Thank you for jumping in to assist GracesList.org! Your mission is to begin populating selected sites with local emergency service listings.
Categories will include emergency (police, fire, etc.), homeless shelters, churches, drug counseling, food banks, pregnancy service centers, employment agencies, childcare, where to get photo ID, etc., in that order.
Note: It’s better to get 3 or 4 entries in a category/subcategory and move onto the next category than it is to get 10 items in a single category and zero in everything else.
All listings must be LOCAL to the city or the surrounding area. Please use Google Maps if you are unsure of an organization’s proximity.
Each listing should have a street address, phone, website, and brief write-up captured from the organization’s About or Mission page. If there is a Facebook link, you can add that too but it’s lower priority.
Adding a listing is easy…
Step 1: Select ‘Add Listing’ from the top of the site you’re working on.
Step 2: Sign up as a contributor.
After you’ve selected ‘Add Listing’, simply enter your name and a valid email address to sign up as a contributor (if it’s your absolute first time adding a listing; otherwise, use ‘click here to login’.)
Next, check your email inbox or spam box for the confirmation email.
These fields below are an example of what you should see once you confirm your sign-up.
Step 3: Begin entering your listing.
Once you’ve identified a service organization (via Internet search) local to the city or region you’re working on, simply add the details into the ‘Add Listing’ page.
Organization Name should be in Title Case (e.g. Salvation Army of Manor House).
When selecting Categories, select all that apply to the organization.
Note: Most categories are self-explanatory, however the ‘Emergency’ category is reserved for first-responder personnel, such as police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). View category descriptions..
About This Organization. Copy and paste a description (one or two paragraphs, usually) from the website’s ‘About’ or ‘Mission’ pages. See
https://lansing.graceslist.org/directory/listing/hannahs-house-lansing for an example.
Contact Info Phone should be formatted as (nnn) nnn-nnnn.
Contact Info Website should contain the complete URL, including http or https. Some organizations have only have a Facebook page. If that is the case, use the Facebook URL in this field.
Location will attempt to use Google Maps to determine the address based upon your input. If the Location field suggests a couple options for the address, select the option closest to what you’re entering. (If it comes down to a difference between East and West and you’re not sure, just pick one. We’ll verify later.)
Then select ‘Find on Map’.
For Social Accounts, you can enter the Facebook address if you can easily find it, but don’t worry about Twitter or Google+. If the social accounts aren’t easy to find, just skip this section.
Be sure to review the following category descriptions carefully to understand what makes an organization a good listing for GracesList. Business-to-business for-profit companies, retail chains and restaurants are not usually good fits for a directory specializing in homeless services and humanitarian aid agencies.
CHILDCARE
Diapers, formula, pregnancy services, adoption, abortion consultation. Emergency child care assistance program provide families in crisis with temporary child care, thus supporting families through hardship and assisting them to formulate contingency plans for future emergencies.
CLOTHING
Clothing banks and thrift stores provide an assortment of free or low-cost clothing items, depending on donations. These clothing services usually offer clothing, shoes, accessories and household items. In addition, clothing banks and thrift stores may be able to order items for children from other outlets, making them a resource for infant and children’s clothes.
COUNSELING
Counseling services may include suicide prevention for children and adults whose safety and health are threatened by mental health challenges or overwhelming stressors. Crisis assessment and intervention counseling for those experiencing homelessness or trauma.
EDUCATION
Trade and vocational training.
EMERGENCY
Police, fire departments, emergency response agencies.
EMPLOYMENT
Career placement, job readiness, resume-writing.
HEALTH
Includes medical, mental and dental clinics.
Mental Health
Mental health services including behavioral disorder assessment and treatment.
Physical Health
Hospitals, free medical clinics, free dental clinics, teeth-cleaning.
Substance Abuse
Substance abuse agencies provide alcohol, drug, and other assistance with substance abuse rehabilitation. Detox services, low cost and free alcohol and drug treatment rehab centers.
HOMELESS SHELTERS
Emergency shelters and homeless shelters and some transitional housing opportunities. Many homeless shelters have waiting lists and some are long. Call for availability.
Day Shelters
Day shelters are drop-in centers for the homeless, offering opportunities for information, counseling and referral to social services agencies. Day shelters also often provide showers and toilet facilities, personal hygiene supplies and laundry facilities, tenant advocacy and sometimes, light medical treatment. Typical supplies may consist of laundry soap, razors, shampoo, soap, socks, deodorant, tooth brushes and tooth paste.
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence shelters provide confidential, healing environments for families and individuals escaping a dangerous situation. Domestic violence shelters offer abuse survivors and their children the space to heal. Services may include safety planning, counseling and support groups, help building life skills, rental assistance, job assistance, legal consultation, temporary childcare, case management, transportation and other types of support.
