211 Counts – Your Community’s Most Pressing Needs

Washington 211 Data Provides Insights from the State Level to Your Neighborhood
You can now access the rich data that Washington 211 collects from 211 callers to learn what the most pressing needs are in your community online at “2-1-1 Counts”. 2-1-1 Counts is the first tool to provide real-time, searchable and visual presentations of data from Washington 211’s network of seven regional 2-1-1 call centers. Using 2-1-1 Counts, you’ll find a data dashboard of community-specific needs and gaps in services that can be displayed at the state and county level as well as by congressional, legislative and school district level. You can even view data by zip code and by time period. A menu at the far left of the page allows users to share data through social media and email or through downloadable PDF reports. This makes it easier to create custom needs reports to share with different audiences.

Data entry began June of 2019 which currently consists of 169,709 calls and 216,284 requests for services. The data dashboard is divided into four sections: 

• Top left section organizes requests into 13 categories and by clicking the people icon, following the category name, produces a demographic report by gender, age, and Veterans status.

• Top right section lists a sub-category of services which shows percentage of requests as well as percentage of requests that were unmet.

• Bottom left section includes a heat map of requests by zip code along with Census data on population, poverty, unemployment, rental housing and education.

• Bottom right section displays the top 10 highest rates of requests by zip code as well as a trend line of requests over the past 12 months. 

To learn more, go here! Here you will find a link to the 211 Counts dashboard as well as a link to a user’s guide and instructional videos on how to use the dashboard. There is also information on “Calls to Action” custom need assessment reports. As part of the new 2-1-1 Counts partnership, Washington 211 data can now be used to create customized social needs assessments for your community called Calls to Action reports. These reports identify social determinants of health and social needs trends in your community or catchment area, and recommend evidence-based interventions for the greatest potential impact on health. Calls to Action reports are customizable and tailored to your organization’s objectives. The reports can integrate your organization’s data alongside 2-1-1 data to provide a complete portrait of social needs in your community.

211 Gives Help and Hope to Anxious Community Members
The COVID-19 crisis is unsettling for people and they are barraged with lots of rumors and misinformation. As a key partner in the state’s response team, 211 call center agents have been providing correct information and resources to nearly 40,000 callers in the past month. Trained 211 agents give assurance and provide answers and direction to callers with questions about virus exposure, symptoms and testing, business closures and how to best protect themselves. They take the time to listen and link people up to necessary resources. Aundrea Jackson, 211 Director in King County, reports that her agents help callers “wade through the incredible amount of virus noise and information to get their questions answered, person to person.” Seniors especially have appreciated this assistance, saying “thanks for being so patient and helpful”; “211 is wonderful, more people should know about it”; “211 is saving lives”.