Information and referral organizations develop, maintain, use, and disseminate an up-to-date resource database that contains information about available community resources, including details about the services provided and the conditions under which they are available.
Our resource database is reviewed as part of the re-accreditation process conducted by Inform USA, the standards and credentialing leader for delivering quality resource referral, navigation and connection services in the United States and Canada.
Our Data Curators are supported to achieve professional credentialing based on established standards for the field of information and referral in addition to a psychometrically-based job task analysis. The program identifies specific competencies and related performance criteria, which describe the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and work-related behaviours information and referral practitioners need to execute their duties successfully.
Community Connection participates in database collaboratives and data partnerships to avoid duplication of database curation, and to achieve broader and more in-depth coverage of community resources.
The 211 Ontario network has five regional 211 service partners in Collingwood (Central East), Toronto (Central), Ottawa (East), Windsor (South West), and Thunder Bay (North). The network’s Data Curators work as a provincial team to manage a large inventory (30,000+ agencies delivering 60,000 programs and 150,000 services) of community, social, health and government services, including details about the services and eligibility requirements. The database supports inquiry services, specialized programs, bi-directional data sharing, custom data sets and numerous specialized directories. Province-wide data resources are available for search at 211Ontario.ca. We suggest you use the advanced search option for the best results.
Within the provincial resource database, Community Connection manages an estimated 8,640 organizations and program listings for these counties and districts: Bruce, Grey, Simcoe, Huron, Perth, Muskoka, Parry Sound, Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Peterborough. We partner with Information Barrie (Barrie Public Library) and the United Way Perth Huron to maintain the resource data in Central East Ontario.
Online access to resource listings is a critical service. In 2022, our online directories had more than 1.6 million pageviews. We rely on service providers to respond to our annual reminders to update their programs and services. Check these details to understand how.
Municipal Data Sharing for GIS Mapping
APIs (application programming interface) enable data sharing and integration with five municipal GIS mapping systems, including the County of Simcoe, the City of Barrie, the City of Peterborough, Northumberland County, and the West Parry Sound Geography Network.
A multi-year bilingual database project with the County of Simcoe resulted in an interactive mapping application to provide an easy way to find, access and view information. The online access offers an interactive map (use the 211 Community Services theme) to view information in English and French for 4,000+ community, health, social and government services available to individuals and families in Simcoe County. The map pairs 211 community services resource data with a GIS system to enable specialized search criteria, including main categories, subcategories, and optional age categories. An API digitally pulls additions, changes, and deletions from our resource database.
Provincial Online Directories
The 211 Ontario network participates in data-sharing partnerships with Employment Ontario to help people find employment and training services, and with the Ontario Victim Services to help victims of crime locate resources.
National Shelter Capacity Report for Infrastructure Canada
United Way Canada partners with the federal government for the 211 Canada network to collect custom data for the annual report that provides capacity statistics for emergency homeless shelters, transitional housing and violence against women shelters in Canada. The number of shelter facilities and permanent beds is reported for each province, territory, and community.