HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 05-18-2004-5nORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: May 18, 2004
Action Agenda
Item No. ~~_
SUBJECT: Re-establishment of The Orange Book
DEPARTMENT: County Manager
PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
ATTACHMENT(S):
Attachment I -Draft Sample Page
Attachment II -Status of Commissioners
Contingency Account
INFORMATION CONTACT:
Donna Baker, ext, 2130
Sharron Hinton, ext. 2302
Todd Jones, ext. 2300
TELEPHONE NUMBERS:
Hillsborough 732-8181
Chapel Hill 968-4501
Durham 688-7331
Mebane 336-227-2031
PURPOSE: To obtain approval from the Board to re-create and produce the "Orange Book", an
information and referral guide of local human services agencies.
BACKGROUND: The Orange Book, an information and referral guide was created in the
1980's to enable residents and agencies to locate community resources, It contained data
about County governmental offices and local human services agencies. The data included
general information about the organizations, a brief description of the services provided, agency
locations, telephone numbers, contact names, and any applicable fees, The Orange Baok was
produced in a 3-ring binder and divided by tabs, It had both alphabetical and topical indices
and included a listing of acronyms.
During the 1990's, the County contracted with the Orange County United Way to develop a
countywide, automated information and referral system that would enhance and replace the
Orange Book, Concurrently during this time, the Orange County United Way merged with the
surrounding United Ways in the Triangle area to form the Triangle United Way (TUW), The
information and referral project encountered several administrative problems and the County
ultimately discontinued its financial support. Triangle United Way continues its operation of the
automated information and referral system, now known as Triangle 211,
The Orange Book, as a printed document, has not been created in almost ten years, Interest
from the community has been expressed in re-creating the Orange Book, Staff, led by
Commissioner Margaret Brawn, has been researching the possibilities for producing the Orange
Book for distribution and access via the Internet, Production of the document involves the
following steps:
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Step 1 --Acquiring the Data
^ To establish a starting point, the County can purchase a database dump of the entire
Triangle 211 database, The download would include a file containing the agency name,
address, phone number, geographic area served and the program information, The file
would be as of today, Although the Orange County-specific data is approximately 2-3 years
old, it would alleviate staff from the responsibility of starting from "scratch" and avoids weeks
or months of research. County staff will review and update the information accordingly, The
cost of the database download is $500,
Step 2 -Validating the Data
^ Files not related to Orange County services will need to be removed, new organizations will
need to be added and all data will need to be confirmed. Cost estimates for temporary staff
are approximately $10.00 per hour.
^ The TUW is also in the process of scheduling its awn update of Orange County data within
the upcoming months. By initiating an internal update, the Orange Book project updates will
be independent of the TUW time schedules and priorities. However, County staff would like
to collaborate with TUW in the validation process in order to avoid duplicative efforts,
Step 3 -Data Storage and Formatting
^ Phase I -The County Information Technology Department will develop a template, probably
in Microsoft Word, to store the data, This allows far the fastest and most economical way to
produce a hardcopy version of the directory, The steps involved in preparing the document
to be "camera ready" are currently under review. Conversion of Microsoft Word documents
to PDF formats will allow interested persons to view the information via the Internet,
although with only rudimentary search capabilities,
• Phase II -The data stored in the Word templates could be extracted and managed in a
database. The database in turn could be made accessible via the web so that the public
could perform sophisticated searches,
Step 4 -Printing Preparation
^ The data will need to be formatted as "camera ready" far the printer, The specific approach
is yet to be determined, Current plans for layout involve an alphabetical listing by agency.
Additionally, there will be an index of agencies categorized by service type; e.g, domestic
abuse, mental health, senior citizens, etc.
Step 5 -Production
• The printed document will be created in a magazine-type design and format, Although the
layout is not finalized, a sample page of the format being considered is included as
Attachment I. The cost estimate for 500 copies of a 100-page document is approximately
$5.00 per booklet.
Step 6 -Distribution
^ The final copy will be hand-delivered and/or mailed to the public and private non-profit
service providers listed in the document, schools, hospitals, etc,
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The anticipated costs for Phase I of this project range from $5,000 -
$10,000 and are not included in the current year budget, Should the Board decide to proceed
with this initial phase of the Orange Book project, staff recommends that funding be covered
with an appropriation from the Commissioners' Contingency account, The available balance in
the Contingency account totals $ 24,6QQ. Attachment II is a spreadsheet of a list of items that
the Board has funded from its contingency acccunt during the current fiscal year,
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board approve Phase I of the
project plan.
