The Path
... from surviving to thriving.
This is the largest project I've ever taken on.
The Path is evolving, from its origin as a pair of webpages, toward its future as a powerful application designed to work on smart devices: phones, laptops, desktops, etc., supported by a vast and ever-growing base of timely, helpful information. Here are a couple of briefs that help explain the objective:
- a sketch of the concept
- an overview and timeline of the project
The Path is a utility meant to be a source of beneficial information for any soul in pain. That pain may be physiological, psychological, emotional, spiritual, legal or monetary; urgent or chronic; personal, familial or communal.
Building on The Path's humble beginning, we intend to create an extensive, intelligent, online tool whereby anyone using it can ably and quickly acquire the insight they need to make an informed decision in relief of their own difficult situation or that of another.
The Path began as a pair of web resources...
- The Services Directory contains lists of service providers with information about the nature of their services, where they are located, and how to contact them. As a set of webpages, it proved to be difficult to navigate as the list grew larger and larger. Presently there are over 600 entries just of providers in the greater Portland area. The list was originally created during the COVID pandemic and many entries may no longer be active. You can get a feel for the current state of the data if you select one of the categories, such as "free groceries". Accuracy, currency and breadth of information are all reasons we need to frequently update the database, especially as we grow the geographic area of coverage.
- The Well-being Library is a place to find insight, knowledge and direction, much in the nature of a physical library. This feature will continue to be both a series of cataloged web pages and an additional resource in The Path's database.
A 2021 vision of the evolution of The Path into an intelligent application continues to guide the current effort.
As of April 2026, the current status is...
- Technical: We plan to have a fully working prototype by June of this year, asking people with real needs
to test it for effectiveness and ease of use.
The application's query engine, including its content management system (CMS), works exceptionally well. (This schema portrays our user interface/experience approach and also how we will use data analytics to feed back information to providers and foundations.)
We are joined in this effort by five students in the capstone project course in the OSU Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. This team is developing artificial intelligence agents that will scan provider websites for all pertinent information and convert it to a normalized format for upload to our provider database. This will eliminate untold hours of human labor, and can be scheduled for regular scan and update. The team will complete its work of building our agents by the first week of June of this year.
Next step: using the AI agents, we will extract provider information from as many of the 208 national food banks, starting with the Oregon Food Bank's 610 pantries and other sources of free food, and then and then gathering data from throughout the United States as we grow. Similarly, we will develop a process for obtaining provider information about all the homeless shelters, emergency shelters and domestic violence shelters in the country using similar agents. Ideally, in emergencies, our AI engine will continually update shelter information.
Concurrently, we will complete the design of a friendly, satisfying user experience (UX) and easily navigable user interface (UI) for the front end of the application (possibly incorporating artificial intelligence).
- Data Content: Currently our test database contains provider location and contact information, hours of operation
and other details of all 620 food pantries and sources of hot and boxed meals throughout the state of Oregon. The manual input of this data took over 190 hours; and when the input was complete
much of the data was already obsolete and needed to be re-input. This is a strong argument for AI automation.
- Staffing: We'll need people—volunteers for now but eventually employees and contractors—to refine the app's code and to populate and maintain the service provider database and the Well-being Library.
- Legal: In Time of Need is an Oregon public benefit corporation [2209845-95] with a federal EIN [99-0535831]. For the record, here are our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, and once again the 501(c)(3) qualification letter from the IRS. We will employ attorneys to build protections of our intellectual property and to safeguard us from liability from false or inaccurate Provider information.
- Financial: We're covering all fees and other expenses out-of-pocket for now. We're working up a presentation that will tell our story to stakeholders and potential funders. Since we are a 501(c)(3), all donations will be tax-deductible. Our draft Business Plan is available online.
If you're curious about the origin of The Path...
For decades I've volunteered to improve the prospects of what I experienced as distressed populations: at-risk teens, abused and neglected children, the elderly and infirm.
A few years ago I began mentoring prison inmates one-on-one in preparation for their release from a medium security prison here in Oregon.
Typically, the work involves helping inmates plan for and secure a place to live, a job, affordable transportation, healthcare, etc.
At one point, Josh—a prisoner who was familiar with the work I'd done for his fellow inmates both before and after their release from prison—said to me, "I have eight years left
to my sentence. You may not be around when I'm ready to be released. I'm asking that everything you've done for those other men you make available to me."
As of this writing I'm in my 80s and clear-eyed about my mortality. This website and any future efforts by our team will be a response to Josh's request.
We're clearing a path for him to follow when his release day arrives, whether I'm here or not.
But The Path is not for Josh alone nor for inmates alone; it's for a whole universe of people needing to survive in this society who might have limited resources. People like:
- The newly homeless (due to fire, flood, earthquake, violence, unemployment, illness or simply bad luck)
- Emancipated youth, and teens aging out of foster care
- Indigenous peoples, immigrants and refugees
- Discharged veterans and others suffering from PTSD or other forms of mental illness
- Job hunters of all kinds
- ... in fact, anyone who might need a helping hand.
It's my hope that they find just the right resource on The Path to light their way. I'm wishing for everyone who's on their life's path a safe, happy and satisfying journey!
