Many organizational pages incorporate the mission statement as the very first item on the home page. The Kid's Net is a good example of a simply structured page. The program statement clarifies the work of the agency and makes its purpose clear as well.
Occasionally a mission statement is presented on a page of its own as in that of the Association of Retarded Citizen's Mission Statement. In this way a more extensive mission statement will get the attention that it deserves.
The Calvary Evangelical Free Church in Seattle, Washington demonstrates how an organization can clarify its values in a way that may help readers determine whether the church is appropriate for them.
The Innvision program is a homeless shelter program in San Jose, California with several sites and services. The detail on the differences between the sites is especially useful to those making referrals
The Goods for Guns program in New York City summarizes the work of the organization on a Home Page, then provides detail on a subsequent page. This is useful when the way a program is implemented may be of interest. [In the "Multimedia Visit" category, select "More detailed information."]
The Patriots' Trail Girl Scout Council in Boston coordinates programs throughout the Greater Boston area. The various sites and programs are detailed on one page: [Select "How and Where to Contact Us" from the Home Page.]
The Montreux Counselling Centre has added photographs to the Home Page to place the agency in context. The Montreux - Photo Gallery in Victoria, Canada is limited to "thumbnail" images on the first page so that the site is not too slow. Larger pictures are available by selecting one of the small images.
Photos are used effectively on each program page for the Wisconsin Humane Society [Follow the links to programs from the Home Page.]
Agency logos help to develop a sense of identify for an agency. They are usually prominently featured on the home pages within the examples here. They may also be repeated in a smaller format on subsequent pages. The I NEED A REFERENCE FOR THIS is an example of this effect.
The range of logos used can be viewed on a link page to many nonprofit organizations maintained by Ellen Spertus at MIT Select Nonprofit Organizations on the Internet [Page down from the top of Home Page to reach the section featuring logos.]
The use of logos may be extended to additional graphics to represent programs or themes on agency pages. The Urban Design Center at Kent State University is perhaps the most elegant example of graphic icon design. The graphics were modeled after Mayan art.
The Rochester United Way documents success of programs by highlighting clients who have been served.
A community telecommunications organization - Smart Valley - near San Francisco has a detailed map to locate its offices.
Phones/ fax/ e-mail connections
The PAN Project Core Team of the Seattle Public Access Network introduces staff with job titles and descriptions as well as E-Mail connections. [Select "News" from the Home Page, then "Meet the PAN Project Team" on the next page.]
The Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania home page includes a link to a list of staff and board members. [Select "citizens" within the first paragraph on the Home Page.]
The AIDS Housing Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts includes a well organized directory of staff with job descriptions and convenient e-mail links. [Select "Staff Directory" from the Home Page. Also check out the staff photo link on the directory page.]
Cross references to other organizations
Details of individual programs
The Vera Institute of Justice program in New York city has documented some of its work in detail. [Select "Computer Technology at the Midtown Community Court" to view discussion of a computer information system or select "Job Path" for a discussion of a service program.]
The Institute for the Study of Civic Values in Philadelphia has developed a community planning program called the Social Contract Project. Check the Queen Village Social Contract for a specific example of the results of the project.
The Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania provides a schedule and a detailed description of training programs. [Select "Training Institute" near the bottom of the home page.]
The University YMCA of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois provides a full Course Timetable for its Communiversity program. [Select "Course Timetable" near the bottom of the Home Page.]
The Patriots' Trail Girl Scout Council Inc. in Boston offers the Summer Camping Schedule. [Select "Camping Programs" from the Home Page.]
The Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania - has placed a copy of a traditional flier on-line announcing a a "Second Annual Walk" fund-raiser.
Eligibility and other requirements
The Boy Scouts of America of Charolotte, North Carolina have put many details for its membership on-line. [Select "Troop Operations" and/ or "Uniform and Equipment" followed by "Camping Equipment Checklist" from the Home Page.]
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The Prairie Center for Substance Abuse in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois includes a summary of key facts about substance abuse. [Select "20 Questions and Answers about Drug Abuse and Drug Recovery" from the Home Page.]
The Patriots' Trail Girl Scout Council Inc. in Boston provides on line support for Scout leaders with program details. [Select "Ideas and Information" from the Home Page.]
The Neighborhood Justice Center in Tallahassee, Florida clarifies the cases the program accepts. [See especially the link to "Kinds of Cases We Do Not Mediate".]
