Donations Help Hurricane Recovery

Doug Dickerson, State Director,
AARP North Carolina

This spring the United Way of North Carolina received more than $125,000 in AARP contributions to help support its free help line NC 2-1-1, an information and referral service accessible via an easy-to-remember, three-digit number.

Families and individuals were able to call that line to obtain free and confidential information on health and human services and resources within their community.

NC 2-1-1 maintains a robust database with information on thousands of programs and services in North Carolina. It refers callers to organizations in their local community that are best equipped to address their specific health and human services needs for food, shelter, energy assistance, housing, parenting resources, healthcare, and substance abuse. NC 2-1-1 also has specific resources for older adults and for persons with disabilities, dementia, and much more.

Laura Zink Marx, President and CEO of United Way of North Carolina, said, “NC 2-1-1 continues to play an important role in disaster clean-up and recovery. As a member of the State Emergency Response Team, it is part of the State’s Emergency Plan.”

She notes that in the event of a natural or public disaster, NC 2-1-1 is a public information portal for residents to obtain real-time communications and resources related to the disaster. Caller needs are tracked in order to provide information to emergency managers on trends and local circumstances that residents are facing.

In 2016, more than 12,000 North Carolinians dialed 2-1-1 to get information on emergency evacuations, shelters, meal sites, water and food distributions, and post-disaster cleanup and recovery assistance during Hurricane Matthew.

I served as co-chair of a state task force on dealing with the growing number of residents with Alzheimer’s and age related dementia, said 2-1-1 is an important part of the recommendations the NC Institute of Medicine made to the state last year.

Currently, the program is working to provide more information to assist family caregivers. With over 1.2 million people in the state providing care to loved ones, this service can help provide information about resources that can assist those who are balancing caring for loved ones with work, family, and other needs. The NC Department of Health and Human Services is working with the program to provide the most comprehensive list of resources to help family caregivers and their loved ones across the state.

AARP contributions also helped provide critical support to area food banks which had depleted stocks during the storm recovery. The Food Bank of Albemarle and the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC received donations to replenish the food items that are critical to their missions.

Other contributions from AARP members were given to Action Pathways that provides food and other assistance to low-income individuals in southeastern North Carolina.

Legal Aid of North Carolina also received AARP donations to help provide free legal help to low-income North Carolinians in civil cases involving basic human needs like safety, shelter, income and more. AARP is all about helping people realize their ‘real possibilities.’

Article by News and Ideas.