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United Way 2-1-1 Offers Help To Veterans

Today of course is Veteran’s Day and celebrations and commemorations are going on all across the state and the nation.  One thing happening locally is the Heart of West Michigan United Way’s awareness campaign for the veteran service database.  Officials say many veterans don’t know that calling the 2-1-1 call center can open the door to many needed benefits. 

“Heart of West Michigan United Way’s 2-1-1 is a hotline that connects people to services and we have found that there are many veterans that do not know or are aware of services that they are entitled to.”

Ellen Carpenter, VP of Marketing and Communications at Heart of West Michigan United Way,  says that on this Veteran’s Day, she wants locat veterans to know that help is just a phone call away.

“So they call 2-1-1 and every caller is asked if they are a veteran or if there’s one living in their home and from there the operator connect the veteran to any branch of service that may have benefits in that community.  It is a statewide resource including case management, basics needs, military service, etc.”

Carpenter says the 2-1-1 call center is critical in helping Veterans who often have a difficult time navigating the system.

“There is just a lot of unknowns and families are not sure what they’re eligible for and there’s just kind of an overall lack of awareness.”

Carpenter says they’ve taken 2-1-1 , one step further this year by collaborating with the Kent County Health Department and the YMCA to create an app.   It allows access to the 2-1-1 data base through their smartphone. 

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.