Journal Gazette: My United Way 2-1-1 announces launch of texting option

FORT WAYNE (September 7, 2016) – My United Way 2-1-1 is launching a new option to reach even more residents in need. My United Way 2-1-1 now offers texting to residents. Specialists have spent the past month training on responding to texts and testing the option prior to releasing it to the public.

My United Way 2-1-1 is joining the texting program with six other state centers. Three centers have been running the program since early 2016 and the additional three joined in the past month. The My United Way 2-1-1 Service Center is housed in and run by United Way of Allen County and regularly handles nearly 46,000 calls annually and 20,000 database searches.

“We have a significant number of individuals that are currently unable to reach us because they have prepaid phones. Once they run out of minutes for the month, they can no longer call us, but they still have unlimited texting,” said Tiffany Bailey, Vice President of Community Impact for United Way of Allen County. “This was just a natural next step to meet that need.”