FindHelp Denton County came together due to the “community’s ongoing need for real-time availability of resources,” Courtney Douangdara, Denton’s deputy director of community services, told the Denton Record-Chronicle in late November shortly after the program launched.
Alex Reed, division manager for community health at Denton County Public Health, called the digital resource directory “a place where folks can go and find reliable information” in November at the Denton County Commissioners Court meeting.
The digital resource directory is a collaboration between the cities of Denton and Lewisville and Denton County, Douangdara said in a Monday afternoon email to the Record-Chronicle. It allows community members, local service agencies, nonprofits and those seeking assistance to find help at the click of a button.
On Friday, Denton city staffers shared a quarterly progress report on the digital resource directory and pointed out that more than 4,200 users have used the system — mostly to find food, health services and housing, according to the March 15 staff report.
“We are encouraged to see interactions with the site increase every month since launch and look forward to continuing to analyze search and referral data to support connecting people to services and prioritize funding to meet needs in the community,” Douangdara said in the Monday afternoon email.
Some of the highlights from the quarterly report include:
- Most commonly searched ZIP codes: 76201, 76209, 76205 and 76210 in Denton and 75067 in Lewisville.
- Most commonly searched terms: rent (420), food (211), glasses (170) and food pantry (161).
Not included in the March 15 report was the number of local organizations listed on the countywide site or the total programs, which might include organizations that have multiple programs, Douangdara said.
The breakdown is as follows:
- Local: 604 organizations with 928 programs
- State: 988 organizations with 1,193 programs
- National: 751 organizations with 925 programs
Douangdara said that Denton is working with Lewisville and the county to encourage organizations to claim their programs and increase their usage on the site.
Currently, the county is covering the cost for the community site while both Denton and Lewisville cover the cost of their respective staff sites, Douangdara said.
As the Record-Chronicle reported on Nov. 28, the FindHelp directory is fairly easy to navigate. Simply visit findhelp.dentoncounty.gov and filter information through a keyword and ZIP code search.
“Seekers can search for resources and services across multiple categories including food, housing, goods, transit, health, money, care, education, work and legal,” Douangdara said. “A search for ‘food pantry’ in the ZIP code 76201 generates some familiar results including the Salvation Army Denton, First Refuge Ministries and the Denton Community Food Center.”