Community resources portal and social services information from CRI, inc. for low and moderate income families.

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Community Resources Information, Inc. (CRI) is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt 501 c (3) charitable organization. Our principal mission is to develop Internet web sites which provide comprehensive information on state and local resources relevant to the needs of low and moderate-income families and individuals of all ages.

CRI was incorporated in the year 2000. Our first accomplishment was the construction of a very comprehensive and sophisticated web site for Worcester, Massachusetts (www.WorcesterResources.org), the third largest city in New England, which went live in 2001. We followed in 2003 with a statewide version of the Worcester web site (www.MassResources.org) as well as a nationwide web site focused on federal tax credits appropriate for households with low income (www.TaxCreditResources.org). The primary audiences for these web sites are the consumers of benefits, services, and programs described on each site. Service providers are also an important audience and help to promote use of the web site by consumers. We have estimated that consumers outnumber service providers by about 2 to 1 in visits to our web sites.

CRI is interested in having our Massachusetts statewide web site serve as a template for organizations that want to develop similar web sites in other states. At a modest cost, a new web site could be directly copied from the www.MassResources.org template. This new web site would keep the technological features of the Massachusetts web site and much of the content now appearing on www.MassResources.org could also be retained, with modest alterations made to adapt the web site to the specifics of a new state. By creating a new web site in this manner, a significant savings in money, effort, and time would result. The first such state to take this approach of using our Massachusetts web site as a template was New Mexico (www.NewMexicoResources.org).

The www.MassResources.org web site is a remarkably sophisticated and comprehensive web site and stands apart in its approach to explaining important federal and state assistance programs. Our “resources” web site can provide an important compliment to other existing web sites, such as those that list local service provider agencies.

For further information on licensing a web site from CRI, click here.


	A compelling case can be made regarding the need for “resources” web sites that describe and explain how to access important federal, state, and local benefits/programs. The Internet provides a revolutionary technology for making such information much more available on a wide scale. Print editions of such information are expensive to produce and disseminate and become quickly outdated as information changes. A “resources” web site can quickly become an important central repository of information on state and local resources relevant to the needs of low and moderate-income residents. While state governments are a logical candidate to develop and maintain such web sites, it is not uncommon for government agencies, out of budgetary concerns, to be ambivalent in publicizing programs that address the needs of persons with low income or to make benefits easily obtainable to those who are eligible. CRI believes it is important that “resources” web sites be developed and maintained in		the non-profit sector, independent of government or corporate influence, so as to best serve and protect the interests of individuals and families who are struggling to meet basic needs. Having said this, we should point out that certain programs such as food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit are in the interests of state governments to promote as the costs of these benefits are solely (as in the case of the EIC) or primarily (as with food stamps) the responsibility of the federal government. As these programs only reach a portion of those who are eligible, states (and their low income residents) are failing to claim significant benefits or money each year that is paid for by the federal government. By increasing awareness of and participation in various federally funded programs such as food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit, a “resources” web site can very quickly bring many more federal dollars into a state than it costs to run the site.


	Our intent is to make the process of finding out about and obtaining forms of assistance much easier and more coherent than is now the case in most locales. By using the web site to find out about available programs and whether or not they are eligible, consumers of services will be better able to act for themselves and be less dependent on the limited number of people in a particular area with expertise on benefits and programs.		Such a web site also helps service providers and case managers become much more productive and effective in their work assisting their clients in obtaining needed resources as they can easily find up-to-date information in one place. CRI has made its web sites and all its features available to users free of charge. This has greatly facilitated the ability of consumers and service providers alike to access the content and features of the site.