Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Community Rolodex different?

Community Rolodex is not just trying to answer “What resources exist?” It is trying to answer “How do people actually get from needing help to successfully connecting with the right resource?”

Many navigation systems function mainly as directories, referral lists, call centers, or systems connected to one organization. Community Rolodex is being designed to bring together several things that often live separately: public resource information, professional knowledge, lived experience, community feedback, verification status, relationship context, and technology that can help keep information organized and current.

What makes the model different is its focus on the space between a referral and an actual "Mirror Connection".

• A referral is not automatically a successful handoff. Community Rolodex is interested in what happens after someone is given a name or number.

• Human knowledge matters alongside data. Providers, parents, peers, nonprofit leaders, and people with lived experience often know things that do not appear in a traditional directory.

• No one person is expected to be the expert. Different categories require different perspectives, reviewers, and forms of expertise.

• Verification is different from endorsement. Confirming that a service exists or offers a specific program is not the same as saying it is the best choice for everyone.

• Unsuccessful connections can still teach us something. If people repeatedly encounter the same barrier, that pattern can become useful community information rather than disappearing after one failed referral.

• Neutrality matters. Community Rolodex is not being built around a pay-for-placement model where financial support determines who receives favorable treatment.

• The system may help reveal community gaps. Over time, it could show where people repeatedly get stuck, what services are missing, and which populations may be underserved.

• The model is intentionally adaptive. It is being built through testing, feedback, review, and revision rather than assuming the first version will be the final one.

• The long-term model could be replicated. The goal is not simply to create a Henderson County directory, but potentially a framework other communities could use to better understand their own resources, relationships, gaps, and needs.

• Perhaps the biggest difference is that Community Rolodex is trying to capture knowledge that usually stays inside individual relationships.

  A pediatrician may know which provider is responsive. A parent may know what the intake process actually feels like. A therapist may understand which program tends to fit a particular situation. A nonprofit leader may see where people consistently fall through the cracks. That information often remains scattered in people’s heads. Community Rolodex is asking whether some of that informal community knowledge can be responsibly turned into shared community infrastructure without pretending that one person’s experience is objective truth. Most directories map resources. Community Rolodex is trying to map the path between people and resources.

Are there already official pilot partners?

No. Community Rolodex is currently having conversations with community professionals and organizations and exploring possible future pilot opportunities.

These conversations help shape the project, but they should not be interpreted as formal pilot agreements, endorsements, or partnerships unless specifically identified that way.

What does it mean when a resource is “verified”?

Verification is intended to describe what has actually been confirmed, not to suggest that Community Rolodex guarantees the quality of a provider or service.

Information may eventually carry different levels of review depending on its source, including public information, direct confirmation from an organization, professional or peer review, community feedback, or additional follow-up that is still needed.

The goal is to make those distinctions visible rather than presenting every resource as equally confirmed.

Does “verified” mean Community Rolodex recommends that provider or organization?

No. Verification and recommendation are different.

A resource may be verified as operating, offering a particular service, serving a certain population, or meeting certain criteria without Community Rolodex making a personal judgment that it is the best choice for every individual.

Community Rolodex is designed to provide clearer information and context so people can make informed decisions based on their own needs.

How is resource information reviewed?

Community Rolodex is developing a layered review process rather than relying on one person's opinion.

That may include direct confirmation from organizations, public-source review, professional input, peer review, community feedback, and periodic reverification.

The appropriate type of review may depend on the subject. Healthcare information, for example, may benefit from qualified healthcare review, while mental health resources may benefit from both professional expertise and relevant lived experience.

What does peer review mean in this project?

Peer review means involving people with relevant experience or expertise when information falls within their area.

That may include practitioners, healthcare professionals, people with lived experience, community-service professionals, or others familiar with a particular population or system.

The purpose is to reduce reliance on a single person's interpretation and create a more balanced review process.

How does Community Rolodex try to remain neutral?

Complete neutrality can be difficult whenever human experiences are involved, so Community Rolodex focuses on transparency and multiple sources.

The project is being designed to reduce bias by clearly identifying how information was obtained, separating factual verification from personal experience, involving appropriate reviewers, and avoiding a system where organizations can purchase favorable referrals or placement.

