Built on the front lines, for the front lines
Common Grounds Nova Scotia is a living directory of community services across the province — created by Nikita VanVessem, an outreach worker who saw how much time frontline staff spend searching the internet for help that should be easy to find. Phone numbers change, programs close, intake hours shift, and shelter bed availability changes by the hour. When someone needs help right now, every minute spent digging through scattered websites is a minute not spent with them.
Why this app exists
If you work in outreach, social work, health care, or any kind of human services, you know the problem: finding the right resource can mean opening a dozen browser tabs, scrolling through social media posts, and calling numbers that no longer work. Printed binders are a thing of the past since services like 211 exist, but the internet is still scattered with information that goes stale fast.
Common Grounds brings everything into one place and lets the organizations that run these programs update their own listings directly. That means the person sitting across from you gets accurate information — not a crossed-out phone number from a website that hasn’t been touched in three years.
Nova Scotia made, Canadian hosted
This app was built in Nova Scotia for Nova Scotia. The data lives on Canadian servers, and the directory is designed around the real communities, counties, and service systems frontline workers navigate every day.
For people who help people
Outreach workers, social workers, health care providers, and anyone looking for help for themselves or a neighbour.
Every county in Nova Scotia
Search by county, need, population served, or plain-language keywords like “women’s shelter” or “help with rent.”
Kept current by organizations
Verified managers can update their own listings, programs, hours, and — for shelters — live bed availability.
Confidential by design
Professional tools use anonymous file codes, not names or initials. Client information stays in your hands, not in our database.
A note from Nikita
I built Common Grounds because I live this work. When you’re sitting with someone who needs a safe place to sleep tonight, a food hamper, or help keeping the power on, you don’t have time to chase down whether a program is still running. You need the answer now, and you need to trust it.
My hope is that Common Grounds becomes the place Nova Scotia frontline workers trust when they need to connect someone with the right resource at the right time.
— Nikita VanVessem
Get started
Create a free account to browse the directory, save favourites, and post short-term resources on the community board. Upgrade to Professional when you need client search, resource packages, confidential client files, and live bed availability.