Information standards
Effective September 16, 2026
Community Collective exists to get the right information to the right person at the right time, in a form they can actually use. These standards explain what we promise, what we don't, and how we keep listings honest.
Who may submit resources, and what happens next
Anyone can suggest a listing or report a change: organizations join the Collective through the partner form, and anyone can use “Report an update” on a listing. A steward reviews every submission before it publishes. A new listing starts as Community submitted · verification in progress, and it only becomes Verified once the organization confirms it or a steward checks it against the organization's own source, with the date shown. Nothing is verified automatically, and no listing is ever shown as verified without saying who checked it and when.
Even a verified listing can change after it was checked, so please call first, especially before traveling. For an urgent need, call 911, call or text 988 for a mental-health or suicide crisis, or dial 211 to reach a navigator.
What Community Collective is, and is not
Community Collective is an informational resource guide. Community Collective does not provide the listed services, determine eligibility, make referrals, or guarantee that a person will receive a service. Information is provided by independent organizations and public sources and may change without notice. Always confirm availability, eligibility, cost, hours, location and requirements directly with the provider before traveling or relying on a listing. Inclusion does not constitute endorsement.
Community Collective is not a therapy platform, not a healthcare provider or healthcare application, and does not provide medical, mental-health, legal or financial advice. It is not an emergency service. In an immediate emergency, call 911. For a mental-health or suicide crisis, call or text 988. 211 is also available to help you find services.
Emergency: call 911Mental-health or suicide crisis: call or text 988Help finding services: dial 211
Always free, never pay-to-play
- Using Community Collective is free for anyone looking for help. No account is needed to search, view, print or share.
- Schools, nonprofits and community partners never pay to be listed or to join.
- No listing can pay for a better position. Payment is never a ranking factor.
What each label means
| Label | What was checked |
|---|---|
| Verified by the organization | Someone at the organization reviewed the listing through a secure confirmation link, or confirmed it directly with a steward. We record the date and who responded (privately). |
| Verified from official source | A steward checked the organization's own website, published materials or front desk, and recorded the date and method. |
| Community submitted · verification in progress | Shared by a community member or our starter list. Not yet checked with the organization. Every listing that came over from our first directory starts here. |
| Information may have changed · call first | Its review date has passed. It stays visible, ranks lower, and asks you to call before traveling. |
| Temporarily unavailable · call first | A report or the partner says the service is paused. Call before traveling. |
| Ended or expired | An event date passed or a time-limited service ended. Hidden from search. |
We never show a bare “Verified” badge: every verified label says who checked the listing and shows the date. We do not describe anything as real time. Hours are shown as confirmed only when the organization confirmed them.
How results are ordered
We show a short list, not hundreds of options. Among listings that match the need, these factors are weighed in this order:
- The listing explicitly serves the selected school district, ZIP code or area.
- It is within a practical distance. In-person services more than about 20 miles away are hidden unless they serve the area, and nothing in-person beyond 35 miles is shown.
- It can be reached without a car, when the listing says so.
- It offers help by phone, mobile service, delivery or online, which counts more when transportation is a barrier.
- It is free.
- It is reduced cost or sliding scale.
- Its information was recently confirmed.
- It has a clear next action, like a phone number.
- It offers the family's language or confirmed interpretation.
Distances are approximate. They are measured between ZIP code areas, not exact addresses, and no outside mapping or geocoding service is used. When a listing says it serves only certain residents, and the chosen place is outside that area, it moves to “May also help”.
How listings stay current
- Every listing records an owner, a source, the date added, when and how it was last checked, the partner's confirmation status, a next review date and a change history.
- Stewards send partners a secure confirmation link. Partners can confirm nothing changed or send corrections. Corrections are reviewed before they appear.
- Confirmed listings are due for another check after about 90 days. Reminders go out before that date, and overdue listings are escalated to a steward.
- We don't delete a useful listing just because a partner has not answered. We label it overdue, rank it lower and ask you to call first.
- Events and time-limited services carry an expiration date and archive themselves after it passes.
Report an update
Every listing has a “Report an update” link. Reports go to a review queue. They do not change public information until a steward checks them. We do not ask who you are.
Community events
We don't run a scraper that copies and republishes pages. A steward collects a candidate event from a partner website, calendar, newsletter or social post, checks the extracted title, date, location, cost, eligibility and source, and approves it. Published events show their source and expire after they happen.
Community Support Toolkits and translation
- Toolkits print everything needed offline: phone numbers, addresses, hours, who is served, what to bring and the next step. A QR code is optional.
- Toolkits never include a family's name or the reason they need help. Share links contain only the listings chosen.
- Toolkits can be downloaded as a PDF, printed, or sent from your own phone or email. We do not send texts or emails on anyone's behalf.
- Toolkits can be translated automatically into the language a family needs. Every translated Toolkit carries the same notice: Translation notice: This information was translated automatically and may contain mistakes. The English version is the official version. Before you go, call the organization listed to confirm the details. The English wording appears under each line so staff and interpreters can check it, and names, phone numbers and addresses are never translated.
- Only public listing text and Toolkit labels are sent to the translation service. Nothing about the family, and nothing anyone typed, is sent. Translations are saved and reused so the same text is not sent twice.
- If a language is not supported (for example Chuukese), the Toolkit prints in English with a note asking the organization for an interpreter when calling.
- Automated translation is never presented as authoritative. The English version is the official version. See Read in your language.
Privacy and measurement
We measure whether people get usable help, not pageviews. We count things like which need category was chosen, county-level area, whether someone tapped call or added a listing to a Toolkit, Toolkits printed, searches with no useful match, and reports of incorrect information. Counts are stored as daily totals. We do not store what anyone types, IP addresses, cookies or identities. See Privacy & cookies.
Pilot evidence
The first community is the Park Hill School District in the Kansas City Northland, which serves more than 11,000 students across 21 schools and programs and reports about 50 languages in English-learner households. The district's 2024–25 social-work reporting documented 315 McKinney-Vento-eligible families or unaccompanied youth, and 41 school-based mental-health referrals, of which 20 had connected at reporting time. We treat these figures as pilot evidence, not a complete measure of need.
Accessibility
We design to WCAG 2.2 AA: keyboard access, visible focus, screen-reader labels, sufficient contrast, large tap targets, plain language, reduced-motion support and print layouts. If something doesn't work for you, please use any listing's “Report an update” link to tell us.