This website demonstrates use of a database of organizations in the Palm Beach County area who help people in need. It allows one to search for organizations who provide various kinds of services by typing "key words" into the search engine. While the descriptions of services need to be improved for a search to find all appropriate providers, you can get an idea of how it works by typing into the "find" box any of the following words: homeless, food, abuse, foster, comprehensive, Parkinson's, or whatever word you'd like to test. (The search engine in this folder only searches this folder and any below it, if any.)

Here are reasons why this website might be especially helpful.

1. It can include all agencies and non-profits we feel are important to the Palm Beach County area, including some in Broward County.
2. It can include organizations who operate independent of other organizations and who are often left off of other lists. These might include the Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries, some foundations, and some congregations.
3. It can include important out of town projects who seek volunteers or donations from people in our area (e.g. projects in Haiti or other especially needy areas).
4. People wishing to help by volunteering their time or making donations can use it as a source of information.
5. If it is updated regularly, it can become the point of reference for keeping up to date on what's happening among service providers in the our area.

If this idea seems to have merit, here are things we can do to improve it.

1. Since information has been obtained from many sources, editing is needed to achieve consistency and reduce redundancy.
2. We should determine which organizations are especially important and get their information improved or corrected.
3. We might send letters to each organization listed asking them to correct or improve what we say about them. We should delete any organization who wishes to be deleted.
4. We should begin informing people who can use this facility of its existence and teach them how to use it.
5. We need to provide for automatic updating from the databases of other organizations.
6. We must be prepared to respond to any requests for sharing our data with others.
7. We should decide under whose auspices this facility will be controlled or managed. If desired, it can be integrated into the website of that organization.