Blog
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Every other year, the Reentry Council of San Francisco publishes Getting Out and Staying Out, a resource guide for people returning from prison and looking for help to get back on their feet. The Guide is more than 300 pages…
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New Partnerships up North: Open Referral in Canada
[UPDATE: The Ontario Non-Profit Network has posted its ‘Data Strategy,’ which specifically references the emerging partnerships described below. Check it out!] Canada is an international leader in the field of open data, especially in the non-profit sector. The Canadian Revenue…
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Huertas de Datos: Open Referral in Madrid
Early last month, I traveled to Madrid to discuss the community resource directory data problem, and our work here in the Open Referral initiative, at the commencement of a civic hacking workshop hosted by Medialab-Prado. Medialab-Prado is a publicly-funded “citizen…
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Helping HelpSteps Step Forward
Conceived and built by a team at Boston Children’s Hospital, HelpSteps.com (formerly known as The Online Advocate) is designed to help individuals and families identify social service needs and connect to local organizations best suited to meet those needs. The…
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Preparing for the Worst, Hoping for the Best: Data Standards, Superstorm Sandy, and our Resilient Future
In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, many residents of New York City were left struggling. Though a broad array of supportive services are available to survivors — from home rebuilding funds to mental health treatment — it’s often hard for…
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First Resort: Building social services resources at DC Public Library
[This is a guest post from Keith Porcaro of Social Impact Lab (SIMLab). SIMLab is partnering with the DC Public Library and the DC Open211 project on a project made possible by the Knight Foundation’s Prototype Fund.] Particularly for those on…
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Building Alameda County’s First Public Health & Human Services Data Portal
Cross-posted from the blog of the Urban Strategies Council. The stakeholders mentioned here all participated in the Open Referral workshop last July. Urban Strategies Council, First Five Alameda County and Eden I&R (the provider of 2-1-1 services in Alameda County)…
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Open Referral all over: hacks at Code Across and Open Data Day
Last month, during International Open Data Day — which coincided with Code for America’s CodeAcross activities throughout the weekend of February 20-22nd — hundreds of civic hacking events around the world brought together community leaders, technologists, planners, government officials, and…
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Deep Dive into version 1.0
Earlier this month, we published version 1.0 of the Human Service Data Specification (HSDS). Let’s take a deeper dive into it. What is the Human Service Data Specification (HSDS)? The HSDS is a format for data exchange, specifically designed to…