Any community of more than 300,000 residents will have people who need help but aren’t sure where to turn.

That’s the premise behind a 211 hotline being set up through the efforts of United Way of McHenry County and others, although the process is taking longer than expected through no fault of the organizers.

Any agency that deals with the public knows how frequently people are looking for help with a particular need that social service agencies, churches or others have the ability to address if only the person seeking the help knew about the service.