The Common Ground Food Co-op details the requirements for membership, which include a variety of cooperative work options. [Select "Worker Participation" in the "Visiting and Joining" paragraph near the top of the Home Page.]
The City of Seattle Neighborhoods Program spells out the requirements for a small grants program for neighborhood organizations. [See "Small & Simple Fund Information"]
The Common Ground Food Cooperative reports on the success of its program with a business summary. [Select "Monthly Sales Trends" on the "Recent News" line - near the middle of the Home Page.]
The Friends of the Earth in England include many detailed studies using Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
The City of Vancouver has incorporated many documents of interest to citizens. [Select "Civic Youth Strategy" under "Current Issues" in the later sections of the Home Page.]
Education and Prevention material ((Hard to distinguish from Educational material - below))
The Center for Independent Living in Tallahassee, Florida has placed an extensive collection of materials about disability policies on-line. [Select "Information for Businesses and Government Agencies" from the Home Page. Then check any of the items on that list.]
The Virtual Hospital is an extensive collection of health information, including specific educational material for patients. [Follow "For Patients", then select one of the specific medical conditions. Note also the choice of a comprehensive text search system near the bottom of the page.]
MS Direct is a page of links to many resources on Internet specific to Multiple Sclerosis.
The AIDS Housing Corporation includes the full text of a major community study. [Select "Copy of the AIDS Needs Assessment for Cambridge, Massachusetts" near the middle of the Home Page.]
Clarify roles and referral processes
In Eugene, Oregon, the
Lane County Commission on Children and Families has developed brief profiles of the services offered by all of the member organizations. [Select "Organizations" then any of the names from the list on the next page.]
Direct administrative communications
[Administrative communications are a private process. No examples are presented here.]
[Short term planning within a collaborative are a private process. No examples are presented here. Suggestions are welcome.]
[Most serious sharing of case files will be private. No examples are presented here. Suggestions are welcome.]
Wide Area Networks linking local area networks
[This is by definition a private network outside of Internet.]
The City of Boulder Neighborhood Handbook has been prepared by the City for local neighborhood organizations.
Educational material for participants
Materials developed by participants
The Bethesda Project - a program for the homeless in Philadelphia, has placed essays written by residents on-line. [Select "Essays" near the bottom of the Home Page.]
The Patriots' Trail Girl Scout Council Inc. in Boston is developing a series of pages developed by local troops. [Select "Pages developed by Troops" near the bottom of the Home Page.]
A very innovative media/communications program - Plugged In is working with youth in East Palo Alto, California. [Select "Spider Project" to explore the work of youth in the program..]
Formal communication/ dialogue on line
[Please recommend an example here!]
Communication with programs in other cities
[Please recommend an example here!] This will be a very important aspect in the future.
The Bay Area Volunteer Information Center in San Francisco profiles a large variety of community organizations along with their specific needs for volunteers. [Select any of the organizations on the list at the Home Page.]
The Bethesda Project includes an appeal on the Home Page. [See "On-line reply form" below the section "How You Can Help Bethesda" near the bottom of the Home Page.]
Northwest Harvest features a story on a warehouse that needs to be restocked. [Select "Warehouse Vandalized" at the bottom of the Home Page.
The Boulder Community Network uses a generalized format to encourage responses to staff and volunteers. Comments to BCN and the Community
Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania describes its many publications on-line , then makes it easy to place an order. [Select " On-line Order Form" near the top of this page.]
The City of San Carlos , California has created an easy to use response form for residents. [Select "On Line Citizen Complaint Form" in the "San Carlos on the Internet" Section on the Home Page.]
The Prairie Group of the Sierra Club in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois encourages citizen involvement. On a page summarizing "Pressing Issues" is an appeal for information on other local problems. [Select "Report Environmental Abuse" near the bottom of the page.]
[Please recommend an example here!]
Organizations can stay in touch with those interested in their work by creating a simple mailing list. The River of Hope organization includes a subscription form. [Select "Subscribe to our mailing list" near the bottom of the Home Page.]
Forms to locate local information
The Boulder Community Network has collected such a substantial amount of information that they found it useful to offer the ability to search the entire collection of home pages. The Local Index Search is based upon key words in all on-line documents. [Select "Search BCN" from choices near the top of the page.]
The City of Vancouver has put its "City of Vancouver Plan" on-line.
The Prairie Group Sierra Club reviews Pressing Issues in the region. Several issues share the options being discussed to encourage a citizen response as decisions are being made. [Select "5. Volunteer Waste Garbage Plan for Urbana.".]
