CommUnify's Energy Resources Program hosted its second annual 211 Community Day Celebration to help the Santa Barbara County Community understand what local resources are available to them.
“211 day is February 11th, national recognition of 2-1-1, which is the Health and Human Services line that anybody can access 24/7 in 150 languages, Elisa Parado, CommUnify Associate Director for Community Services said. "What we wanted to do is just bring a glimpse of the amazing resources that we have by simply dialing two, one, one and connect our community directly to our partners.”
Over 60 organizations from both Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County set up booths in the gymnasium of the Minami Community Center for people to seek help or find more information on organizations offering health services.
“We want to make sure that folks here on the Central Coast know that community health centers, along with all these other agencies that are here, that we're here to serve them throughout the year," Jose Guzman, Community Health Centers Director of Outreach Services said. "Community health centers Central Coast has clinics in northern Santa Barbara County throughout the county. So we don't want to make sure that they know that if they need health services, we're here to help them.”
Services for children took center stage where a Zumba class was offered along with painting and coloring stations, free haircuts from local barbers and books from the Santa Maria Public Library available in both English and Spanish.
“Reading can be fun, it doesn't have to be boring and hopefully, you know, that opens them up to the world of of reading," Jose Gaytan, Bookmobile Librarian of the Santa Maria Community Library said. "It's something that can be fun and interactive with the family and yeah, hopefully it's a gateway to more reading.”
Organizers say 1400 people turned out for the event.
“A lot of these nonprofits or these organizations collaborate with each other," David Hernandez, Orcutt resident and 211 Community Day goer said. "It's good to see just the amount of resources, help and information. I think that sometimes a lot of the information that's out there doesn't reach the people that actually can benefit from it. So having everything out there at one location with not only that, but people that can speak the language, to be able to be able to inform, inform people of what's available to them, it's it's crucial, especially for this community.”
Representatives of CommUnify plan on having next year's celebration in Santa Barbara in an effort to help educate the South County community about available resources there.
