About our directories
Thanks for joining the many providers and businesses here at One Place for Special Needs who would like a better way to reach families with disabilities. Until now, special needs parents have been left on their own to find services that meet the needs of their child. We’re trying to make it easier for families to learn about your services so they can make informed choices. Here’s how you can get the most out of One Place for Special Needs. –Dawn Villarreal
How the website works
You are probably used to resource websites where you leave basic contact information or are part of an alphabetical listing of links. Here you can add very detailed information about your services or programs in our Local Resource directory. Parents can sort the directory by name, rating and distance. They can also search by categories or keyword search.
Reach our members quickly with Alerts
Our members set up personalized alerts for products, local resources and events. As soon as your information is added, it gets emailed to everyone interested in your particular service, product or event. Members can choose to receive their alerts daily, weekly or monthly.
Featured listings in events and local resources
There are two types of listings available:
Free listing
Create a free listing in our directory and registered users within a 50 mile radius can see your listing.
Featured listing
For a low, annual price you can feature your listing. This activates your headline and description as a text ad that appears on the directory search results page and links back to your listing. This is similar to text ads you see on many of the popular search engines. The only difference is that here you are guaranteed to reach interested special needs families, disability group leaders and educators.
Choose a state or national featured listing depending on how far you would like to reach families. Contact us if you would like a discount for multiple featured listings. Click here to learn more.
Adding your info in our local resources directory
Click on Add info/Add a local resource. Select a category and subcategories for your service or program. Create a headline. This can be your business name (e.g. Stepping Stones Therapy, Inc.) or a short ad (e.g. In home speech therapy). Your headline and description will both appear in the search results.
Fill in the remaining fields that apply to your business or service. You can create one listing that encompasses all your services or many listings that highlight each particular service (e.g. Highlight a new social skills program or specialty center). You can add your company logo too.
If you add a park district class or other type of program with an end date, please choose a time period (e.g. 3 months, 6 months) for it to expire. This helps keep our directory up to date. The information becomes inactive for our members but remains in your My Local Resources page until you delete or update it. If you make a general listing for your business please choose “indefinitely.”
Choose how you want families to contact you
How do you want families to contact you? You might want to list yourself as the contact person or an assigned intake coordinator. You might prefer people to email or you might only want people to contact you by phone. The choice is yours.
Create multiple listings
You will want to create more than one local resource listing if:
You have multiple locations
Your services fall into more than one category
You want to highlight a particular program or service
Please note, because all the information at One Place for Special Needs sorts geographically for the user, you will want to create more than one listing if you have multiple locations. This affects your positioning in search results.
Copy feature
We make it easy to duplicate a listing. When you click on Add a local resource, you can select a previous listing to copy or click continue to create a brand new one.
Viewing and editing your local resource listings
Every section on our website (e.g. Local resources, Events) includes a My _______. This is a record of your activity at One Place for Special Needs so you can keep track of your information. You can click on My Local Resources to view, edit or delete any of your listings.
Turn on and off your local resource listing
Your listing includes a check off box saying, “This listing is active.” If you wish to make it inactive simply uncheck the box. This takes your listing off the directory without losing the information.
Don't forget, reviews are important!
Without a doubt, parents searching this directory give more weight to providers with several positive reviews from fellow parents. Parents can even sort the directory based on parent ratings. Be proactive by encouraging your current clients to register and write a review for you. Your listing includes a Write a review link where your clients can give you a review and a star rating.
More information
Please see our FAQs page for more information about using One Place for Special Needs.