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United Way official describes statewide 2‑1‑1 collaborative as infrastructure for resilience
Summary
Matt Marshall of the United Way of Tennessee described a statewide 2‑1‑1 collaborative and urged service providers to move beyond siloed programs, emphasizing sustained relationships, shared data standards and pooled capacity to serve families in crisis.
Matt Marshall, president and CEO of the United Way of Tennessee, told the summit that resilience is built by connections and durable collaboration rather than one‑off programs.
Marshall described the Tennessee 2‑1‑1 collaborative as a multi‑partner, regionalized platform that answers hundreds of thousands of calls, texts and digital contacts each year through a single integrated system and five regional contact centers. He said the collaborative required partners to agree on shared standards, data and accountability.
"No community has ever solved a hard problem alone," Marshall said, arguing that sustained relationships and local embeddedness are what make emergency response and prevention practical. He warned that launching programs is often easier than sustaining them and urged attendees to invest in practices that last.
Marshall also noted the Commission on Children and Youth’s role as a cross‑sector convenor with a statewide view, and encouraged attendees to use regional networks to identify pressure points and adjust responses in real time—an approach he illustrated with the collaborative’s response to recent federal program uncertainty and winter storm events.
He urged continued investment in the collaborative infrastructure and in local anchors that can coordinate services without replacing local identity or capacity.