Can an organization pay to receive a better referral or ranking?

No. Community Rolodex is not being built as a pay-to-play referral system.

The intention is to keep essential community information as accessible as possible while developing sustainable funding around the infrastructure, technology, services, and work required to maintain the project.

Financial support should not determine whether an organization receives more favorable treatment in referrals, reviews, or visibility.

Will Community Rolodex always be free?

The goal is for core community-resource information to remain as free and publicly accessible as reasonably possible.

Building and maintaining a responsible system still requires technology, verification, staffing, development, and ongoing maintenance. Community Rolodex is therefore exploring sustainable funding models that support the work without putting basic access behind a paywall.

What information does Community Rolodex collect?

The amount and type of information collected depends on how someone participates.

Community Rolodex is being designed around the principle that only information reasonably necessary for the project should be collected. Public-facing resource information, internal notes, professional input, and community feedback may require different levels of access and protection.

Will private feedback be made public?

Not automatically.

Public information, internal notes, professional feedback, and other sensitive information may be treated differently within the system.

Community feedback may help identify patterns or areas needing review without necessarily publishing an individual's identity or comments.

How can organizations participate?

Organizations may eventually participate in several ways, including confirming public information, providing service updates, completing surveys, offering professional feedback, helping review information within their area of expertise, or potentially participating in future pilot testing.

Participation does not automatically mean endorsement by Community Rolodex, and inclusion in the database does not automatically mean an organization endorses the project.

Can community members participate?

Yes. Community experience is an important part of understanding whether information is actually useful.

Future participation may include surveys, feedback about navigation experiences, identifying missing resources, reporting outdated information, and helping Community Rolodex understand what people encounter when trying to find support.

Community feedback is considered alongside other sources rather than being treated as the sole measure of a provider or organization.

What role does AI play in Community Rolodex?

AI is being used primarily as an organizational and development tool.

It can help structure information, organize large data sets, develop database fields, identify possible duplicates or missing information, create surveys and tracking systems, document processes, and support the development of more efficient workflows.

AI does not replace human verification or professional judgment.

Does AI decide which resources people should use?

No.

Community Rolodex is not being designed to allow AI to independently decide whether a provider, organization, or service is appropriate for someone.

Technology may help people search, filter, and understand information more easily, but important judgments should remain appropriately human and based on transparent information.

Why is Community Rolodex exploring Salesforce?

The project has demonstrated how much information can be organized through spreadsheets, but spreadsheets alone may not be the best long-term system.

Salesforce is being explored as one possible way to connect resource records, forms, relationships, verification dates, follow-up reminders, feedback, duplicate management, dashboards, and controlled public views.

The goal is to reduce unnecessary manual data entry while preserving appropriate human review.

Will the technology change over time?

Yes. Community Rolodex is being built with the expectation that technology, community needs, and the ways people search for help will continue changing.

The long-term goal is not to create one system and preserve it forever. It is to build a project that can learn, test, adapt, and adopt better tools when they genuinely improve access, trust, or efficiency.

Why use pilots instead of launching everything at once?

Small pilots make it possible to learn before scaling.

Community Rolodex can test whether information is understandable, determine what people actually use, identify unnecessary features, discover missing safeguards, and improve the system before expanding it.

What would a successful pilot look like?

A successful pilot should provide useful evidence, not simply positive feedback.

It should help answer whether people find resources more easily, whether the information is accurate enough to be useful, what information is missing, what requires human support, what can safely be automated, and what parts of the process create unnecessary work.

Is Community Rolodex only for Henderson County?

Henderson County is the current development environment, but the long-term vision is broader.

If the model proves useful, Community Rolodex could eventually become a framework that other communities adapt to their own resources, gaps, relationships, and local needs.

The goal would not be to simply copy one community's database into another place, but to provide a repeatable way for communities to better understand and organize the connections that already exist around them.

What is the long-term goal?

The long-term goal is to create something that can continue learning, evolving, and serving communities over time.

That means developing strong governance, documentation, technology, funding, review processes, leadership, and institutional knowledge.

Success would mean that Community Rolodex remains useful as technology changes, continues protecting public trust, and can potentially help other communities build stronger systems of connection.