Awareness of the 211 Lake County service offered by United Way of Lake County to help people with a variety of needs — from paying for rent or a utility bill, to escaping domestic violence, to mental health, to legal issues and more — is growing and exceeding expectations, officials say.
Three years after it was started in 2019, a survey commissioned by United Way showed 21.5% of county residents were aware of the telephone service’s existence. Three years later, Gale Graves, the organization’s vice president of community impact, said people are substantially more aware.
After the initial survey, Graves said a second study was ordered earlier this year to determine whether the efforts to let people know how the service can help were fruitful.
“We’re very excited about the results of the awareness survey,” she said, “In 2022, we were told 15% (awareness) would be good, and we did 21.5%. Our awareness in Lake County is increasing even more. With a third aware, we are drawing awareness across the county.”
Awareness of United Way’s 211 service grew 63.4% between 2022 and 2025, with 33.4% of residents surveyed cognizant of the assistance across Lake County. The organization is using the latest survey results to help it plan for the future.
Though anyone in Lake County might need to call 211, Graves said a larger percentage are those living below the poverty level, 8%, or who do not earn a living wage, 26%, are knowledgeable.
“’People who are not earning a living wage’ means they are not earning enough to be able to afford basic needs like housing, utilities or healthcare,” Graves said. “They are not able to afford all the basics.”
Among people or families with income less than $50,000 a year, Jennifer Strom, United Way’s director of marketing and communications, said in an email awareness is higher, with 43.5% of the subgroup knowledgeable.
Strom said a large number of calls come from people dealing with homelessness and needing shelter, recovering from substance abuse, those with mental health needs or crime victims. They are referred to partner agencies specializing in their situations.
“Some of our partner agencies serve the Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities,” Strom said.
For those not speaking English or Spanish, Graves said there are interpretation services for 150 languages including Polish, Korean, Hindi, Russian, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Urdu and Mandarin.
Part of the reason for the growth in awareness exceeding expectations comes from United Way’s outreach to the county’s Spanish-speaking community. Newspaper and radio commercials were done in both languages, according to a press release. Materials are multicultural.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31 of this year, 211 has reached 14,884 community contacts and 1,300 people have been trained to use the service, according to the release. The training is done in both English and Spanish.
Graves said United Way regularly goes to community events and holds workshops to both increase awareness and teach people how to use the 211 service. There is also contact with community partners who specialize in particular needs.
“We talk to people to make them aware of 211,” Graves said. “We do trainings with people to teach them how to use 211.”
Community partners include Family First of Lake County, NIRCO, school districts, HACES, Mano a Mano, libraries, the YWCA and more.
