Human Services Data Standards

This data standard is intended to help case managers and the people affected by Superstorm Sandy find information about human services in the New York City area. It consists of:

Our data standards will remain as compatible as possible with the data standards recommended by the Open Referral Initiative.

Services Directory Other Standards Learn More

Services Schema

The “NYC:Prepared Human Services Data Standard” uses a modified version of the Open Referral Human Services Spec.

Field

Description

name

Name of Service

service_id

Unique numerical identifier for the service.

alternative_name

Alternate names for the service.

parent_service_type

[recommended] Top level term describing service. Separate with commas.

service_type

The set of types that describe the nature of the service. Separate with commas.

alt_type

[recommended] category/type used by service information source.

short_desc

Description of service using under 200 characters.

description

Full description of the service.

outcomes

The tangible thing generated by the service, e.g. a passport, permit, etc.

how_to_access

The channels through which the service can be accessed.

organization

The organization or agency that is providing the service.

service_area

The geographic areas where the service is provided. Separate with commas.

audience

The audiences for whom this service is directed. Seperate with commas.

eligibility

What makes someone eligible for this service?

documentation_required

Specific documents needed to access this service.

facilities

Locations where this service is offered. Don’t include offices where services are administered. Separate with semicolon (;).

languages

The set of languages used to offer the service.

urls

URLs that the service can be accessed from. Seperate with comas.

emails

[recommended] Email addresses for service inquiries. Seperate with comas.

phones

[recommended] Phone numbers for service inquiries. Seperate with comas.

hours_available

Days and times services can be accessed.

staff_contacts

Name, titles and/or contact info of staff to contact about services

fees

Amount service costs.

method_of_payment

Accepted means for paying for the service.

funding_sources

Organizations/agencies that fund this service.

wait

Time to wait/process service requests.

Source

Name/Link to the source(s) of information about the service used to create this entry.

Last Updated

Last time this entry was researched/updated.

Notes

Additional information.

 

Service_type (what) Taxonomy

Modified versions of the OpenEligibility.org Human Services taxonomy.

  • Financial Assistance

    • Individual Financial Assistance

    • Transportation Assistance

    • Other Financial Assistance

    • Mortgage Assistance

    • Rental Assistance

    • Construction Assistance

    • Utilities Assistance

    • Other Financial Assistance for Housing

  • Services

    • Language

    • Legal

    • Medical/Health Care

    • Child Care

    • Adult Care

    • Senior Care

    • Access & Functional Needs

    • Employment

    • Financial

    • Tax

    • IT

    • Case Management

    • Mental Health & Crisis Counselling

    • Document & Certificate Assistance

    • Benefits Assistance

    • Advocacy

    • Business Services

    • Food/Meals & Pantry

    • Animals

    • Housing Assistance

    • Transportation Services

    • Other Services

    • For Home Owners

    • For Renters

    • Other Housing Services

    • Spiritual Care

    • Referral Services

    • Repairs

    • Temporary Housing

    • Housing Relocation

    • Disaster Relief Center

    • Training

    • Domestic Violence

    • Insurance Assistance

    • Volunteering

    • Weatherization

    • Mold/Muck-Out & Debris Cleaning

    • Construction

    • Financial Councelling

    • Other Services for Home Owners

  • Material Donations

    • Clothing

    • Food

    • Furniture

    • Rebuild Items

    • Mattresses

    • Appliances

    • Household Goods

    • Transportation Donations

    • Other Material Donations

    • Construction Supplies & Tools

    • Debris and Clean-Up Supplies & Tools

    • Building Materials

    • Other Material Donation for Housing

  • Assistance for Organizations

    • Warehousing

    • Volunteers Housing

    • Volunteers Coordination

    • Disaster Preparedness

    • Donations Management

    • Resources for Non-profits

    • Non-Profit Financial Assistance

    • Small Business Financial Assistance

 

Audience (who) Taxonomy

Modified versions of the OpenEligibility.org Human Situations taxonomy.

  • Age Group

    • Seniors

    • Adults

    • Teens

    • Children

  • Gender

    • Men

    • Women

    • LGBTQ

  • Household

    • Families

    • Individuals

  • Disability

    • Hearing impaired

    • Visually impaired

    • Mobility impaired

    • Disabled

    • Cognitively Impaired

  • Health

    • HIV/AIDS

    • Chronically Ill

  • Role

    • Caregivers

    • Parents

    • Grandparents

    • Social service seekers

    • Pet owners

    • Potential pet owners

    • Landlords

  • Income Level

    • Low-income

    • Moderate-income

  • Armed Service

    • Veterans

  • Employment

    • Unemployed

    • Volunteers

  • Insurance

    • Insured

    • Uninsured

  • Survivors

    • Domestic violence survivors

    • Crime survivors

    • Child abuse survivors

    • Sexual assault survivors

    • Disaster survivors

  • Housing Tenure

    • Homeowners

    • Renters

    • Unstable housing

    • Temporarily displaced

    • Homeless

  • Citizenship

    • Immigrants

    • Undocumented

    • Refugee

    • Asylee

  • Language

    • Non-English speakers

  • Occupation

    • Case managers

    • Small business owners

  • Organizations

    • Municipalities

    • Non-profits

    • Government Agencies

    • Recovery organizations

 

Format

You can request bulk access to the data in a Google Spreadsheet, ODT or CSV format by emailing data@nycprepared.org.

License

All of the schema, taxonomies and data are licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. This means you’re free to use this information as long as you attribute its sources, NYC:Prepared and Open Referral, and don’t use it for commercial purposes.

Contribute

There are a number of ways you can use and contribute to our human services data project.

  • Request an edit to an existing service by filling out this form.

  • Add services by copying our data standards template into a Google, Excel or LibreOffice spreadsheet. Fill in as much information about each new services as you can. Make sure to use our taxonomy to describe the service_type and audience. To get your data uploaded to our directory, email a CSV to data@nycprepared.org.  We’ll take care of merging the data and will let you know when it’s all done.

  • Send ideas and requests for improving the data standard to data@nycprepared.org.
  • Sign up to receive updates about software releases, data standards, and “services information management trainings” where you can get access to edit the master spreadsheet.