Beyond the Holland lighthouse or the sight of the Grand Haven Musical Fountain, there is something special about Ottawa County, and it lies in the passion of its neighbors. From coffee conversations to workplace partnerships, we hear how this community believes in creating lasting opportunities for all.
Across Ottawa County, communities like Holland–Zeeland, Grand Haven, Spring Lake, and our growing eastern townships each have their own identities, strengths, and challenges. Yet one reality connects them: 34% of Ottawa County households struggle to afford basic necessities like housing, childcare, food, and transportation. As our communities grow and change, ensuring families can achieve stability and access opportunity becomes increasingly important. That's where Heart of West Michigan United Way comes in.
Strong communities are built when people have access to the resources that pave pathways to possibility and systems that stick with them as they move forward. Through the United Way Invest. Build. Mobilize model, solutions are taking root right here in Ottawa County designed to meet immediate needs, navigate challenges, and strengthen the infrastructure that helps communities thrive.
Investing in What Makes a Difference
Behind every strong community are people and organizations working hard to make life better for their neighbors. We believe in amplifying the impact of local agencies with strategic investments offering multi-year financial support, partnership, and collaboration.
In Ottawa County, that means strengthening pathways to affordable housing, creating access to food resources, and helping young people realize their full potential. This looks like partnerships with organizations like Lakeshore Housing Alliance, I AM Academy, Mosaic Counseling, and many more as they help individuals and families navigate financial hardship, housing challenges, and other barriers to stability. During the 2025–26 fiscal year, United Way directed $376,200 in strategic community investments in Ottawa County and mobilized another $51,300 through donor designations, supporting 57 additional nonprofits.
Housing instability is one of the clearest examples of why coordinated solutions matter. In 2025, more than 1,055 individuals experienced homelessness in the region. The 2026 Point-in-Time count identified 316 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
These are not statistics about a distant problem. They are our neighbors — people who live, work, and belong in this community — navigating a system that, until recently, wasn't designed to catch them. That's starting to change.
Project HOME is a coordinated, three-year initiative bringing together eight Ottawa County organizations around a shared vision: a community where homelessness is rare, brief, and unrepeated. With much of the initiative's direct work centered in the Holland–Zeeland area, partners are connecting street outreach, emergency shelter, eviction prevention, master leasing, behavioral health, recovery support, and data infrastructure. The power of Project HOME isn't any single one of those things. It's the fact that they're now connected.
United Way is proud to serve as a fundraising and community engagement partner for four of the eight organizations in Project HOME. Our role is to invest our own resources and mobilize others' — connecting donors, volunteers, and community partners to the work that's changing lives in Ottawa County. Through this work, we have invested $90,000 into Project HOME’s coordinated system across one-time and multi-year awards.
At the same time, housing challenges don't stop at city or township boundaries. That's why United Way also invests in Lakeshore Housing Alliance, which coordinates the response to homelessness across Ottawa County. Strengthening that countywide infrastructure supports coordination among local organizations, including those serving Northwest Ottawa County, while respecting the distinct needs and partnerships in each community.
This is exactly the kind of systems-level collaboration our Community Investment Plan is designed to support. Through United Way, generosity can do more than support individual programs. It can strengthen the partnerships, coordination, and infrastructure that make lasting solutions possible.
Every investment represents a belief in what this community can accomplish together.
Building Pathways to Possibility
Sometimes, the biggest difference starts with making sure someone has what they need to take their next step.
For families across Ottawa County, that might mean finding help with housing costs, accessing mental health resources, or ensuring their children have the tools to succeed in school. When we identify needs that existing programs aren't fully meeting, United Way builds solutions of its own to help close those gaps.
Neighbors were connected to our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program that helps individuals and families file their taxes for free and ensure they receive the refunds and credits they have earned. Last year, we returned $1.4 million to the community through 1,287 tax returns, helping households keep more of their hard-earned money. Because when people can keep more of what they earn, they can build something stronger.
These refunds allow neighbors to meet their basic needs, build savings, and strengthen their families’ sense of stability.
For children, stability feels like safe home, access to food, and feeling prepared for school.
Through our Stuff the Bus collection drive, 2,970 Ottawa students received school supplies to fuel their academic success from the first day forward. This initiative reminds families that their community is thinking of them during a season that can bring added financial pressure.
These aren't just programs or numbers. They're opportunities for a child to feel confident walking into a classroom, for a parent to find a little breathing room, and for a family to know they're not navigating life's challenges alone.
Mobilizing a Community That Cares
One of Ottawa County's greatest strengths is its people. When neighbors come together, generosity becomes action, and individual efforts become something much bigger.
Through volunteer opportunities like Day of Caring and Operation United, we help create meaningful ways for people to give their time, share their talents, and make a difference close to home.
And that need can occur in a moment’s notice.
When the federal shutdown led to a delay in SNAP benefits beginning November 1, thousands of neighbors faced the same urgent question: How will we afford groceries this week?
SNAP is one of the strongest tools families use to stay stable. When it faltered, the impact reached every corner of our region — food pantries strained, lines grew longer, and calls to 2-1-1 surged as neighbors searched for help. We deployed our United Response Fund, and within days, we mobilized $14,250 to front-line food access programs, ensuring food access for more than 1,300 families.
This response wasn’t just about filling a temporary gap. It was about protecting families from falling into deeper crisis and supporting the long-term resilience of our region. Because when systems falter, community doesn’t. And when Ottawa County steps up, neighbors have a community ready to respond.
The Heart of a Stronger Ottawa County
We know the work of building a thriving community doesn't happen overnight. It happens through relationships built over time, organizations that show up day after day, and neighbors who believe everyone deserves the opportunity to move forward.
That's what inspires our work in Ottawa County. We're proud to stand alongside the people and partners who are making a difference, and we're committed to continuing that work, investing in local solutions, building pathways to opportunity, and mobilizing the resources and community that help our neighbors thrive.
Because building a thriving Ottawa County means understanding what each community needs, strengthening the partnerships already at work, and connecting resources where they can make the greatest difference. From Holland–Zeeland to Northwest Ottawa and the communities in between, our shared commitment is to help more neighbors move from crisis to stability, and from stability to opportunity.
United is the Way.