United Way of South Wood and Adams Counties – 211 – August ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support, probably brought to you by Crockett Sceptic

for this August 19th, 2025.

Have your host James here.

We're joined right now by our great friends from the United Way of Southwood and Amms

counties.

We have Danny Shock with us right now.

She is the 2-1-1 director over there.

Danny, how close did I get with that last name?

Perfect.

Oh yeah.

Oh boy, we got to work that down.

Thank you so much for being here, Danny.

We appreciate you.

Certainly appreciate our friends from the United Way.

It's nice of you to give Terry a break from me.

Appreciate you being in.

No, we said to shout out to everybody over at the United Way and how much you definitely,

all of you are.

And I can only imagine how busy you are as a 2-1-1 director.

If you don't mind Danny, before we get into some of the busyness that you guys have had

going on in the last couple of weeks, can we remind the audience of this great resource

we have in our communities, 2-1-1?

2-1-1 offers information and referral services for local areas, for anyone that's impacted

regarding disaster or if you're in need of rental assistance, housing assistance, utility

assistance, and even if you needed some AODA assistance, we do offer supportive listening

skills and we can get you connected to local carriers.

My mom discovered 2-1-1 when we first moved here because she didn't know when garbage

and recycling was there and she was so worried about everything and she has been calling

it ever since.

She has called you guys many, many times over the last couple of decades and everything,

or less decade or so.

But I myself had not really used 2-1-1.

I didn't have a lot of needs for it or anything like that but I called, I think, a

last month or a couple of months ago I called and was looking for dental services and things

like that in the area and man, the resources and things that were available that I didn't

find online, that I didn't hear from the word amount or anything like that, 2-1-1 gave

me those resources.

I am internally thankful for that.

Anybody with 2-pain knows what I'm talking about.

It was such a great resource and it took maybe 5 minutes, maybe, not even, I may even

talk to you Danny.

Probably.

It wasn't a very long conversation and boom, boom, I got a couple of options and I was

like, okay, that's great, I'll work with those and see where I go from there.

It was such a great resource and it was so quick and available and maybe one of the

greatest selling points I think the 2-1-1 has is the people you're talking to a human being

and that goes a long way for people nowadays.

I don't mean anything against public service or some of the computer programs we have and

some of those things.

I think there's some good ones, some bad ones.

But there's nothing like being able to talk to a human being and really having that

empathy on the other end.

Correct.

That's one of the main things we get a lot of people that state they're so happy that

they can actually speak with somebody and that they're doing it online and let's keep

in mind we do have a community that might not have access to internet so you can just

make that phone call.

You do not have to stay on the line and write down every single referral.

We can send those to you via text message also or via email if you could.

So much above and beyond that 2-1-1 does, that is so much above beyond expectation and

that's really something the United Way is known for as well.

Going above and beyond on our morning show earlier we were talking about stuff the bust

and some of the numbers from that.

I was able to read off those from your newsletter which I encourage you to sign up for it

at uswac.org.

Along with random questions like mine and everything, there are certainly some really important

things that 2-1-1 is also doing day to day.

And recently you guys have been helping with the floods in Milwaukee and handling some

of that.

Danny, you told me a stat before we went on the air here of the amount of calls that

you guys have been taking at 2-1-1 services.

Can you give me that number again for our audience?

Sure.

The total number so far as of 8am this morning with combined other United Way's that

I've been taking the calls 2-1-1 is over 21,000 about 21,498 calls from individuals that

were providing damage reports to us so we can get that into emergency management and

get them some relief.

It's amazing work and work that is going to help so many people, especially people that

may not get that help otherwise or get those services as fast as they will thanks to 2-1-1.

It's also got to be noted as well, I think too, that the residents over there knew they

could call 2-1-1, that that information was there, that they are that quick to go to

it.

I think that most every kid that's listening right now or anybody that grew up in America

here, we know don't 9-1-1, we are taught that very early on.

I feel like 2-1 is getting to at least locally on that level of it's just right away, it's

okay, I need help, I'm going to call 2-1-1 or I need assistance with something, right?

Just need answers.

Correct.

And even with the growing numbers of mental health awareness, there is going to be something

coming out probably after the first of the year where 2-1-1 will provide peer support

specialist services too.

But just keep in mind that you can always call and get supportive listening in the community,

even if you're an elder and you just need to talk, we can get you connected to local resources.

It's another one of these things and I talked to Terry all the time about this, about

how in tune the United Way is with its community and understanding that, well, services are great,

but are these services going to help our community?

What are services we can do to help our communities?

