`NO CALL IS TOO TRIVIAL FOR US' 211 HOTLINE PROVIDES NONEMERGENCY HELP.

Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer

OXNARD - For emergencies, call 911. For phone listings, dial 411. And to report road hazards in Los Angeles and other cities,punch in 311.

But what if you have a simple question, like: I'm a single dad and my kids are coming for dinner. How do I cook a ham?

Try 211 - a new information hotline that provides answers to a full range of nonemergency questions. Launched in Ventura County in February, the hotline is scheduled to debut in Los Angeles County this summer.

While designed to help find answers to pressing problems like homelessness, terminal illness, hunger and spousal abuse, people are calling up with questions on just about anything - and they're getting answers.

``The new line is a place for people to reach out, and no call is too trivial for us,'' said Elaine Martinez Curry, director of the 211 Helpline of Ventura County.

``On Easter, we got a call from a single parent who had lost his wife and didn't know how to cook a ham for his two children ... One of the call center specialists found a cooking Web site and gave the man all the information.

``We're not going to turn anybody away who is in need.''

In another case, a boy who learned about the 211 line in his elementary school called the number when he woke from a nap and couldn't find his parents at home. Operators arranged to have someone visit the house, where they discovered the mom downstairs and the boy upstairs.

The Oxnard 211 call center, operated by INTERFACE Children Family Services, frequently gets calls about spousal abuse, homelessness and bitter conflicts involving teenagers and their parents.

``It's great when you succeed in helping someone, when you feel you got to the heart of their problem and helped them make a step in solving it,'' said Brian, one of the dozen call-center operators who provide only their first names to callers.

With computers, Internet access and reference tomes at their disposal, these operators working out of an Oxnard office try to answer every question posed to them while the caller is on the line. If they can't, they take the caller's phone number, do research and get back to them within an hour or two.

Most counties already have information hotlines offering nonemergency help. The trouble is they are 11-digit toll-free numbers, which are hard to remember and dial, especially for the elderly.

When Ventura converted the number to 211 as a test case for the state, call volume soared.

``One of the things Ventura County did was to confirm our fact-finding that the volume of calls increases by about 40 percent,'' said Maribel Marin, executive director of INFO LINE Los Angeles, the group that will operate the 211 number in Los Angeles County.

``We've all been doing our financial and operational planning around that number.''

Marin, who will direct the 211 number in Los Angeles County, is president of the California Association of Information and Referral Services, which is overseeing the implementation of the new system in the state.

While some trivial calls come in to INFO LINE, Marin said her agency normally handles extremely serious calls, including reports of elder abuse and calls from pregnant girls and women who might otherwise abandon their babies.

Funding sources for the 211 hotline vary by county because the program will often be picked up by the same groups that operate the service under toll-free 800 numbers and have already established funding channels.

United Way plays a major role in funding across the country, as do tobacco-tax revenues. Efforts are under way to obtain $200 million a year in federal support for 211 programs nationwide.

In Los Angeles County, the funding comes primarily from the Department of Social Services, with contributions from United Way.

The 211 number in Los Angeles County will also serve as an information hotline during emergencies such as wildfires in Los Angeles County, helping to take the nonemergency call load off the 911 system.

``The majority of calls we receive are for emergency food and shelter and for income assistance, public benefits, Social Security. We also get calls for legal referrals, health insurance, health immunizations,'' Marin said.

INFO LINE is the largest information and referral service agency in the nation, with an annual budget of $5.3 million. It helps more than 380,000 people a year with free confidential services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each month, INFO LINE receives between 15,000 and 18,000 requests for referrals to health and human services programs.

``Our agency has been around 25 years providing this service,'' Marin said. She noted that while the 211 line is essentially a change in the telephone number, it is expected to lead to a spike in call volume similar to what Ventura experienced.

The 211 system should start in Los Angeles on July 1, along with San Francisco, San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Santa Barbara counties, she said.

In Ventura, the 211 number is operated by INTERFACE, which for years ran a toll-free 800 hotline offering similar help.

Mike Sedell, the city manager of Simi Valley, is the chairman of the INTERFACE board of directors, and has volunteered with INTERFACE since the 1970s, often taking calls himself.

He said operators have to respond to family crisis situations of all kinds, including drug use, child abuse, spousal abuse and runaway children.

``It might be an elderly person with Alzheimer's who just wants somebody to talk to, or someone who has just been beaten up by a spouse, run out of the house and doesn't know what to do,'' Sedell said. ``Sometimes it is parents who have discovered one of their children is using drugs.''

Eric Leach, [phone]

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

GET HELP

Call 211 in Ventura County or [phone] from a cell phone. For INFO LINE of Los Angeles, call [phone] until the 211 line begins operating this summer. For more information, visit dailynews.com.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in Simi edition only) Elaine Martinez Curry, directs the 211 Helpline of Ventura County, which will even asnwer callers' cooking questions.

(2 -- color -- ran in Simi edition only) The Oxnard 211 office uses the Blue Book, which has information about businesses and services for Ventura County residents.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News

Box:

(ran in Valley edition only) GET HELP (see text)