Five-county database developed
STEVE HARTMAN/DAILY FORUM
Kim Mildward, Functional Leader at the Maryville Career Center, demonstrates the ease in which the HelpMeConnect.org five-county database of programs and services available in the counties of Nodaway, Worth, Gentry, Holt and Atchison counties can be accessed.
Timing is everything, and the arrival of Cornerstones of Care to Maryville provided the missing element and allowed the development and launch of HelpMeConnect.org, an online website that serves as a data base for services available in the counties of Nodaway, Worth, Gentry, Holt and Atchison.
“There was not one place to go to find out the services available in each county,” Missouri Career Center functional leader Kim Mildward said. “Representatives from the counties started meeting about six months ago, with the idea of putting together a five-county resource guide of available services.
“When Cornerstones of Care made the decision to come to Maryville, they had an existing Internet platform, and provided the final piece in putting HelpMeConnect.org together in an internet site that’s easy for providers and customers to access and use. The timing couldn’t have been better.”
HelpMeConnect.org launched April 1, coinciding with the opening of the Cornerstones of Care office in Maryville.
There are currently 42 categories of services listed on HelpMeConnect.org. The web site automatically recognizes the location of each user and takes them to the resources available in their county. If users wish to search for available resources in another of the five counties represented on the web site, a drop-down menu allows them to choose a different county and see the resources available in that specific county.
The 42 categories include childcare, clothing closet, counseling, criminal records, developmentally disabled group homes, domestic abuse, education resources, emergency services, employment, family services, financial assistance, food and nutrition, food pantries, foster and adoption services, GED, health, higher education, homeless services, hotline numbers, housing, immigration/refugee services, insurance, language assistance, legal, LGBTQ, literacy, local government, medical expense assistance, mentoring, older adults, parenting, parks, pregnancy resources, public safety, rental assistance, safety, social services, substance abuse treatment, support groups, transportation, unemployment benefits and utilities.
“It’s very user friendly, and we’ve included some categories users normally don’t find in such a data base, like child care options,” Mildward said. “But many people who move into a new area are looking for exactly that kind of information, and HelpMeConnect.org allows us to provide that information for five different Northwest Missouri counties in one location.”
Mildward said the ease in which providers can list their services was important when the site was developed.
“We encouraged each provider to list their different services separately,” Mildward said. “For instance, if a provider offers counseling, housing and parenting options, we want them to place a link under each of those categories, rather than one overall listing.
“A new resource can be listed by a provider in as little as 2-5 minutes, which will allow the data base to remain up to date and accurate and allow us to keep in touch with our partners.”
The mission of HelpMeConnect.org is to empower individuals to be resourceful, self-sufficient, and informed so they can better advocate for themselves and their families, and Mildward feels the data base will be a great tool in helping individuals find out what is available in their county of residence.
“All five counties had some great programs and providers available before the launch of HelpMeConnect.org,” Mildward said. “But to find out what was available in each county, users had to contact each county individually and still would likely not get a comprehensive listing. Now that has changed with the launch of HelpMeConnect.org and we hope to expand the data base to include additional northern Missouri counties in the future.”
