The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

211 phone service coming to Halton Ever had a hard time figuring out what community group or agency provides the services you need? Those who have will be happy to hear that the 211 phone service is soon coming to Halton, providing residents with easy access to a full range of non-emergency community, health and social services. Regional council endorsed the Halton 211 model at its meeting recently, and the public launch is expected next May. The free multilingual telephone/TTY line will be available 24 hours per day, 365 days a year. Planning for 211 has been ongoing at Halton for four years and has involved the Halton Information Providers, the four United Ways in Halton and numerous other community agencies. "Halton staff and the 211 Halton steering committee have developed an approach to the delivery of 211 in Halton that is the first of its kind in Canada," said Halton CAO Brent Marshall. "211 will be delivered by Halton Region through our existing, highlyrated Access Halton call centre. This model of delivery builds on existing community strengths and allows us to access provincial funding for startup." The 211 phone number provides a central access point for information on human and social services from both government and non-government agencies. The certified information and referral specialists in Access Halton will assess the needs of each caller and link them to the best available information or service using a database created and managed by the Halton Information Providers. "People with the greatest need are often the least able to find the support or resources that exist in their community," said Christine Berry, supervisor of Information Oakville and co-chair of the 211 Halton steering committee. "The highly-visible 211 telephone number will eliminate confusion about who to call and will be especially valuable to individuals facing language or other barriers." Projections are that 41,000 Halton residents will use the 211 service in its first year of operation and that this number will grow as Halton's population increases, the composition of its population changes and as the service becomes more widely known. Regional council also received an update on work being done to advance 311 in Halton. While 211 and 311 both provide callers with access to services, the distinction is that 211 is an information and referral service on community information, while 311 simplifies access to non-emergency local government services. Customer service representatives in Access Halton will answer the 311 calls. This will allow for full integration of 211 and 311 services, resulting in economies of scale and improved effectiveness of both. Subject to regional council approval, the implementation of 311 in Halton is expected next summer.