111
A Call To Love — Universal Needs & Community Support Network
Proposed Santa Monica pilot with a vision for Greater Los Angeles. Presented by A Call To Love and inspired by Daisy The Venice Healer’s Five Steps of Global Liberation and the service principles found in 12-step fellowships.
Executive Summary
A Call To Love proposes the creation of 111, a community-based system designed around a simple promise:
When someone reaches out for help, someone responds.
Our communities already have systems for emergencies, government-service questions, and information requests. A Call To Love proposes a complementary system focused on something different: identifying and meeting the everyday human needs that often exist long before a situation becomes an emergency.
The first question is not: “What program do you qualify for?”
The first question is: “What do you need?”
Why A Call To Love?
Many public systems necessarily operate according to eligibility requirements, budgets, jurisdiction, and urgency.
But human needs do not always fit into those categories.
- Someone may not need 911.
- They may not know which government department to contact.
- They may feel overwhelmed navigating available programs.
- They may simply need another person.
A Call To Love proposes an additional layer of community infrastructure built around willingness and capacity. When someone has the willingness and capacity to help meet another person’s need, the system helps connect them.
Rather than replacing existing public services, A Call To Love would help residents navigate them while developing an additional network of community support.
The 111 Concept
A Call To Love proposes 111 as the public-facing identity for the network. The City and project partners would determine the technical and regulatory feasibility of eventually establishing 111 as an actual three-digit dialing service. The initial pilot could operate through a standard telephone number, website, mobile app, text messaging, and physical community locations while the feasibility of three-digit dialing is evaluated.
The concept is simple:
911
Emergency response
For immediate danger and life-threatening emergencies.
311
City services
For roads, permits, trash, utilities, and city department questions.
211
Health & human services
For referrals to programs, agencies, and benefits.
111
A Call To Love
Human and community support. The gap between having a need and knowing where to turn.
111 is not intended to replace 911, 988, 211, 311, medical professionals, social workers, or other existing services. When someone is experiencing an emergency or requires professional intervention, the system should immediately connect or refer them to the appropriate service. 111 fills the gap between having a human need and knowing where to turn.
Someone Responds
One defining principle of A Call To Love would be that legitimate requests receive a response. A person does not have to prove that their situation is sufficiently serious to deserve human attention.
Example request
“I don’t have food tonight.”
Example request
“My apartment has become overwhelming and I need help organizing it.”
Both represent human needs. The responder’s job is initially to listen, identify the underlying needs, and determine what combination of community, peer, nonprofit, professional, or government resources may be appropriate.
The Three-Vocabulary System
A Call To Love would develop an extensive human-needs vocabulary organized into three major libraries. The full digital vocabulary could ultimately contain hundreds of searchable needs.
Body Sensations
A resident can describe what is happening physically — aching, buzzing, hollow, heavy, hot, numb, restless, tight, trembling, and many more. The purpose is not diagnosis. The vocabulary helps someone communicate their experience.
achingactivatedburningcalmdizzyexhaustedfrozenheavy
Feelings & Emotions
An extensive emotional vocabulary gives people language for experiences that can otherwise be difficult to communicate: afraid, amazed, angry, anxious, compassionate, curious, discouraged, grateful, grieving, hopeful, lonely, overwhelmed, peaceful, relieved, vulnerable, and many more.
afraidangryanxiousbewilderedcompassionatecuriousdiscouragedempowered
Universal Needs
The third vocabulary identifies what may actually be needed: physical, emotional, family, recovery, home, personal development, economic, community, and environmental needs.
foodwatershelterempathychildcareparenting supportpeer supportcleaning & repairs
From Need to Human Connection
The system would follow a simple pathway:
Reach out
A resident contacts A Call To Love.
Listen
A responder listens and helps identify sensations, feelings, and needs when useful.
Identify
The underlying needs become clear — not symptoms, not judgments, but needs.
Match
The system identifies appropriate resources and people.
Support
The resident is connected with a volunteer, organization, professional, or government service.
Follow up
The system checks whether the connection actually helped, with consent and without pressure.
Follow-up is essential. Rather than assuming one referral solved someone’s problem, A Call To Love would check whether the connection actually helped. When appropriate and with the person’s consent, additional outreach could occur until the person indicates that the need has been addressed, declines further assistance, or requests that contact stop. Nobody is forced to participate. The objective is persistent availability, not persistent pressure.
