United Way: Expansion of 311 to Include Nonprofit Sector Human Services Referrals

United Way of NYC Senior VP for Community Investment
Jennifer Jones Austin Joins Mayor Bloomberg, United Way of America's
Gallagher and Others to Announce Expansion of 311 to Include Nonprofit
Sector Human Services Referrals

New "Your City. Your Needs. Your Number" Campaign in Seven Languages

April 21, 2008

United Way of New York City Senior Vice President for Community Investment
Jennifer Jones Austin joined Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today to announce the
expansion of the City's 311 Customer Service Center to provide information and
referrals about social services, creating a simple entry-point for New Yorkers
seeking social services and fulfilling a promise he made in his 2005 re-election
campaign. United Way of New York City is the City’s partner in the expanded
311 initiative.

Beginning in May, New Yorkers will have 24-hour, seven-day-a-week access to
a team of 30 specially-trained operators dedicated to helping callers with social
service-related requests in what is now the nation's largest social service
information and referral call center. The Mayor also launched a seven-language
public outreach campaign, which highlights the expanded services New Yorkers
are now able to learn about - now they can "311 it."

UWNYCs Jennifer Jones Austin Joins Mayor Bloomberg in announcing 311 expansion.

In addition to Jones Austin, the Mayor was joined at the 311 Customer Service
Center in Lower Manhattan by Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda
I. Gibbs; United Way of America President and CEO Brian Gallagher; Department
of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Paul J. Cosgrave;
Human Resources Administration Commissioner Robert Doar; Mayor's Office of Immigrant
Affairs Commissioner Guillermo Linares, and Department for the Aging Commissioner
Edwin Mendez-Santiago.

"New York is lucky to have the largest network of non-profit health and
human services agencies anywhere. But sometimes the very size of this network
can make it difficult to connect to the services you need, and all too often
the information you need is only available during business hours. We're working
to change all that," said Mayor Bloomberg. "One of the great benefits
of 311 is that it's available all the time - 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
And if it can be such a useful and powerful tool in repairing potholes and fixing
traffic lights, it could do an equally effective job helping people in need.
We want that to be true for all the social service-related requests we get,
too."

"This complement to 311 continues to target some of the city's most at-risk
populations of children under age 5, disconnected youth and the working poor,
as identified by the Center for Economic Opportunity," said Deputy Mayor
Gibbs. "Thirty call takers are specially trained to handle complex health
and human services issues, and will respond to inquiries, as well as make the
referrals to the appropriate city agency or one of our many community-based
partners."

New York City has created a unique model for social service information and
referral, which in many other jurisdictions across the country is being developed
through the 211 dialing code. Nearly 1,000 unique social services and 1,300
non-profit organizations are accessible every hour of every day by calling 311.
Starting in May, callers seeking social services information and referral will
be able to get this information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The expanded
social services enhancements were developed based upon the areas of priority
as identified by the City's Center for Economic Opportunity, which Mayor Bloomberg
created to develop and implement innovative ways to reduce poverty in New York
City.

Mayor Bloomberg also unveiled a public outreach campaign, which highlights the
new, expanded services New Yorkers are now able to learn about, but can also
access them by calling 311. The campaign will feature the familiar 311 logo,
introduce a new 311 tagline: "Your city. Your needs. Your number,"
and tell New Yorkers they can, for example:

311 senior services
311 your noisy neighbor
311 graffiti cleanup
311 food assistance
311 domestic violence counseling, or
311 a tree request.

The new black and yellow ads, designed by NYC & Company, will appear in
English, Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, and Spanish, and
will be displayed in bus shelters, on subways, street banners, and in other
locations throughout the city. While most of the examples of what 311 can do
appear in multiple languages, social programs like accessing immigration and
naturalization services that are predominantly used by immigrants appear more
often in the non-English ads. The City's taxi cabs and official vehicles will
receive new bumper stickers reflecting this campaign.

The United Way of America has taken the lead on the national 211 initiative;
United Way of New York City has worked closely with the City to ensure its vast
network of agencies and community-based organizations are accessible through
311. "United Way of New York City is so proud to be the City's partner
in bringing 211 services to New York City via the gateway of 311," said
United Way of New York City’s Jones Austin. "Through expanded 311,
New Yorkers will now be able to easily access nonprofits and nongovernmental
social service agencies in all five boroughs, whether to obtain assistance and
services for themselves, a loved one or a friend.

“This is an example of the modern United Way, innovating, solving community
problems and partnering with government so that New Yorkers can get crucial
information and referrals, wherever they live, 24 hours a day.

“How remarkable it is that New Yorkers can now dial one number, whether
for a child care center in Jamaica, or a senior center on the Lower East Side.
Expanded 311 is a safe, professional resource to access neighborhood-based organizations
and services, from teenage pregnancy counseling to job training; from immigration
to childcare, and of course it is the access route to all City services too,”
she concluded.

"United Way is proud to partner with Mayor Bloomberg to make giving and
getting assistance much easier in New York City," said United Way of America
President and CEO Brian Gallagher. "Public-private efforts like these are
critical if we are to continue to find means of creating opportunities for a
better life for all people."

"Back in 2002, Mayor Bloomberg envisioned a city more accessible than
ever to its customers, and he launched 311 to make it happen," said DoITT
Commissioner Cosgrave. "Five years and 62 million calls later, 311 continues
to make a difference for New Yorkers - from child care to senior services and
everything in between. Just "311" what you're looking for, and we'll
be here to answer the call."

About United Way of New York City

United Way of New York City creates, leads and supports initiatives that bring
measurable improvement to the lives of the city's most vulnerable residents.
They work to address the underlying causes of critical problems in five Action
Areas -- Education, Homelessness Prevention, Access to Health Care, Building
Economic Independence, and Strengthening NYC Nonprofits-with the goal of creating
lasting change. Throughout its work, they collaborate with neighborhood agencies,
business, government, foundations, volunteers and others so that collectively
the can achieve more than any single organization working alone.

About the 311 Customer Service Center

The 311 Customer Service Center was established in 2003 to give the public
quick and easy access to all government services. All calls are answered by
a live operator, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The average time it takes
to speak to a live operator is 5 seconds and 99 percent of the calls are answered
within 30 seconds. An average of 41,000 calls come in to 311 daily, and translation
service is provided in nearly 180 languages.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Steve Kaufman
United Way of New York City
(212) 251-2416
SKaufman@uwnyc.org