what type of ministries do you support?

right now, we are focused on supporting the following primary ministries: food pantries, shelters, and medical clinics; and the following “secondary” ministries: legal and traffic clinics, car care clinis, neighborhood meals, and urban survival groups. special events will also be listed here... like holiday meals.

what do you mean by primary & secondary?

equally important. the primaries have the icons on the toolbar and we expect these to be most in demand and have more varieties of their own pecularities, distinctions, and details that correspond to features we will be activating first. secondary ministries... their details are distinct but simpler, and we want to be able to support as many as possible.

we have multiple campuses, ministries, and engage in shared ministry with other organizations... how is that going to work?

the ministry management tools we will be rolling out the first few weeks will accommodate all of this. if you want admins from multiple organizations for a single ministry at one location, we have that covered. everyone can manage their own ministries and their shared ministries at the same time, as dictated by orgnzational or even campus-level admins.

what else is on the roadmap? how is this different from facebook community groups?

people, i averaged 3-6 calls or texts a week asking me if the pantry is open and where the nearest one is and their hours. from their smartphone. wouldn’t one location aware website be a lot easier? go to jcsnetwork.org and it’s all there... or just text them the link.

in what other ways do you expect to help us?

wouldn’t it be nice if your regulars could pre-register that they are going to be there and you knew how many boxes to pack? some pantries offer delivery but never know ahead how many, where to, and maintain these on lost excel sheets. click, a report. we’ve considered maintaining the personal information you need to collect for compliance, because we could... but it brings a liability we are not ready to accept. but we could help you track that you have it on file, print your signature sheets, etc. it’s not a matter of “building these features” - it’s a matter of you being there and wanting them.

i’ve seen you mention “targeted” and/or “special interest” ministries. what do you mean by that?

three examples i’ve learned from my own life: (1) universities may provide support networks for foreign students abroad, but “need” comes with new challenges in a foreign culture. even those fluent in english since a child are taken advantage of when navigating needed commercial services, especially legal & medical. (2) native americans, like veterans and other segements of the population, are entitled by law to certain privileges and resources they can’t find or are denied to them when they leave their home community. some are better served than others. at a minimum, we want distinct groups like that to be able to find their support groups. (3) there is a “they are draining the system” cynicism among some of us for those that have found themselves in the country illegally (and, often with a desire to change their status) and fear getting help they need may include a follow-up knock on the door from immigration authorities. non-commercial support groups exist for many of these things and many ministries serve these examples. finding them is the challenge and letting them know we are here to aggregate their information and properly understand their needs may take a little more effort. people... i’m a college-educated white male with smart phone and internet... and i couldn’t find some of the help i have needed the last four (4) years. that’s a problem.

gee. so you can and will handle anything? is there anything off limits?

yes, plenty. yes. mental health, drug rehab type services, etc., are examples of things we do not intend to focus upon... only highlight. if a medical clinic includes mental health services, screenings/assessments, we absolutely want that to be highlighted, searchable, etc. with that, and other things, you get into a whole new level of expertise and treatment beyond free medical care. medical clinics, urban survival & tent city gatherings sometimes include resource referrals at their gatherings, and again, we want to highlight things like that. in addition to the extra expertise, you begin to cross over into commercial agengies that provide these services, and this site is not an excuse for commercial organizations to offer a free assessment to drum up business. we have plans to handle that problem.

is this a christian or religious website?

no, but i sure hope they are here. first, humanity. any christian references, like christmas, are not meant to exclude. holiday can be too generic, depending on timing. ministry means a group of clergy or a government deparment. we are neither. the verb minster means to tend to the needs of someone. that, we... you.... do. the someone infers jc as jesus christ and finds it offensive and chooses not help people because of that, then shame on them. jc are the initials of the man i encountered in 2019 that inspired this project. that, and i couldn not help a guy that needed something that should not have been so hard to find. that is what this site is about.