MIDDLEBURG – With a couple of clicks of a computer and a single sweep of a finger across the mouse pad, a standing-room-only audience of nonprofit, community, health and wellness, government, environment and faith-based groups suddenly was transfixed on Impact Clay’s “new signature program” called Impact Works.

In collaboration with Pragmatic Works’ Brian Knight, Impact Clay rolled out its most ambitious project yet. It was unveiled at the monthly meeting of the Clay SafetyNet Alliance on Thursday, Aug. 21.

SafetyNet is a collaboration of stakeholders who work together to enhance communication and improve efficiency in addressing county issues.

“One of the tools under our new signature program is called Linksy,” said Impact Clay CEO Connie Thomas. “As you know, or maybe don’t know, the county no longer has its database (of nonprofits and services).”

So, Impact Works was created.

Knight said Linksy is an AI-based program that’s free to join. Pragmatic Works has already collected 186 groups from Clay County that provide services, ranging from food pantries to veteran services, domestic violence resources, health and dental care, substance abuse treatment, foster care, mental healthcare and homelessness relief.

“It's definitely a work in progress,” Thomas said. “Just know that we're excited about the opportunity this is going to bring to our Clay County community. I know that together, we can all make this something really phenomenal, something that really, really helps people in real time.”

To access Linksy, residents can scan a QR code at Impact Clay (facebook.com/impactclay), the Clay County government website (claycountygov.com), Mercy Support Services (mercysupportservices.org) and the Clay County District Schools (oneclay.net).

Knight said once you’ve accessed the system, you can ask Linksy for help for a specific need.

“We're going to say, I’m going to say, ‘I need some medical assistance, here, health and wellness.’ We go, tap, tap, tap, and then it's all done, you know? OK. It identifies areas where I can seek help. I'll say dental care. We already have several hundred nonprofits here. It will break it down and give the names like The Way Free Medical Clinic.”

Knight said people’s information will be kept private for anyone who signs up to Linksy.

Michelle Reaves, the Director of Operations at Impact Clay, stated that grants funded the program.

“So right now, we're doing this pilot,” she said. “He's (Knight) found a lot of grants for us and in-kind donations from Brian Knight and Pragmatic Works. We'll have more funding as we go through some subscriptions.

“It's free to organizations to use the chatbot, free to the public to use the chatbot. We want this to be a kind of extension of our Impact Clay Train, really, except on a much larger scale, so that they can have virtual help immediately. Linksys is an octopus because it reaches out to all the organizations, right?”

Linksy is available on four websites - Impact Clay, Clay County government, Clay County District Schools and Mercy Support Services.