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Contra Costa Crisis Center Receives $500,000 Grant
East Bay Business TimesThe John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund has made a $500,000 grant to the Contra Costa Crisis Center to expand the 211 phone system over the next three to five years in Contra Costa County.
The 211 system is a nationwide, toll-free phone number that provides information about local health and social services. It's now available in parts of 41 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and Canada.
During last fall's wildfires in San Diego County, the local 211 system fielded up to 40,000 calls per day for residents seeking evacuation information.
The Contra Costa Crisis Center, based in Walnut Creek, is the only agency that can provide the 211 service, which it launched Feb. 11, in Contra Costa County. The nonprofit organization offers 24-hour crisis, suicide, grief, homeless, child abuse, elder abuse and youth in crisis hotlines. It also provides counseling programs, assistance to the homeless and a youth violence prevention service.
Members of the John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund board of directors said in a statement the grant was made so "the proposed community benefit from 211 Contra Costa is increased telephone access, through centralized, no cost and easily accessible phone line, to an array of health care and human services..."
About 200 million Americans now have access to the 211 phone system.
(Posted March 3, 2008)