®rang~ County
~Ited't16y ~~BA/IC®~
Phone: (919)933-2151
Office Flours: M-F: gam -Spm
Address: 503 W Franklin St ,Chapel Hill, NC 27516
o ADULT LITERACY TUTORING - f01LLSBOROUGN
Phone: (919) 732-0868
Office Hours: Flexible; please call
Address: 1 18 N, Churton St, Hillsborough, NC 27278
Service Area: Orange County
languages: English
Provides free, confidential, one-to-one and small group,
learner-centered instruction provided by trained volun-
teer tutors. Tutor/student matches meet 1 to 2 times per
week for literacy or math instmction using a variety of
academic and real-life materials. Provides Adult Basic
Education and GF.D preparation. For small group ses-
sions, tapics vary based on needs of group Eor example:
passing the driver's license test, public speaking, helping
children with homework, etc.
a flDULT LITERACY TUTORING - SOUTUERN ORANGE
Phone: (919)933-2151
Office Hours: M-F: gam -Spm,
evenings and weekends by appointment
Address: 503 W.. Franklin St ,Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Service Area: Orange County
Languages: English
Provides free, confidential, one-to-one and small group,
learner-centered instruction provided by trained volun-
teer tutors.. Tutor\student matches meet 1 to 2 times per
week For literacy or math instruction using a variety of
academic and real-life materials. Provides Adult Basic
Education and GE.D preparation. Far small group ses-
sions, topics vary based on needs of group for example:
passing the driver's license test, public speaking, helping
children with homework, etc.
a EANIILY READING YYORKSNOPS -
Phone: (919) 732-0868
Office Hours: Flexible hours, please call
Address: 118 N. Churton St, Hillsborough, NC 27278
Service Area: Orange County
Languages: English, Spanish
Provides training for parents/care givers in why and how
ro read to young children. Appropriate for parents/care
givers with Eew literacy skills as well as highly educated
parents. C(/e prefer to offer this program to pre-existing
groups of parents at community locations convenient Eor
each group.
o FAMILY READING YVORKSNOPS -SOUTHERN ORANGE
Phone: (919) 933-2151
Office Hours: M-F: gam - 5prn;
evenings and weekends by appointment
Address: 503 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Service Area: Orange County
languages: English, Spanish
Provides training Eor parents/care givers in why and how
to read to young childmn. Appropriate Eor parents/care
givers with limited literacy shills as well as highly educat-
ed parents. We prefer to ofEe:r this program to pre-exist-
ing groups of parents at community locations convenient
Eor each group.
®~s~oe~e County Partnership
4®~ Y®ung CIS®le~~~r~
Phone: (919) 967-9091
Office Hours: M-F: 8:30am - 5prn
Address: 1829E Franklin SL, Ste. 1200 B
Chapel Flill, NC 27514
a SMART START -ORANGE COUNTY
Phone: (919)967-9091
Office Hours: M-F: 8:30am -Spm
Address: 1829 E. Franklin St., Ste 1200 8
Chapel HiII, NC 27514
Service Area: Orange County
Languages: English
Seeks to ensure that all children ^rrice at the school door
healthy and read) to succeed. Smart Start funds are used
to provide yuaGq child care, child hcah6 and Family sup-
port services Eor children aged 0 u, 5
®rg16~~ ~®8®Eity
~81~'i~ ~itera~'y
Phone: (919)245-2525
Office Hours: M-Th: 9am -Spm; F-Sa: 9em -Spm;
Su: 1 pm -Spm
Address: 300 WTryon St ,Hillsborough, NC 27278
o tARRBORO BRANCH LIBRARY
AT MtDOUGLE MIDDLE SCHOOL
Phone: (919) 969-3006
Office Hours: M, W: 3:30pm - 9:OOpm;
Tu, Th: 3:30pm - 6:OOpm; Su: 1 pm -Spm
Address: 900 Old Fayetteville Rd.
Chopel HiII, NC 27516
Service Area: Orange County
Languages: Books in French, Sponish, German, Chinese,
and Korean
Offers library services to all citizens of Cauboro and
Orange Count}. Services include reader's advisory, chil-
dren's programs, and many different resources including
books, on-line information services, and audio cassettes.
J
Status of Commissioners Contingency Account
Fiscal Year 2003-04
$50,000 Approved 7/01/03
(Pay HSiJS for Evaluation Study of the
($18,500) Animal Shelter -BOA # 5)
($3,000) School Collaboration Initiative (BOA ~9)
($3,900) Recreation activity map (BOA #il)
Remaining Contingency $24,600