Services Database

Wisdom Keeper Gary Vogel and his WK Project Team initially planned to develop four database initiatives to increase awareness of activities in Hall Count with the following goals:

• Assist the United Way of Hall County in launching their volunteer website
• Build a “needs” list where anyone can find a place to help with material or financial contributions
• Develop a listing of all the service providers in Hall County
• Link all of the social activities in Hall County. The team quickly discovered that the United Way Volunteer Portal and the Explore Gainesville Website would address most of the initiatives above. As a result, the focus became on building more awareness of the UW volunteer portal and encouraging social service organizations to enroll and enter their services and needs.

Updates:

• During their research, the team discovered the Community Resource Guide developed by the Hall County School System. They also found a new project between Northeast Georgia Health System and the United Way called “Unite Us.” This is a social care network platform that allows for electronic referrals and communication between nonprofits and service organizations to connect local individuals and families to the social services they need in real-time to navigate life and find pathways out of poverty. They realized “Unite Us” and the Community Resource Guide needed to know about each the other and helped with that introduction. For 2024, the short-term attention will be on “Unite Us” and calling potential agencies to add them to the platform. The team hopes to have the prospect calls completed in January and demos of “Unite Us” scheduled for early February. Continuing efforts on this project will be to collaborate with the United Way’s “Week of Caring” in September to host a Volunteer Expo on a county wide basis similar to what is held annually at Cresswind and other venues.