ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan this week announced a new partnership between the Office of Immigrant Affairs and 211 Maryland to expand multilingual access to services and support, including reporting hate crimes and finding resources for victims.

“This new partnership with 211 Maryland is an important collaboration to overcome language barriers in serving everyone who calls Maryland home and who works to make great contributions to our state,” said Governor Hogan. “It will further expand our outreach and resources to make it easier to report hate crimes and connect victims with services. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to help provide additional support for those who are affected by these heinous crimes.”

Under the theme of “Stop Hate,” 211 Maryland now serves as an alternative channel and one-stop resource for hate crimes reporting and incident reporting, one of the actions that Governor Hogan initiated to build on the efforts of his Asian American Hate Crimes Workgroup. Reports are shared with local law enforcement in each jurisdiction. 211 Maryland also connects callers to other incident report-related services, depending on their needs.

In addition to calling 2-1-1, Marylanders can also text MDStopHate to 898211, or visit a new webpage powered by 211 Maryland, 211md.org/stophate, to file a report in multiple languages. A basic guideline on how hate crimes and incidents are different from each other is also available through the Office of Immigrant Affairs.

“Our partnership with the Office of Immigrant Affairs is a great example of collaboration to support our community members,” said President and Chief Executive Officer of 211 Maryland Quinton Askew. “We are grateful to our call center network partners who provide access to these critical resources on a daily basis.”

211 Maryland’s multilingual capacity supports more than 150 languages and is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week across the state. Resources may also be found at 211md.org, with translations available for the top 10 languages spoken in Maryland.

As a result of this new partnership, non-English speakers may dial 2-1-1 and choose Spanish by pressing 5. For all other languages, callers simply wait for their phones to be picked up and say their preferred language in English. All callers are then connected to translators who team with 211 specialists trained in cultural competency to identify the callers’ needs and help connect them to the appropriate services.

For more information about 211 Maryland, visit 211md.org.