Essential Needs Task Force (ENTF)
118 Commerce Avenue SW, Suite 100
Grand Rapids, MI 49503-4106
Phone: (616) 752-8642
Kent County's public, private and faith-based organizations and individuals working together addressing our citizens' basic needs.
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 vulnerable citizens obtain the basics needed to be self-sufficient. For the last quarter century, it has developed and supported management of basic service systems such as food, shelter, utilities and transportation. During the next 25 years, the ENTF will continue to work on building and maintaining the local infrastructure that will help all Kent County residents move towards self-sufficiency and obtain what is needed for a decent way of life.
The Kent County Essential Needs Task Force continues working to ensure that shelter, food, utility and transportation resources are adequately available to all Kent County citizens. The information presented in this brochure provides an overview. The ENTF web page offers a broad array of detail on our work to prevent basic needs crises, and manage communitybased service systems using data and best practices. At the same time, the Task Force is even more strongly moving the focus of its work to strategies that address the causes of poverty that create basic needs crises.
This 2007-2008 Annual Update Report points to clouds of growing poverty. The Task Force work plans, supporting data and recent accomplishments, show the community coming together to continue building structures that help meet basic needs emergencies while launching new ones that help Kent County’s most vulnerable citizens build self-sufficiency by attacking poverty-related root causes.
Take a moment to review this report, the work that has been accomplished during the last year and the plans for the next. Your decision to volunteer, donate, or vote for initiatives supporting our basic needs and poverty response systems will insure that the positive results of ENTF work continue to help make Kent County a good place to live.
Coordinating Committee
Purpose: Assessment of community needs, overall publicity and long-range planning.
Leadership Subcommittee
Purpose: Providing day-to-day management support to ENTF direct service subcommittees.
Food Subcommittee
Purpose: To ensure that all people of Kent County have access to safe, affordable
and nutritious food.
Coalition to end Homelessness/ Shelter Subcommittee
Purpose: Close the front door into homelessness. Open the back door out of
homelessness. Build the infrastructure to end homelessness.
Transportation Subcommittee
Purpose: Working to ensure economical, easily available transportation to
meet basic needs.
Utility Subcommittee
Purpose: Addressing utility emergencies, weatherization, conservation and
education.
