Get Involved
How Your Organization Can Help
Register for OurNewton.org and Add Your Listing
* Registering takes less than 5 minutes and enables you to post events, blog posts, and an organizational listing in the Newton Community Guide
* To register, simply go to www.OurNewton.org and click “Register”
Become a Founding Member
* Founding Members receive a listing and thank you on the “about” page of the OurNewton website
Serve on the Community Portal Launch Team (CPLT)
* A 3 month commitment, with 3 or possibly 4 meetings. Approximately 5 hrs./month for 3 months.
* After 3 months, expected to participate in biannual meetings, visit site several times a week.
* All members help to shape the Community Portal, commit to visiting the site regularly, contributing content (e.g. agency listing, events), and help spread the word.
Why Participate?
Increase volunteers, donors & program participants
- Lack of info is the biggest barrier to participation
- Free marketing outlet, you control the message
- Post the content you want about events, news and opportunities…goes live when you post
- After a year, a successful community portal is likely to be viewed by 10% or more of households—often ones that might not read the local paper or other outlets
- Easy to update web presence for your organization
- For an agency regularly updating your own site, you can share your news on the Community Portal via RSS feed, increasing awareness & traffic. You can also offer your site visitors news from the Community Portal
A tool for coordination & collaboration
- Planning a big event, and don’t want to conflict with another big happening? Check the Community Calendar! Use the searchable database to find out what services other agencies are offering.
- The “groups” feature is a great tool for collaborative community projects or discussion of common issues.
Frequently Answered Questions
Q: How is this different from other websites?
A: SCI is a nonprofit with a mission of increasing civic engagement. The primary goal of a Newton Community Portal is thus to connect all Newton residents to the information they need to participate in the community. All members of the community can post, including organizations, meaning that the Community Guide stays up to date. Moreover, SCI is offering more than just a website, including training and support for both technological issues and outreach strategies.
Q: I don't like the design of an existing SCI website I saw, will the Newton site look different?
A: SCI will work with the Newton community in the first three months of this partnership to determine the ideal design and feature set for the site. SCI remains in communication with the community after the initial period and can make reasonable adjustments to the site design afterward.
Q: If anyone can post, doesn't that cause problems with inflammatory speech?
A: Since we launched this model in Dorchester in December 2006, we've had few issues with site abuse. The current security configuration, whereby users “flag” objectionable content, works very well. However, configuration options abound, and SCI will work with the community to determine the ideal configuration (for example, should user registrations be approved automatically, or screened and approved by a site moderator?).
For More Information
Contact Lonna Mitchell at the Newton YMCA, LonnaM@westsuburbanymca.org or 617-244-6050 ext. 3023, to become a Founding Member