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About us
211 refers people to community, public, and parapublic resources close to their homes.
It's free, multilingual, confidential, and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It consists of:
Our services are intended for the entire population, including low-income individuals, seniors, and newcomers.
A telephone and chat-based information and referral service covering nearly 8,000 social and community resources, available 7 days a week, free of charge, confidential, and accessible in over 200 languages through an interpreter service.
An online resource directory that geolocates each organization and provides details on services and programs offered, target clientele, and eligibility criteria.
A social analysis tool based on calls and chats, highlighting both addressed and unmet social needs. This helps community stakeholders and decision-makers identify service gaps..
Our mission
211 helps reduce poverty and social exclusion by giving people with non-emergency social needs quick access to informations and community resources that can help improve their situation.
Using call statistics and website data, 211 sheds light on social needs and helps government officials and decision-makers identify gaps in available services.
Complementarity of Services
211 complements the other N11 services
211 — Community, public, and parapublic resources
311 — City information and services
811 — Psychosocial health counseling and health appointments
911 — Call to emergency services
Our services
Phone and chat
• Information and referral service for social and community services
• 3-digit number – easy access for vulnerable populations (seniors, newcomers, low-income individuals)
• Multilingual support (200 languages)
• Free, confidential
• Human and personalized response by qualified counsellors
• Local service for the population
Online resource database
• Fully bilingual website
• Geolocation of organizations
• Annual review of listed organizations
• Search by organization name, category or keywords
• Detailed service profiles for each organization
• Live chat
Social analysis
Detailed reports on requests received by 211:
• Client profiles
• Met and unmet needs
• Referred organizations
• Geographic coverage of organizations
211 Grand Montréal and Gatineau is managed by the Information and Referral Center of Greater Montréal, an organization specializing in information and referral services since 1956.
211 Grand Montréal was launched in January 2018. Its main partner is the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM). Centraide of Greater Montreal and the Government of Québec also support the service and its activities.
211 is accessible by phone and live chat across most of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM): the Island of Montréal, the Agglomeration of Longueuil, Laval, the North Shore, and the South Shore. The cities outside the CMM in the Regional County Municipality (MRC) of Vaudreuil-Soulanges and Les Jardins-de-Napierville are also covered. In total, 4 million people live in the CMM territory, which represents nearly half of Quebec’s population. See the map at the bottom of the page.
Thanks to the Centraide network, resources from the regions of Lanaudière, Laurentides and Outaouais are accessible through 211qc.ca. However, phone and live chat services are not available everywhere in these areas.
Since summer 2023, the 211 service has been available in Gatineau, with financial support from the City of Gatineau.
Map of the Areas
In red: areas where phone and live chat services are available.
In orange: areas where resources are only accessible through our website; phone and live chat services are not available.
Historic
In 2025, 211 became the call centre for the Mobile Mediation and Social Intervention Team (ÉMMIS), thanks to financial support from the City of Montréal.
In 2023, 211 was launched in Gatineau, in partnership with the City of Gatineau and Centraide Outaouais.
In 2020, in the context of the pandemic, 211 was temporarily expanded to several regions across Québec. In 2022, it returned to its initial territory, including the CMM, the MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, and the MRC of Les Jardins-de-Napierville.
In January 2018, the 211 website became accessible throughout the Greater Montréal area, and by April, all residents of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal could call 211. In November, the MRC Les Jardins-de-Napierville was added to the network.
In October 2016, the City of Laval was the first to adopt it, followed by the Montréal agglomeration, which launched the 211 website in January 2017, and then the telephone service shortly after. In April 2017, the MRC of L’Assomption joined the network, followed by the MRC Thérèse-De Blainville in October of the same year.
The Information and Referral Center of Greater Montréal (IRCGM), active since 1956, obtained the official 211 operator licence in 2015, thanks to the support of Centraide/United Way Canada and InformCanada. This made 211 a service available to municipalities in the Greater Montréal area.
Annual reports
Annual Report 2025-2026
