Alexis Matthews spends her days helping people who call United Way of Chattanooga’s 211 help line. She hears clients’ needs and matches them with the resources and organizations in their area to meet those needs.
Matthews, 28, started working as a resource referral specialist at United Way just over two years ago. She said she found the job in a job search and felt the description fit her desire to help people.
“My job is all about, basically, compassion,” Matthews said via phone. “Problem solving and making sure everyone feels not alone when they’re going through a moment of crisis.”
Recently, Matthews took a call from an older adult woman who had just moved to Chattanooga and had no family or support. She needed food assistance and had utility payments due. She didn’t know what to do or who to turn to.
“I actually just listened to her, just let her express all of her feelings and emotions, and I heard her say that she was embarrassed to give us a call because she never had to call for help, really, in her life,” Matthews said. “And hearing that kind of broke me.”
A lot of people who need help are embarrassed to call, Matthews said, but that’s exactly what the 211 line exists for.
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After Matthews connected the woman with food and utility resources, the woman cried on the phone to Matthews, thanking her for helping her gain footing.
“Just this little bridge that we built with the client helped her in the in the long run,” Matthews said.
Matthews said calls where she is unable to help the client are the hardest.
“Not being able to build that bridge for every single client, it touches me because I always want to help,” Matthews said. “I always want to find a way to make it better. So if there’s a time or opportunity where I may not be able to connect them with needs they’re looking for, it kind of gets to me. But in the end, I have to remember, you’re doing the best that you can.”
Matthews was set to graduate with a degree in physical therapy from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Saturday. Both occupations — answering 211 calls and working in physical therapy — deal with helping others.
“This is something that I do on a daily basis, like my career path,” Matthews said. “I wake up every day just doing something to help someone. So, it never really is draining to me because that’s the thing that I feel like is my purpose.”
The number of people needing that help has increased greatly this holiday season, Matthews said.
The number of calls made to 211 has grown since the beginning of November, said Terran Anderson, the vice president of community and corporate engagement for United Way. The increased need in the community is in part due to ripple effects of the 43-day government shutdown that caused a temporary lapse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.
More people have been calling about food assistance this season, Matthews said.
“It could be people who rely on some of these benefits … that they receive monthly,” Matthews said. “Or even just people who are first-time callers. You just never know what people are going through, so it’s kind of humbling to be in a position to where I can have resources to give people and things of that nature.”
Matthews directs people to certain funds or organizations that can help. One of those resources is the Ochs Community Fund, administered by United Way to people who, for one reason or another, need short-term financial help.
The fund, formerly known as the Neediest Cases Fund, was launched by Adolph Ochs when he was publisher of The Chattanooga Times and The New York Times.
In 2024, Chattanooga Times Free Press readers raised more than $50,000 for the fund, exceeding the 2023 total by 25%. The yearly fundraising campaign runs from Thanksgiving through Dec. 31.
(READ MORE: Ochs Community fund campaign raises over $50,000, exceeds 2023 totals by 25%)
The fund began in 1911 when Ochs passed a man in the street in New York City on Christmas Day who was dressed in tattered clothes and had no place to stay.
Ochs gave the man his card and some money and told the man to pay him a visit the next day about a job, according to The New York Times.
Ochs was inspired to send a reporter to gather the stories of people in need in the city to feature in the newspaper to inspire readers’ generosity. In 1914, the fund came to The Chattanooga Times, then published by Ochs.
To apply for help from the fund, people in need can call 211, available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Contact religion reporter Kailee Shores at kshores@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.