How It Works

A One Degree chapter is an organization, coalition, or volunteer group that commits to adding and maintaining resource information on One Degree for its own community. Supported with know-how and advice from One Degree headquarters staff, chapters have the autonomy and flexibility to decide how to self-organize and make decisions on what is most needed for their own community.

Chapters can either be a formal organization that takes responsibility for One Degree resource upkeep in its community, or an informal group of volunteers or coalition of agencies. Those who have started or contributed to their own chapter include:

  • Nonprofit practitioners
  • Social workers / case managers
  • Healthcare workers
  • Government workers/agencies
  • Concerned residents

Chapters designate a President who becomes the main point of contact with One Degree headquarters.

By becoming an official One Degree chapter, the group commits to

  • Add a target number of resources across categories to One Degree’s platform
  • Create and follow a process for regular resource information maintenance
  • Develop an outreach and marketing plan to get the word out about One Degree
  • Designate a chapter president, who is the main point of contact and liaison with headquarters

Are you an individual practitioner, social worker, or resident?

Identify a group of people to form a coalition that will be the basis of your chapter.

Are you already part of a coalition or group?

Great! See if the coalition would be interested in adopting this project.

Work at a nonprofit or government agency that could take the lead?

That works, too! Apply to get started.

The One Degree headquarters team helps to get chapters set up and provides ongoing advice along the way. Specifically, One Degree commits to providing the following to all chapters:

  • The One Degree platform with its free website and apps, as well as a commitment to provide technical assistance
  • Guidelines for target resource coverage to help chapters set goals for adding information across categories
  • Templates for tracking resource maintenance
  • Instructions on how to gather and maintain high-quality resource information, including through webinars and training videos
  • Training on how to use One Degree’s resource editing tool to enter resource information
  • Outreach/marketing materials at-cost (flyers, stickers, etc.)

View our Chapters Toolkit to see examples of support materials, instruction and overview of Chapter process.

When a chapter reaches its goal of adding resources, One Degree will feature the chapter’s region on 1degree.org and its mobile apps, thereby making it publicly accessible.

We provide the One Degree platform for free for non-profit use, and you can form a chapter at no cost. We also offer paid services to those organizations and agencies that are interested in bringing One Degree to their community, but do not have the capacity to conduct the work themselves. Our sliding scale model makes starting a One Degree chapter both affordable and practical for most communities and configurations.

Download the fact-sheet about different chapter packages and services at each tier.