The United Way of West Tennessee is providing kiosks to help connect everyone to resources

JACKSON, TENN (WNBJ)-

A lot of times, people in tough situations don’t know the help and the services they can receive. The United Way of West Tennessee is looking to change that with their new 211 Hub kiosks.

“The 211 hub is United Way's online resource directory. …. It lists different types of services by type. And so it could be health care and medical related, it could be education related. It could be related to needing services around utility assistance. Or maybe a home voucher can be any of those types of resources," said Matt Marshall the President and CEO of the United Way of West Tennesse.

The “kiosks” will be Ipads placed all across West Tennessee.

“the Ipads go into just about all of rural western ac and so all the way from lake county in the northwest, all the way to the southeast corner, looking over in harden area and everywhere in between," Marshall said.

The United Way is strategically placing the kiosks, “We chose public libraries primarily because they are places that people frequent. It's where people go to get information. And so it made a lot of sense to place them there in partnership with those libraries. And we chose the senior centers because we recognize that a lot of people in that population also very frequently need services. And so we want to be able to reach them where they are," said Marshall.

You can access the 211 Hub by dialing "2-1-1" on your phone or by going to the website on your screen wtn211.org

Matt Marshall says people often need more assistance during the holidays, “Across this nation, we build up $70 billion in debt after the Christmas season. And many of us spend the next six months trying to pay that backoff. And that is even worse for certain families.”

To learn more about the 211 hub or the other services that the united way offers, go to uwwt.org