Kane County's 211 Answers the Call

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​Kane County residents looking for information on how to access local human services and resources made available by over 1,000 government, non-profit and faith-based organizations in Kane County have been able to simply dial 2-1-1. The service has been available since November 2020 and has been providing callers with free and confidential assistance with needs such as emergency shelter, food, utility assistance, counseling, senior services, employment and health care. 

In the first half of 2022, 2,364 referrals were made to 237 unique agencies.  The organizations receiving the most referrals included Community Crisis Center, Two Rivers Head Start Agency, Salvation Army of Aurora, St. Vincent DePaul-Northeast and Catholic Charities.  The majority of calls, during the same period of time, originated from Aurora, Batavia, Carpentersville, Elgin and St. Charles.

Callers to 2-1-1 from Kane County overwhelmingly needed housing assistance, followed by help with utilities, employment and income, healthcare, city and legal services.

A majority of callers were female.  Of the total number of calls in the first half of the year, 67.5% were between the ages of 18 and 54, 31.6% were over the age of 55, 1% of callers were minors and 49 people who dialed 2-1-1 pushed one for help in Spanish.

The effort to bring 211 to Kane County was led by the Batavia United Way and is supported by funding from Kane County Government, Aurora Township, the Batavia, Fox Valley and Metro Chicago United Ways.