While not a new idea, 211 is still somewhat unheralded in the province.

Stacey Schwartz and Kristin Nelson from 211 Saskatchewan were on hand during Monday's meeting of Swift Current city council hoping to change that.

Started 20 years ago in Atlanta, Georgia with the United Way leading the charge for its implementation across the U.S, that same organization has been bringing it into Canada recently with some support from the federal government.

Approved by the CRTC in 2001, with the first service coming online in Toronto in 2002, followed by Alberta in 2004 and 2005, most other provinces came on board with their own service in the years after following a piecemeal approach; rolling it out to individual regions.

Saskatchewan brought the service out province-wide in 2013, and while it has seen use prior, it was COVID that brought it into the limelight.

Ostensibly, 211 Saskatchewan is a hub; a distributor of information or a one-stop-shop for people in need.

As Nelson put it:

"As I mentioned, 211 is an information referral service that is an up to date and reliable gateway to community, social non-clinical health as well as government services. Out service directory currently holds over 6000 entries and program records that document and describe programs and human services and organizations available to help people in Saskatchewan."

She explained that in a world of increasingly complex needs, such as COVID and the mental, economic and social stress that it has wrought, navigating the various support systems available can become complex, even before factoring in potential language, cultural and ability barriers that could make the process even more of a challenge.

Having a central repository where people can help find a struggling person assistance without hunting through dozens of separate websites can be a benefit not only in time management but also when people don't know exactly where to look.

"The information is organized by need. It's not organized by who delivers the service. (...) This makes it much easier to search. This way, a client or service provider may be looking for an individual or an individual may be looking for themselves or a loved one doesn't need to know the name of the agency or organization or the government ministry that they're fishing for; they can look strictly at the issue."

The other advantage, according to Nelson, is to redirect calls from 911, helping to ensure that that service is allowed to be used appropriately for cases of immediate emergency or immediate danger.

And that need is certainly there. As mentioned, while the program has been used regularly since coming into being, 211 remained fairly unremarked upon until COVID arrived.

"From the day the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Saskatchewan we saw a huge surge in 211 usage. March saw a 200 percent increase in phone services. Overall, the phone service saw a 90 percent increase over the six months post-COVID to the six months prior."

Post-COVID also saw a change, from mental health and addictions being the main reasons for calls, to suddenly healthcare taking centre stage as concerned residents began using the service for information, as well as requests for income support. Those increased by 90 percent, which Nelson said highlighted some of the challenges that people in the province were facing as a result of COVID-19.

For those struggling with the complexities of the resources that are available to them, 211 Saskatchewan can be accessed by phone or by text at 211, by starting a web-chat session online through their site. They are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in 175 languages, including 17 indigenous languages.

Calls and interactions are strictly anonymous and confidential.