And we know certainly like here in Rapids where we have an older population and so being

able to work with them and meet them more than halfway, over half the way you're meeting

them to be able to get this information to them, again above and beyond.

It's really amazing work.

And then there's the opportunity for I think other communities and other cities that might

not have that same thing, but helping them in other ways.

2-1-1 is so versatile in that regard.

Right.

And also if you're interested, always contact United Way 2-1-1 and we could possibly

get you in the resource database also.

There's many offices programs in that that are still that we don't have a listing for.

So just feel free, give us a call, talk to Terry or even just call us and we can get you

into the database.

One other thing that you make me think about there, Danny, too, is if you have questions

or want to know things and you call there and your guys are not able to find the answers,

you'll help them find the answers.

You guys are going to give them resources or where to go and put them in the right direction.

I think that's a really awesome thing too to be able to do.

Absolutely.

We have a wide range and there's our database is very large so we can look for it.

We'll investigate for you while you're on the phone with us and if we can't find it,

we will send you text message or email once we do.

Danny, one of the things that I like to do with this show, especially when it comes to

like our representatives or law enforcement or firefighters or our nonprofits is certainly

you show the human being behind what is going on here.

And when you call 211, you're not seeing anybody, you're hearing a voice and all that.

But there's a lot of people behind that voice.

There's a lot of work being done by that.

When it comes to our local 211 department, how many people do you have in that department?

How many people are working there 211?

For 211, there's myself.

I'm the 211 director and then there's Lynn.

She is our resource manager.

So the two of us work our database and take the calls.

I really wanted to shout you both out and appreciate you guys, but also let our audience know

of how much two people are handling in our area and that that's a lot on your guys' shoulders.

We really appreciate that.

Also important to have a little patience when you're making these calls.

You are talking to a real person, not a computer like you.

We got a little bit of a use to that and we kind of just yelling representative into the

phone.

We're talking to whom and being, you know, you have some kindness, have some patience

and treat them well because they're working just as hard as you need them to to be able

to do with some of this.

And we pretty much mastered it pretty well.

There's usually not a long wait time, but right now with what's been going on, there's

a higher call volume time than the normal.

But other than that, I think I see some relief here in the upcoming days.

So yeah, and here's hoping and going back to the situation in Milwaukee, were there any

other stats or any other information you wanted to touch on regarding that?

Just basically that, you know, right now they would like people as far as, if they're

lots of food, just to call 211 and they'll get you connected to a disaster relief food

fund that you can apply for.

And if approved, you can get your food refurbished in your card.

If you happen to know anybody in the Milwaukee area that has not, you know, been able to

reach out or get help or know some of these things, please spread the word about that.

We know how big media can be, social media or the work that we're doing right now, Danny.

Word of mouth goes so far.

So spreading the word about this is really encouraged.

And something I want to add to that is please look onto our Facebook page, United

Way of Southwood Adams County, that's you, WSWAC.org, please look on the Facebook page.

We list things daily just so you're aware of what's going on in the community.

Always like to encourage people to find you guys on social media, share your posts on

their page.

You just don't know who might see them otherwise.

It's a great idea.

Another great way is when you, when we have fundraisers, we have events going on with

the United Way being a part of them, whether it is donations or volunteering, it all adds

up and it's all appreciated.

I think one fun way of doing that is getting some gear, getting some new, you know, you

need a new shirt, need a new sweater, got a winner around the corner.

The United Way has a campaign apparel order on their website.

You can check out right now and encourage you to do that.

I will be doing that with my mom later.

I just don't know what size he is.

I let her pick it out.

I don't want to look at the size.

I'll let her pick the size.

But it will be doing that a little bit later.

Encourage you to do that.

Doing that is another, not only a night, great way to support the United Way, but to

show your support to the community and where you stand on that.

And we love pictures.

So submit pictures, anything that you receive from the United Way.

We love to put that online.

Danny, appreciate you so much hanging in, hanging out with us and going over these

questions and everything.

I was going, I usually wrap up an interview with if people have follow up questions,

how can they reach you?

I guess we kind of covered that already.

Two, one, I guess.

But we encourage you to also, as Danny mentioned, the website,

UWAC.org.

Be sure to bookmark that web page, visit it often and sign up for the WIRI,

I'm sorry, the United Way newsletter.

Got a lot of newsletters around here.

Sign up for that newsletter from the United Way and sign up for all of them.

But go to UWAC.org to find out more information.

And again, on social media, like their page and share their posts on your page.

You just don't know who might see it otherwise.

Danny, we'll talk again soon.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you.

And a big thank you to all of you for joining us for another edition of WFHR's

Rapid Support, probably brought you by Crockett Scepter.