The United Way of Central Iowa will recognize the free 211 Iowa information and referral service on Friday by celebrating 211 Day, to coincide with the date, Feb. 11. The United Way is asking people to help raise awareness of the service, and to encourage their elected officials to consider supporting it with an annual appropriation. Currently, no state funding is used to support 211 Iowa, which is available in all 99 counties. It is exclusively funded by the statewide coalition through private, philanthropic support. The coalition, made up of United Ways of Central Iowa, the Quad Cities and the Midlands, and Gunderson Health Systems, is advocating with state lawmakers for funding the service. The service is operated by trained, certified specialists who help identify and address the causes of a client’s problem, whether that be food, safe shelter, rental assistance or other issues. Calls to the service skyrocketed during the pandemic, and those levels remain stable today, officials said in a news release. After the Aug. 10, 2020, derecho, 211 Iowa was activated by Polk County Emergency Management for disaster recovery support, and the system partnered with the Iowa Utilities Board to provide real-time estimates for restoring utilities. There were more than 223,000 contacts from March 8, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2021, on 211 Iowa, including phone calls, text messages and chats through the website and the app.