FAQ
WheretoFindHelp.Org: Frequently Asked Questions
Who created the site? The value of the site to the people and employers of Northeast Ohio comes solely from the resources of our community who have in effect created it by adding their services and contact information to it.
The site is sponsored by the Regional Talent Network (RTN), a collaboration among the State of Ohio, the Fund for Our Economic Future, and the metropolitan chambers of commerce of Northeast Ohio – Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce, Greater Akron Chamber, Greater Cleveland Partnership, Stark Development Board, and Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
RTN’s purpose is to improve the region’s ability to prepare residents for jobs and to fill high-demand positions. More information about RTN can be found on the About page.
Why was this developed? There were many reasons behind it, but the single most important was that we have been asked by many—including job seekers, manufacturers, and the media—the equivalent of “Where’s the one place that I can go that will tell me everything?”
Northeast Ohio offers a vast array of resources to help people and employers, but even the most established service providers are not widely known, and the smaller resources are barely known at all.
WheretoFindHelp.Org holds the promise of making all these resources more accessible to those that can benefit from them.
Will this be available on an ongoing basis or just temporarily during the recession? It is RTN’s hope that it becomes an enduring resource for NEO citizens and employers.
The site is designed to help people find and keep jobs, and get the training and education that makes them more employable, and to help employers find people, get them trained, and help them grow.
This can help during the recession, certainly; but our people and employers face these needs constantly, in boom times and in busts.
The long term payoff of the site is a better trained, more employable, more highly paid workforce that has the skills our employers need.
Why is it incomplete? The May 27 2009 test launch is just a beginning. The wiki functionality lets the community express its knowledge of itself, because people who know about resources can quickly and easily add them to WheretoFindHelp.Org.
Before the advent of wiki sites, the alternative would have been costly, time consuming and labor intensive research and data entry efforts. Such efforts would have invariably led to obsolete or dated information in short order.
In order to harness the community’s collective knowledge about all the resources that exist, RTN is launching a general awareness campaign targeted to both resource providers as well as the general public.
Who will maintain content? Service providers themselves will maintain and update their information. Once they add material to WheretoFindHelp.Org, they can update their respective content as it evolves.
Are there similar directories online or otherwise? The RTN is not aware of anything like WheretoFindHelp.Org that is 1) regional, 2) open to all the resources of the community that can help, 3) aspires to be a complete directory of these resources, and 4) designed to be a wiki, so that the service providers themselves, or people who know about resources, can add and update their key information.
Is this like Monster.com or Careerboard.com? These sites are among the many available from the directory, but WheretoFindHelp.Org is much more comprehensive than a job board or resume posting site.
What kind of technical capabilities do you need to have? Users and service providers need access to the internet and basic keyboard skills. That’s about it.
Service providers looking to take advantage of the option to add more complex material are guided by help pages, an information model, etc.
How was the site designed? WheretoFindHelp.Org lives within two prepackaged environments.
The landing page—where you go when you click WheretoFindHelp.Org—is an adaptation of the Wordpress theme “Atahualpa” by BytesforAll. The information of the site—the wiki—is an implementation of Wikispaces.
Dave Shute, project director for RTN, was the information architect, page layout designer and copy editor of the wiki. John Koch, a project manager for RTN, implemented the page layouts across the 17 counties, and added much of the starting county content.
Various government, education and training, and community-based organizations have already added their entries.
Who funded the site? The launch site was built using funds from a grant from the Fund for Our Economic Future to the Regional Talent Network.
Who can I contact for more information? Contact Courtney DeOreo, communications manager for the Regional Talent Network at (216) 401-0844 or Courtney.rtn@gmail.com.
