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Vermont 211 director urges restored funding, cites rising unmet transportation requests
Summary
Allison Lammana, executive director of United Ways of Vermont, told the Senate Transportation committee that Vermont 211 handled more than 61,000 contacts in 2025 and documented 139 unmet transportation needs last year, and she asked the committee to preserve the program’s full funding.
Allison Lammana, executive director of the United Ways of Vermont, told the Senate Transportation committee that Vermont 211 is a statewide information-and-referral system that connects Vermonters by phone, text and online to services and that the program needs full funding to meet rising demand.
"Vermont 211's mission is to promote the health and well-being of all Vermonters through a statewide information and referral system that streamlines access to community resources," Lammana said, describing 211 as a frontline resource in disasters and everyday social-service navigation.
Lammana provided several data points: she said contacts to Vermont 211 rose by about 44.5% since 2021 and that 211 handled more than 61,000 contacts in 2025. From a transportation perspective, she said Vermont 211 made 345 referrals for transportation resources in 2025 and had made 60 in January–February 2026; the system logged 139 unmet transportation needs in 2025, commonly for non-emergency medical transportation and requests related to gas assistance or vehicle payments.
Committee members asked whether the unmet medical-transportation calls were Medicare-eligible; Lammana said 211 tracks whether a resource can be found and flags unmet needs when no resource exists, and she offered to follow up with county-level details and further information about the single Medicaid-eligible case flagged as unmet in 2025.
Lammana also described how 211 is staffed and operated: 211 operates seven days a week, 24/7 in partnership with a New England call center for overflow and after-hours coverage, and weekend wait-time differences can reflect partner-system differences. She urged the committee to support full funding for Vermont 211 and Common Good’s technical-assistance initiative, noting the governor had proposed a reduction that the House restored.
On operational follow-up, Lammana pointed committee members to the 211 statistical reports on vermont211.org and offered to provide county-specific breakdowns of transportation referrals and unmet needs. The hearing recorded no formal committee vote or appropriation action during her testimony.
