One of United Way of Lancaster County’s signature programs, Pennsylvania 211 East (formerly known as LINC), has more than 40 years of experience providing information and referrals for a broad range of services including child care, after-school programs, food banks, elder care, basic needs, health services and more. In 2011, Pennsylvania 211 East was awarded a contract by the Pennsylvania 211 Collaborative to become the Call Center for seven counties in eastern Pennsylvania due to our record of professional service in Lancaster County.
Currently services are offered to residents of Berks, Carbon, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Northampton, and Schuylkill Counties.
Our services in addition to traditional information and referral have been expanded to include housing and homelessness intake screenings for 35 counties across Pennsylvania.
211 History
1966: The Community Council of Lancaster approved a study committee recommendation that a volunteer service bureau be established in Lancaster County, if suitable funding was obtained. (The Community Council later merged with the Community Chest into the United Way of Lancaster County.)
Later that year, the Junior League of Lancaster approved funding for the Volunteer Service Bureau (VSB) for three years as a pilot project. VSB began operation that year.
Attempts to secure additional funding for the VSB were unsuccessful. The Junior League voted to continue partial funding on a decreasing basis.
1973: Information-Referral and Volunteer Services (IRVS) changed its name to Information and Volunteer Services (IVS)
1975: Information and Volunteer Services (IVS) changed its name to Lancaster INformation Center (LINC)
June 30, 1989 at 11:59pm: Lancaster INformation Center merges with United Way of Lancaster County to become United Way LINC
October 1, 2011: The 3-digit dialing code 211 launches for Berks and Lancaster Counties thanks to United Way of Berks County and United Way of Lancaster County
January 1, 2012: Lehigh and Northampton County residents can now dial 211 thanks to the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and the County of Northampton
Late 2015: Schuylkill County residents can now call 211 thanks to the support from Schuylkill United Way
January 1, 2019: Carbon and Lebanon County residents can now call 211 thanks to the support of the United Way of Greater Lehigh Valley and United Way of Lebanon County
Team
PA 211 East is currently a team of 18 staff, ranging from the Director, Information & Referral Supervisor, Housing Supervisor, a Database team and a number of Coordinated Entry Intake Specialists and Resource Navigators. At present 5 staff members are Certified Resource Specialists through InformUSA in addition to our Database Manager whom holds a certificate as a Database Curator.
Our Administrative Team listed below have a combined nearly 60 years of experience of connecting people to services through 211.
Patricia Espinosa-Vargas
Director
Trish Houser
Database Manager
Tammie Delgado
Program Supervisor: Housing
Nikki Shenk
Program Supervisor: Information & Referral
