'There isn’t a single call where it doesn’t feel like a crisis.' 211 helpline deluged after coronavirus outbreak.

"I'm afraid, I'm so afraid."

Those were the words 211 Call Center Supervisor Anna Aldhari heard when she picked up the phone.

A young man was on the phone, calling from a hotel.

He told her he was a former methamphetamine addict who had been sober for three weeks, but the meetings he had been attending to help him stay clean had been canceled because of coronavirus. So when he found himself overcome with emotion, huddled in a corner wondering if he'd be able to get up, he called the only number he could think of.

He dialed 211.

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"You could feel the fear through the phone," Aldhari recalled. “So I said, ‘I’m here for you.’ ”

She coached him off the floor and to a sink where he could pour himself a glass of water. He thanked her.

"He was crying, he was telling me, I didn't know I could get out of that corner. My tears were rolling down my face," she said.

Aldhari works for Impact Inc., a nonprofit organization that runs the 211 hotline. The hotline guides callers to various social sources, such as food, emergency shelter, health care, unemployment, rent support, elder care and psychological services.

As the state has ratcheted up social distancing and stay-at-home rules, 211 has seen a significant increase in calls. According to Impact Inc. President and CEO John Hyatt, the average number of calls has doubled from 500 to 1,000 a day.

The call center is part of a group of other 211s that cover nine counties in southeastern Wisconsin (Washington and Ozaukee, Waukesha and Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Jefferson Dodge and Walworth) 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“After 5 (o'clock) on weekends and holidays, we end up covering about 75% of the state’s population,” he said.

‘Sometimes people just need someone to listen to them’

Aldhari has been at Impact since 2018, where she started out as a community resource specialist and answered phones before she was promoted to supervisor a year ago.

Before that, she worked at UMOS for eight years, helping the homeless find shelter.

A Milwaukee native from the city’s southside, Aldhari said she watched her parents and others struggle when she was growing up and became inspired to help others.

“That was my goal: just find a job where I’m able to help people and get that self-satisfaction of helping people fulfilled,” she said.

At the call center, she does that by watching the specialists she supervises and jumping on calls herself when the volume is high, as it has been lately. “I’m going to be here for the people, one call at a time,” she said.

Most of the calls are coming from people who need food, Hyatt said. It's a mix of regular callers and those who don’t normally reach out.

“As we’re really starting to see the economic impact and people are doing the right thing by staying home, everybody in the past that used to rely on us for food is still relying on us for food and now you have a whole new collection of people that are calling for food,” he said.

Behind the scenes, Aldhari said she is calling agencies to see if there are resources for those who can’t get to food pantries.

Those callers often reach out when they have emergency needs and become impatient with wait times that are longer than usual

“They’re hungry, they have children crying in the background, they’re frustrated, they’re tired, just hopeless,” she explained. "Sometimes people just need someone to listen to them."

‘Time to save lives’

To handle the increase in volume, Hyatt said Impact has added shifts, hired new staff and is working with United Way and Team Rubicon to find volunteers; there are 45 employees and around 30 volunteers.

Hyatt said the pace can often be exhausting.

“It’s just the relentless, high volume of calls with people that also have a very high level of anxiety and fear,” he explained. “So there isn’t a single call where it doesn’t feel like a crisis for the person that’s calling or it doesn’t feel like panic. You sit there and see that there are 10 people waiting to get through, and then you look up and there are 12 people waiting to get through and then it’s 15 people — it’s just the relentlessness of call after call.”

And because of the outbreak, the availability of services is constantly changing.

“We’re also working around the clock to keep things updated on what is open to the community," he said. "The pantry you’re used to going to (might not be) open anymore or the requirements they’re asking for have been relaxed a little bit.”

As a supervisor of dozens of resource specialists, Aldhari said the work extracts a toll on the people who take the calls.

“Our staff is so heartbroken, especially when someone is saying they are hungry (and) our CRSs, they just feel helpless,” she said. “When I take a look at our staff on those calls, they are crying with them.”

When they worked in the call center together, she would often sit down with them or take them for a walk to recover.

Aldhari works with only two other employees at the call center; all other staff members are working remotely.

Still, she starts every day with a positive attitude.

“I tell them ‘Time to save lives, let’s do this!’ and that’s our motivation every morning. That’s been my saying since I started here.”

If you need to call 211

When reaching out to 211, Aldhari hopes callers will be thoughtful.

“I want them to be patient; sometimes we don’t have all the answers,” she said. “Keep in their mind that we’re all going through this crisis together.”

Here are a few other tips if you ever need service from 211:

• Be calm, be patient
• Have a pencil and paper to write down names, numbers and notes of things to do
• Have a list of services you need or issues you have to avoid having to repeatedly call back
• Remember that you can also text (by texting your ZIP code to 898-211), chat (by visiting the website https://bit.ly/3aGHLsv, or clicking on this link) or search the website’s online database, 211wisconsin.communityos.org, or take advantage of the callback system

How has coronavirus affected your life?

Contact Talis Shelbourne at (414) 403-6651 or tshelbourn@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @talisseer and message her on Facebook at @talisseer.

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