Essential Needs Task Force

Community Snapshot: Basic Needs

Heart of West Michigan United Way partners with the Kent County Essential Needs Task Force (ENTF) and community leaders to identify the greatest local needs and respond accordingly. We also respond to calls for help through United Way’s accredited 2-1-1 call center.

The Kent County ENTF, with hundreds of non-profits, governmental agencies, faith-based organizations, funders and concerned volunteers, has been working since 1982 to help Kent County's most volunerable citizens obtain the basics needed to be self-sufficient. As it approaches 30 years of coordinated systems change collaboration, the Task Force is moving its focus to developing community structures that will result in eliminating poverty's symptoms and causes even more effectively.

Learn more by reading the Kent County Essential Needs Task Force Annual Update.