Draft documents for comments and prioritizing
[This will often be a private process. Please recommend an example here!]
Public Broadcasting station, KQED, in San Francisco has prepared neighborhood profile material as a companion to local TV documentaries. The Mission Guide highlights the Mission Street district.
The City of Philadelphia: Neighborhoods On-line by the Institute for the Study of Civic Values includes a series of neighborhood profiles. [Select "German Town" from the neighborhood list for one of the more complete sets.]
The Metropolitan Human Services Commission - a planning program in Columbus, Ohio has developed an extensive data series on-line. The People and Information Exchange (PIE) includes many community indicators derived from local agency service reports. [Select any of the items on the list of indicators and also check out the "Graphic" linked to each data page.]
The SafetyNet Domestic Violence Resources pages (personally maintained by "CyberGrrl" in New York City) include selected domestic violence Statistics. [For example, select "Statistics", then "Children".]
[Please recommend an example here!]
Welfare reform issues are represented in substantial detail. The Institute for the Study of Civic Values in Philadelphia has built a wide variety of links to other sites - Welfare Reform and the General Welfare The Electronic Policy Network (EPN) has organized welfare material in a journal format - Welfare and Families
The Association of Retarded Citizens has organized the Association Position Statements. [Select any issue on the list.]
Covington's Homeless - a photo essay by John Decker introduces individual cases in a powerful way. (Warning - large photographs may transmit slowly.)
Tracking of legislative agendas
The Benton Foundation regularly reports on Federal funding for telecommunications. [Select "What's Going On" from the menu bar near the top of the Home Page.]
The Association of Retarded Citizens publishes a Government Report each month. [Select "The Arc's Government Report" from just below the "National Headquarters" section of the Home Page. Also note the link to an organization document "How to be an Effective Legislative Advocate."]
A useful national resource has been prepared by the U.S. Congress - How Our Laws are Made. This material is a part of a comprehensive site called "Thomas."
The Parent's Place - a Parenting Resource Center on the Web - has developed active "chat" areas. One is operated as a live discussion area. The others are open forums. [Select "Talking with other Parents" from the Home Page.]
Mother Jones Magazine supports an on-line service "Mother Jones Interactive". Progressive public policy issues are discussed in an innovative hypertext based message system - Live Wire: Beyond Threads. [Review the message threads and read "How to Use Live Wire" at the link near the top the page.]
Group development of position papers
[Often this will be a private process. Please recommend an example here!]
"Community memory" - documents and meeting notes
The City of San Diego has conducted a city wide telecommunications study. Working committees of the "City of the Future" task force are continuing. A record of reports and meeting minutes are on line, although more extensive studies are for sale.
A resident organization in Palo Alto has been developing PA-Comnet - a community network. Minutes of the organizations meetings are maintained on-line. [The minutes are linked from near the bottom of the Home Page.]
Key papers from the Canadian Community Network Conference in August, 1994 have been organized on-line in "Gopher" (plain text only) files. [Select "Conference Papers" from the first menu. Also select "Real Time On-line" for an example of the use of note-takers during a conference.]
The complete proceedings of the World Wide Web Conference in 1995 are also on-line. [Select any of the subject to view the documents.]
Lists of organizations and literature
*** A full resource guide
The Family Service of Champaign County (Illinois) Self-Help Center maintains an active list of a wide variety of community self help groups.
The Shelter Assistance Association has developed a Southern California Recovery Resource Directory.
Materials from professional/ academic sources
The Texas Youth Commission has organized a catalog of programs and research papers.
The Eco-Socialist Review journal at the University of Chicago lists Back Issues and includes many documents on-line.
An example of an extensive archive is found at a site maintained by the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. This is a collection of Church Documents
The Metropolitan Human Services Commission of Columbus, Ohio - People and Information Exchange (PIE) includes a wide range of data including census, human service indicators and detailed funding pattern information.
A very ambitious social indicators effort has been developed by the Oregon Progress Board. The Oregon Benchmarks include hundreds of indicators collected annually at the state and county level.
The John R. Borchert Map Library of the University of Minnesota has developed a large series of neighborhood demographic maps on-line.
Supporting organizations - national
The World Hunger Program at Brown University features a wide variety of resources for interested organizations. [See especially the "Education and Training" link.]
Supporting organizations - local
The Technology Resource Consortium is an association of local organizations providing technical assistance to nonprofit organizations. [Select "Directory of Membership Services" near the bottom of the Home Page. Each of the organizations on the next page includes a profile of a member organization and the services it offers.]
