Randy Nicklaus, President

  

This is tax season and our partnership with United Way of the Big Bend and its Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program has been renewed with a twist!  We are now offering to send text updates to our 2-1-1 callers who want information about.VITA sites before they are open for business.  This pilot program should save people from making unnecessary follow up calls and give them up-to-date knowledge when sites are available to help them.  We plan to expand our texting service to many other areas this Spring.

Speaking of United Way, thanks to all of you who support the annual United Way of the Big Bend (UWBB) campaign with your donations and pledges.  We receive thousands of dollars from UWBB each year which help fund our hotline services including texting and follow-up services.

This is our 46th anniversary as a community human service program, and during February we will celebrate our 13th anniversary of using the three digit 2-1-1 number to improve access to our hotline services.  Many of our programs and services are evolving with new technologies and service models, but our stable claim to fame is our excellent hotline counselor training program! Having a compassionate, well-trained hotline counselor to help you through a difficult time or life crisis can be immeasurable!  Please help us continue this excellent training program and our 24-hour hotline services by making a contribution to 2-1-1 Big Bend during January and February; or, join us for our RUN 2-1-1 on February 13th.  Any size contribution makes a difference!