What you can do at One Place for Special Needs
One Place for Special Needs was created to help local and state disability groups and organizations like yours build membership and help spread the word about the support and programs you offer. And it’s free! Here’s how the website works and what you can do on it.
Add your info in our Local Resource directory
This fully searchable directory lets you tell others about your group or organization. You can even let people know if you accept donations. Encourage your members to write a review about your group.
Use Quick search to find speakers and more
Use the Quick search feature in our Local resource directory to find speakers for your monthly group meetings and places willing to offer space for your group meetings.
Registered users can use our Quick search to find tax deductible organizations. We encourage them to think locally when making donations. Let people know you need volunteers or specific items.
Spread the word about your events
Add your monthly group meeting, play group, workshop or fundraiser in our Events directory and reach a wider audience. See our Alerts info below.
Reach our members quickly with Alerts
In addition to searching our directories, registered users can create personalized Alerts. As soon as your info is added to our Local Resource or Event directories, it is emailed to everyone interested in learning about groups like yours. And if you add your entire year’s worth of meetings/workshops, our Alerts will send them out within a month of each event date.
Create your own Group Site
If you don't have your own discussion group or listserv, it is easy and free to set up your own social community here. This is a great way to grow your membership and build a supportive community. You can create a public, moderated or private group.
Your group has its own discussion forum, event posting section and live group chat (great to address your group or bring in an online speaker). There is even a built in marketplace for members to sell or give away their gently used items to one another. If you are paying for a similar service, switch your members here and take advantage of our free and exclusive special needs community. Click here to learn more.
What can my members do here?
Find Friends for support and play dates
Registered users can fill out a personal and/or family profile. Then they can use our Friends directory to search for other special needs families in their area. Because this is a fully searchable directory, they can look for others based on a particular diagnosis, age range or even special interest—a great way to find a friend for your child with similar likes. Parents can also live chat with friends. Click here to learn more about Friends.
Local Resource and Event directories
When users register, they include their zip code. Then they can see all services and events closest to their home and outward. They can even recommend community resources and review current listings in the directory.
Alerts
Our Alerts feature ensures that families will never miss out on newly added services, programs and events in their community. There is nothing else like it for the special needs community.
Online Resources
We have over 3,000 online resources on nearly every disability topic plus visual supports, videos, social stories, teacher resources and more. Registered users can rate resources for families and share additional resources too!
Bookmarks feature
Think of Bookmarks as a personal assistant on the One Place for Special Needs website. All the resources on our website have a “Bookmark this” button. Bookmark interesting events, services, online resources and more. Users can click on the Bookmarks button in each section to view their favorite or interesting resources.
Groups and Discussions
Your members can talk to each other on your group site or join our national audience on our discussions page.
Classifieds
Users can see what’s for sale, wanted or free to a good home. If one of your members posts a classified, it will appear on your group site too. It’s a nice way for people to network and pass down therapy or educational materials with fellow group members.
Not sure where to place yourself on our website?
The One Place for Special Needs website is a wonderful place to get the word out about your services and programs. It's one of the few places to reach families of all disabilities and the only website for the special needs community with this level of sophistication and depth of information. You are welcome to contact us and we will tell you the best places for families to locate your information.
About us
One Place for Special Needs was created by Dawn Villarreal, leader of a statewide disability group and parent of two special needs children.
More information
Please see our FAQs page for more information about using One Place for Special Needs.