as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with United Way Newfoundland and Labrador as a founding partner, providing funding and advocacy for the program. In the five years since it was launched, its popularity has risen — but there’s still plenty of room to grow.
Trevor Freeborn, one of the leaders behind the scenes with 211 in the province, said it’s a vital service that often helps people when they don’t know where else to turn.
“We consider ourselves to be the front door for health right across the country,” Freeborn told CBC Radio’s The St. John’s Morning Show.
“A lot of times people reach out to us and they’re struggling. They have an issue but they don’t really know what they’re looking for. They don’t necessarily know what services are out there to help them. So our goal is to be a bridge to connect them to the resources that exist in the community.”
Freeborn said that could be anything from finding shelter, to connecting people with mental health resources, helping them apply for income support, or finding them a meal for the day.
Food, shelter and loneliness
Food accounts for about 40 per cent of the call volume in Newfoundland and Labrador. Freeborn said the 211 service navigators often help connect people with their nearest food bank or meal service.
“Food is paramount and we try to get as many food resources in our database as possible,” he said.
The next most common request is for housing. Freeborn pointed to one recent example, where an elderly veteran reached out to say he was being evicted from his home and he didn’t know where else to turn. A service navigator got him in touch with Connections For Seniors to provide a short-term housing option. They also connected him with veterans’ affairs, who managed to find him a new place to live, long-term.
In another example, Freeborn said they got a call from an elderly woman whose husband had recently passed away. She was lonely and felt lost. Freeborn said 211 connected her with recreation programs in her area, and checked back in with her a week later to find she’d made new friends.
“We try to help people in every circumstance,” Freeborn said.
The service has been in use in other parts of Canada since 2002. It also partners with a translation service with 150 different languages available to callers.
Freeborn said work is underway to better integrate 211 with other government services, so people are more aware of its existence.
In the meantime, more than a dozen provincial and municipal buildings across the province will be lit up red to raise awareness for the service on Tuesday.
“I think that 211 is going to be more widely used in the future,” Freeborn said.
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