News

ARKANSAS 211 PHONE SERVICE CLOSES, PERHAPS PERMANENTLY

By Erin France/ OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, November 5, 2009 12:20 AM CST

Arkansas 211’s phone service is closed, but the Web site remains online.

Connie Carty (right) and Kyle Hunter (behind Carty) serve up plates of barbecue to a long line of customers Wednesday afternoon at the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Museum’s annual fundraiser. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

The program was designed to allow Arkansans to call one phone number to find social service organizations.

Launched in the summer of 2008, Arkansas 211 was formerly based in Pine Bluff and in Bentonville and helped connect residents to social service resources.

John Nazzaro, the voluntary chair of the state association of the United Way, said he did not know whether the Arkansas 211 Web site would remain in operation.

“The operational call center was shut down today, however the Web site is still up,” Nazzaro said Wednesday. “I hope we can sustain it.”

Nathan Cook, Arkansas 211’s executive director, had requested funds from the Pine Bluff City Council.

In a Oct. 13 letter Cook stated “the United Ways of Arkansas, Inc. is making a request to the City of Pine Bluff to fund the Arkansas 2-1-1 program in the amount of $25,000.”

Cook also stated in the letter that the program provided full-time employment for six people.

Nazzaro said United Way organizations, corporations and private donors had kept Arkansas 211 afloat with $1.9 million, but when no government entities gave to the organization, the funding disappeared.

Offices for the program moved from the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center to 3067 W. 28th Ave. as funding issues arose.

Cook announced the staff was cut from 10 full-time employees to six full-time employees in June, and operational hours were decreased.

Print this story   |   Email this story