• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

TownConnect Aims to Strengthen Local Communities and Save Time for Families

Posted on: Monday, 22 October 2007, 09:00 CDT

WALTHAM, Mass., Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Today marks the public launch of TownConnect (http://www.townconnect.com/), an exclusive, private online service that organizes and connects families to people, activities and organizations in the towns in which they live. Because today's families juggle full, fast-paced schedules, they can easily lose touch with the people and activities in their towns. TownConnect brings people together to create stronger communities and keeps people in the loop.

"Keeping tabs on a family's schedule and staying connected to neighbors and local activities has become increasingly challenging in today's hectic society," said Mike Ford, founder and CEO, TownConnect. "TownConnect will help families deal with this reality. Simply put, we make the logistics of daily life a whole lot easier."

From sports schedules to carpools, TownConnect is designed to help track and manage the lives of busy families. A centralized family calendar, address book and private family blog make it easy to keep tabs on all elements of day-to-day family activity. TownConnect makes it easy for members to integrate events and contacts from their existing tools like Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL and Yahoo.

In addition to families, TownConnect is geared towards cash-strapped leagues, community organizations and schools. At no cost, teachers, parents and coaches can set up secure, private group sites to share events, photos, homework assignments and other important announcements. A town blog, complete with schedules, provides each town with its own forum and serves as a centerpiece for up-to-date information about individual towns.

"The notions of close-knit neighborhoods and establishing roots are difficult to realize with today's hectic lifestyles," said Ford. "TownConnect hopes to change that. While social networking has allowed people around the world to connect virtually, TownConnect uses similar technology to bring local people together, literally. Whether you are a volunteer organizer, group leader or newcomer, TownConnect is a great way to get to know people in your town and support your local community."

"Most social scientists acknowledge the importance to both individuals and society as a whole of people feeling connected to other members of the community," said Dr. Hannah Levertov, Dean, Newbury College. "The potential benefits of these bonds which can exist within and between groups are often referred to as 'social capital.' Some experts worry that cyberspace or virtual networks are replacing the more traditional community or neighborhood interactions and eroding our 'social capital.' A service like TownConnect puts together the best of both worlds, using internet and web connections to actually strengthen local ties. The net effect will be to increase our potential resources of trust, goodwill and cooperation, and ultimately everyone's civic engagement."

While online safety and privacy are common family concerns, TownConnect makes social networking secure for families and towns because:

-- the site is password-protected, for members only, -- members fully control their information; no one can see their contact information or profiles unless they allow it, and -- members can only see and find people from their town, groups, schools, teams or previous connections.

"Online safety is at the forefront of parental concerns," said Ford. "TownConnect's multi-member, family profiles give parents the control they need and lets families connect to families."

About TownConnect

TownConnect (http://www.townconnect.com/) is an exclusive, private online service that organizes and connects families to people, activities and organizations in the towns in which they live. TownConnect provides parents, volunteers, group leaders, teachers and coaches an easy, secure way to keep their members in the loop. TownConnect provides national and local businesses highly targeted sponsorship opportunities. Publicly launched in October 2007, TownConnect was founded by online marketing veteran and youth sports coach Mike Ford.

Contact: Linda Walsh The Castle Group, Inc. lwalsh@thecastlegrp.com (617) 337-9516

TownConnect

CONTACT: Linda Walsh of The Castle Group, Inc., +1-617-337-9516,lwalsh@thecastlegrp.com, for TownConnect

Web site: http://www.townconnect.com/

Source: PRNewswire

More News in this Category