Web Platform & Member Portal

Overview

When crisis strikes, Ohio responds. Since 1996, the Ohio Crisis Response Team has been the small non-profit that arrives in the moments, days, and weeks after a community has been shattered: a natural disaster, an act of mass violence, a tragic accident. Their volunteer responders provide immediate, compassionate, on-scene support to communities navigating their darkest hours.

After 30 years and 400+ deployments, the team needed digital infrastructure that could keep up with the work without becoming work itself.

That's what I'm helping them build.

The brief

OCRT is run by a small staff and a roster of volunteer responders, most of whom are clinicians, first responders, and peer counselors. They are responders before they are computer operators. Every minute they spend wrestling a tool is a minute they are not on deployment.

The question I started with was simple. What does the team need their digital home to do, and how do I make it disappear into the work?

The public site

ohiocrisisresponseteam.org is the front door for the audiences OCRT actually serves: law enforcement and emergency-management leaders, school superintendents, and local-government officials with the authority to formally request a deployment. Clear language about what the team does, who their responders are, and how to invite them in. No charity-speak, no jargon.

The site also supports the team's outreach so funders can see the work, and so a public-safety partner deciding whether to call has the answers in front of them before they pick up the phone.

The member portal

The member portal is where active responders manage their certifications, training records, deployment availability, and post-deployment paperwork. The design priority: every screen reads quickly, every action takes the fewest clicks, and the system handles the mundane administrative work so volunteers can stay focused on the people they are there to support.

My role

I'm wearing two hats here. The first is technology advisor: helping a small non-profit get its digital posture current without overwhelming the people running it. Choosing tools they can sustain without me, designing systems that fit a volunteer-run organization, and making sure each technology decision earns its keep against the mission.

The second is builder: delivering a public site they're proud to point partners at, and a member portal responders actually want to use.

Status

The new public website goes live in July 2026. The member portal is in active build-out.

References

• Public site: ohiocrisisresponseteam.org