The Fellowship Model
A Call To Love draws inspiration from one of the most powerful aspects of Alcoholics Anonymous and other peer-support fellowships:
People who have received help eventually become capable of helping someone else.
Service becomes part of personal growth.
A Call To Love would expand that principle beyond recovery. Someone who learned healthier parenting, managed panic, navigated homelessness, established a garden, or repaired a bicycle could eventually offer that lived experience back to a neighbor walking a similar path. The guiding principle is:
Experience becomes service.
Volunteer Fellowship & Training
Good intentions alone are not sufficient for every situation. Volunteers would complete an A Call To Love fellowship and training process appropriate to their role.
Special roles involving children, vulnerable adults, transportation, homes, finances, or other sensitive circumstances would require additional safeguards and screening. A peer volunteer would never be presented as a doctor, therapist, attorney, or other licensed professional unless that individual actually possesses the appropriate credentials.
Community Abundance Network
A Call To Love would not exist solely on the telephone. The goal is to increase the community’s actual capacity to meet needs. City funding and philanthropic support could help establish shared community resources such as:
These become places where residents are not merely recipients of services. They can eventually become contributors.
Food Abundance
Food scarcity is an example of how A Call To Love could move beyond referral. If someone calls because they are hungry, the immediate need is food. The longer-term questions are:
- Can they access existing food assistance?
- Can community food production help?
- Can they learn inexpensive meal preparation?
- Can unused food be redirected?
- Could community gardens produce additional food?
- Could participating restaurants or community kitchens provide meals?
- Could someone who has developed food abundance help another household develop it?
The objective is to address both the immediate need and the community’s long-term capacity to meet that need.
Environmental Restoration & Watering Holes
A Call To Love also envisions volunteer environmental stewardship. Residents interested in ecological restoration could participate in projects involving watersheds, springs, rivers, wetlands, streams, and other natural water systems.
The objective is not simply to restore places. It is to restore people’s relationship with the natural systems that sustain communities.
Relationship With Government
A Call To Love begins from the belief that government can become more trusted when people experience it not merely as an institution that regulates them, but as infrastructure that helps communities care for one another.
The vision is to move away from interactions that can feel distant, punitive, or bureaucratic and toward government that is:
The government does not need to become everyone’s parent. Instead, it can help create the conditions in which neighbors are capable of taking care of neighbors. Ideally, the infrastructure becomes so natural and dependable that residents rarely think about the institution behind it. They simply know: When I need help, there is somewhere to turn.
Why City Funding Is Still Necessary
The volunteer foundation means A Call To Love can generate tremendous community participation without requiring every act of service to become a paid transaction. But volunteer does not mean cost-free infrastructure. A serious pilot requires resources.
We propose seeking City support and additional philanthropic funding for:
City funding would therefore not be used to place a price on compassion. It would create the infrastructure that allows compassion and volunteer service to operate safely and effectively at scale.
Santa Monica Pilot
Rather than attempting to build an enormous regional system immediately, A Call To Love proposes beginning with a measurable pilot.
Phase One — Build
Establish the organization, advisory group, safeguarding policies, volunteer fellowship, needs taxonomy, technology platform, and partnerships.
Phase Two — Pilot
Launch A Call To Love in Santa Monica through a standard phone number, digital platform, text messaging, and community outreach. Recruit and train the initial volunteer network.
Phase Three — Measure
Track anonymized outcomes: requests received, needs identified, response times, successful connections, follow-up completion, volunteer participation, resident satisfaction, and situations potentially prevented from escalating.
Phase Four — Expand
If the pilot demonstrates safety and effectiveness, expand throughout Los Angeles County and pursue the regulatory and telecommunications work needed for 111 as a recognized three-digit access point.
A Different Measure of Success
A Call To Love proposes measuring community strength not only through money generated or votes received, but through something more fundamental:
Are people’s universal needs increasingly being met?
A healthy community continuously increases both willingness to help and capacity to help.
The Promise
A Call To Love is ultimately based on a simple idea:
Every person will need help at some point.
Every person also possesses experiences, abilities, or knowledge that may eventually help somebody else.
A community becomes stronger when those two realities can find each other.
111 — A Call To Love
You call because you need someone.
You stay connected until the need is understood.
And one day, when you have the willingness and capacity, you may become the person who answers someone else’s call.
Add your support
Endorsements are presented with this proposal to the City of Santa Monica. Your email stays private — only your first name appears publicly.
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