History of the Cambridge-Somerville Resource Guide
Health & Human Services Database
In 1999, the Cambridge Community Partnerships for Children convened a series of community meetings to explore possibilities for sharing information and resources among family and child service providers. The idea which emerged – the creation of a central citywide database – was embraced by the Cambridge Department of Human Service Programs and by the Agenda for Children, a collaborative Cambridge agency designed to support families and children. Because of the overlapping roles and close relationships among providers in Cambridge and Somerville, and because of the ease and frequency with which residents travel from one community to the other, it made sense for the resource database to include Somerville as well as Cambridge program listings. This idea was quickly embraced by the Mayor’s Office of Human Services in Somerville and the Somerville Community Health Foundation.
After an extensive review of on-line databases developed to address similar needs, the partners agreed to develop a database based largely upon the successful model employed by New England INDEX’s Massachusetts Network of Information Providers, serving the disability community for over a decade.
With generous startup funding from the Agenda for Children, and additional funding and staff support from the Cambridge Department of Human Services and the Somerville Community Health Agenda, the proposed framework of the database evolved into a three-part online resource, including a conventional database of program listings, a fact sheet library, and a message board feature, which would become available at no cost to both service providers and members of the general public. The online resource is accompanied by a Desk Guide that is offered free to providers throughout the two cities.
Because families come in all shapes and sizes, and have a broad range of needs, it became clear that the scope of the database would need to be extensive. One of the most daunting challenges has been the ongoing process of defining a taxonomy of services and constituencies that would make it possible to meaningfully categorize the programs listed in the database. The process of developing that taxonomy involved many drafts, dozens of providers from the two communities, and a period of months. The process of designing and programming a database framework that would specifically meet the needs outlined for the Cambridge and Somerville project, and then the process of collecting the data from local providers, took another year.
The database was online by February 2004, and has been used to the benefit of the public and the providers since. Yet the process of creation is not over. There are programs that have not yet made their way into the database. There are listings that require further editing. There is work to be done in establishing more consistency in the cataloging of programs according to the services they provide and the segments of the community that they serve. There are additional features to incorporate, including a multilingual database, and a “one-stop shopping” feature.
We hope that this work-in-progress is nonetheless useful to the residents and providers of our communities, and we look forward to your constructive feedback in helping us make it even better over time.
This resource guide is a collaborative project between the Cities of Cambridge and Somerville, and the Cambridge Health Alliance, made possible by the generous support of the Agenda for Children and the Somerville Community Health Foundation.
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