A Webmasters Note:
With billions of dollars, geared to chasing Deadbeat Dads and Family Independent Agency Billboards promoting social services, is it any wonder that Michigan has lost its competitive edge. Michigan has become the new welfare state, all about expensive Liberal Social programs rather then Productivity. Doesn't anyone see that the countries that are getting our taxpayer money (Mexico, China, Etc.) have strong family structures. We will continue to decline as a nation, and especially as a state, as long as we head towards the creations of new needs for more and bigger social programs. Henry Ford is turning over in his Grave. We should be making a "widget" that the world wants because they sure don't want our social programs!
Michigan Business Cuts = 50,000
Government Cuts = 0
New Social Security Hotline.
Michigan: building the new welfare state for the future.
CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP - M.J. Schultz knows her way around the patchwork quilt of state agencies and private nonprofits that provide legal aid, mental health and other social services in the state.
But she had very little help navigating that system when her five grandchildren came to live with her several years ago. And it took many calls and trips to learn what programs were available to meet her grandkids' financial, emotional and educational needs.
Now, a number of nonprofit organizations, including the United Way, want to establish a statewide 211 telephone system that could make information about social services immediately available in much the same manner that emergency services are available by dialing 911.
The service, reached simply by dialing 2-1-1, would be staffed with trained social workers who would use a computer database of information to direct callers to programs and services available in their own communities.
A 211 system is already operating on the west side of the state, serving residents of Kent, Calhoun, Ottawa and Kalamazoo Counties. The Federal Communications Commission designated 211 as a help line number in 2000, and the state's first 211 line was established in Battle Creek in 2002. Nationwide, about 70 million people already have 211 service.
The United Way hopes to have a similar system in Metro Detroit by late 2005, according to Michael Brennan, president and CEO of United Way Community Services, which serves Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.
'If we're able to garner revenue in the first half of this year we could have Wayne County up and running by year end, and Macomb and Oakland by the end of 2005,' Brennan said.
According to United Way projections, a 211 line in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties would receive about 250,000 to 300,000 calls a year.
Across the country, 211 organizers hope Congress will approve legislation introduced in September that would provide funding for local 211 systems.
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