Resource Coordination Database: A Possibility
One of the greatest needs I've noticed in the nonprofit sector is lack of good systems for resource coordination. How does one know what services are available out there when one is trying to help those in need?
It's often a rather haphazard endeavor unless one has training and years of experience working with a particular population in a particular area. Volunteers often depend on three-ring binders for guidance, which are not very reliable sources.
I'd love to see this project make some meaningful contribution toward meeting that particular need.
One idea is hosting (or helping create) a resource coordination database in collaboration with service providers and other agencies. And actually, a lot of the data-gathering work is already being done by United Way Worldwide and others. What I have in mind would deploy that data in collaboration with agencies working with the needs on the ground, allowing them to update the info on the services they offer when they change (to help keep things up to date).
Something like this, but with the general public in mind:
It's often a rather haphazard endeavor unless one has training and years of experience working with a particular population in a particular area. Volunteers often depend on three-ring binders for guidance, which are not very reliable sources.
I'd love to see this project make some meaningful contribution toward meeting that particular need.
One idea is hosting (or helping create) a resource coordination database in collaboration with service providers and other agencies. And actually, a lot of the data-gathering work is already being done by United Way Worldwide and others. What I have in mind would deploy that data in collaboration with agencies working with the needs on the ground, allowing them to update the info on the services they offer when they change (to help keep things up to date).
Something like this, but with the general public in mind:
Given the nature of this project, such a database would not only aid volunteers in the nonprofit sector and others; it would also be accessible to those they're trying to help. And it wouldn't just cover emergency and basic needs, as do United Way's 211 service or the Network of Care, for example. That would be just one category in a database that mirrors a project that covers all of life. The former gets us out of trouble; what I have in mind shows us resources and possibilities we didn't know exist.
Such a development is certainly optional, given the already ambitious aims of this project. But if the educational component of the project does turn out to be useful, then this possibility is likely to be an attractive option in the interest of all involved. It's also mostly a matter of linking the efforts of organizations already working toward similar ends.