Emergency Shelters
An emergency shelter is a place for people to live temporarily when they cannot live in their previous residence, similar to homeless shelters. Emergency shelters typically specialize in people fleeing a specific type of situation, such as natural or man-made disasters, domestic violence, or victims of sexual abuse. Emergency shelters sometimes facilitate support groups and may provide meals.
Family Shelters
Family shelters seek to stabilize and strengthen families recovering from the multiple losses and traumas of homelessness. Sometimes called transitional family housing, family shelters afford families a critical safety net while they work together with social services to build skills and move toward safe and affordable housing. Services may include housing counseling, job readiness, rental assistance, financial education, free meals and clothing. Call ahead for availability.
Overnight Shelters
Usually segregated between men, women and families, overnight shelters attempt to offer clean, safe shelter to get through the night. Individuals are often assigned a bed and a locker and meet with a case manager to discuss their needs. Some overnight shelters close during the day, while other shelters stay open around the clock. These homeless shelters close during the day and usually expect people to stay elsewhere, returning only to sleep or eat. Call ahead to verify bed availability and hours of operation.
Women’s Shelters
A women’s shelter is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence. Many women’s shelters offer a variety of other services to help women and their children including counseling and legal guidance. Physical street addresses for many women’s shelters are unlisted to help protect tenants and staff. Call ahead for availability.
Youth Shelters
Youth shelters are homeless shelters specially targeted to offer assistance to homeless, runaway and in-crisis youth. Youth shelters typically provide shelter, address health, safety, education and workforce opportunities so these young people can eventually achieve independence.
HOUSING
Safe and affordable housing is important to the well-being and health of families. Without proper housing, families have trouble managing their daily lives and their emotional and physical health suffers. For homeless patients, properly storing medication, maintaining a healthy diet and consistently going to the doctor are difficult to do when they are spending a good deal of time trying to find a place to sleep every night. Stable housing makes consistent health care and support possible. Healthcare and social service providers can follow up with clients more easily when they know where patients live and how to contact them.
Furnishings
Thrift stores and second-hand stores. Furniture donation programs.
Maintenance
Home maintenance ministries.
Rent Assistance
Rental assistance agencies are interested in helping you pay your rent to avoid undue impact on local services and the trauma of homelessness for you or your family when hardship strikes. Some listings are government organizations while other are non-profits and charities offering rental assistance programs. Each organization has its own eligibility rules and conditions; call directly to find out how to qualify for rent assistance.
Note: GracesList.org does not officially represent of any of the rental assistance organizations listed.
IDENTIFICATION
Where to get personal identification. Not having an ID can make it difficult to escape homelessness. Many of the social services you will need to access to get back on your feet will be closed to you without an ID. Not having an ID makes it harder to get a job, find a place to live, open a bank account, or get food stamps and disability benefits. It may even make it more difficult to stay at a homeless shelter.
LEGAL ASSISTANCE
The advocates from these legal services may offer free legal advice to people with low income who have legal problems. For some problems, they may send you to another legal aid program or a volunteer attorney. These attorneys may not help you with a criminal case, if you are trying to sue someone, or if you have an immigration problem. They cannot help with problems in other states. Contact the legal aid office closest to you to see if you are eligible for legal services.
MEALS
Many homeless support agencies provide free meals at certain times or on certain days, so call ahead to verify meal availability. Food banks supply the food offered by soup kitchens, food pantries, and homeless shelters. These services then redistribute that food to those in need. Food banks do NOT usually serve the public directly, so when starting your meal search, start with the food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
SPIRITUAL
Lay and spiritual counseling. Prayer and spiritual renewal.
TRANSLATORS & INTERPRETERS
If you cannot read or understand English and you require an interpreter or a translator, please contact these translators and interpreters for assistance. Ask about any costs associated with interpretation or translation services before agreeing to use their services.
TRANSPORTATION
Bus passes, gas money, vehicle donations, vehicle maintenance. Transportation for students and families experiencing homelessness is the most cited barrier to school enrollment and regular attendance. Beyond local bus, bicycle or taxi services, establishing transportation plans and collaborative agreements prior to the need for transportation, social service agencies can ensure reliable transportation for students and parents getting back on their feet.
To pull it all together, you get the information on emergency service organizations from doing Internet research (using Google, DuckDuckGo, whatever.) Your search might look like
homeless shelters [city]
Then you put the contact details and brief summary into [city].graceslist.org. For example, say you’re working on kalamazoo.graceslist.org. Your searches will look like:
homeless shelters kalamazoo
or
food bank kalamazoo
Search on whatever the category you’re seeking to fill. Then you would add the listing to kalamazoo.graceslist.org. Make sense?
Here is what the whole process looks like put together into a video walk-through..
Any questions? Contact us.