Holyoke Unites - a proposal for an Information Directory

  1. Introduction
  2. Holyoke Unites - proposal
  3. Examples of websites, databases, and directories for our consideration
  4. Examples of online calendars
  5. Historical and background notes

Introduction

The discovery in spring 2007 that Holyoke has at least 37 separate Coalitions surprised many people and led to a call for a directory of contact information. Coincidently, other efforts at creating resource directories for Holyoke were already underway. There is quite a history of such efforts, and some frustration that each directory is short-lived, lacking on-going maintenance. A renewed effort is being made. I've titled this page “Holyoke Unites” because that's the title of a proposal prepared by a subcommittee in August and presented to the “Healthy Holyoke: Coalition of Coalitions” meeting 9/26/2007, where it was accepted.

NOTE: This webpage is my own attempt, starting 9/27/07, to keep track of some website examples and good ideas that are surfacing. I may add historical notes, too, to acknowledge past efforts. I hope it contributes to the overall effort, but this is not the official or approved product of any group. -- Sandy Ward, volunteer

Proposal for Holyoke Unites

Go to the real Holyoke Unites / Holyoke Se Une website!

Useful Links: Examples of websites, databases, and directories for our consideration

Calendars: Examples

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Historical and background notes

In January 2007 three students in an Amherst College J-Term course worked with Jenny Navasky, Holyoke Health Center, and created a draft of a Community Resources booklet. Their focus was on YOUTH services, but they included more. They provided print versions in Spanish and English, plus an on-line version of this guide (with option for sorting alphabetically OR by categories), an on-line Street/Resource map of Holyoke with agencies and bus routes shown. They also created a wallet size Teen Health/Prevention Resource/Help Card with essential numbers for teens. Jenny edited the card, which has been published by HHC. The bigger booklet became a project of the Holyoke Family Literacy Coalition, coordinated by Jody Spitz; a subcommittee met several times in spring 2007. New people, including Judy Atkin, joined this effort after the first Coalition of Coalitions meeting --rather than start an entirely new project.

The Holyoke CHNA has for years held “Connecting the Dots” workshops for exchange of information among various health-care and social services agencies serving Holyoke. There is a spreadsheet of participants in the May 2006 workshop.

The Holyoke Council on Aging published a directory of services for seniors. Not updated recently (created with help of HCC students, under a grant, prior to 2003). Sandy has a copy: Holyoke Seniors Information Guide.

Enlace de Familias has for years provided an Information and referral service, and is willing to devote staff time for this new effort, as well as host a website.

The public libraries of Western Massachusetts provide Community Information Online as part of the C/W MARS services of WMRLS.

A state-wide directory of health-related services has been created under funding from NLM: Go Local Massachusetts.

For a Holyoke-specific directory of health services, I used to link to a webpage on the City Of Holyoke's website (and to Enlace's former webpage) but these were out of date, so several years ago I created my own short directory for the HCHL website. See www.holyokehealth.info/holyokeinfo.html.

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Created 9/27/07 | Last updated: 4/24/08

For questions or comments about this web page, please contact Sandy Ward