Community Education Services
In 2001 Don Buchanan had a vision to use the Internet to gather information from various community organizations offering information and education to parents about a variety of common childhood problems. Beginning in Hamilton, the service is now used in 6 regions in Ontario and British Columbia.
The organizations themselves enter information about upcoming programs into the online database and receive an instant PDF proof of what the information will look like in printed form, thanks to the ColdFusion 7 Acrobat feature. Data that used to be gathered by phone and fax is now produced print-ready with one click by the community coordinator. These flyers are then distributed through the local school systems to all families in the region. Course information is also searchable online.
In 2006 a referral system was added to the site, so that social workers can refer parents to specific programs and course leaders can give the parents the help they need.
