Gold or Platinum Membership with InformUSA

All InformCanada memberships include a Gold or Platinum membership with the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems. Membership with InformCanada provides discounted conference fees.

Platinum Membership provides comprehensive, organization-wide benefits for all staff and volunteers, with a strong focus on training, certification, and system capacity building. Members receive significant discounts on Inform USA certification, re-certification, and accreditation, along with access to free webinars, discounted courses, certification preparation resources, and unlimited digital access to the Inform USA Community Navigation Training Manual. The membership also includes networking and governance benefits such as access to the Inform USA Networker knowledge portal, free job postings, affiliate membership, and voting privileges. Additional value is provided through advanced sector-level data reports and preferred vendor pricing for interpretation services, cloud telephony, and digital marketing support—making Platinum Membership a high-value option for workforce development, quality assurance, and organizational growth.

Gold Membership offers organization-wide access to essential training, certification, and professional networking benefits for all staff and volunteers. Members receive discounted pricing for Inform USA certification, re-certification, and accreditation, along with Conference member rates. The membership includes free access to webinars, training materials on the Inform USA Learn Platform, and reduced pricing for online courses. Gold Members also benefit from participation in the Inform USA Networker knowledge portal, regular updates through the weekly newsletter, affiliate membership where applicable, voting privileges, and preferred pricing for telephone interpretation and bilingual staff testing—supporting ongoing professional development and sector engagement.

Canadian Taxonomy of Human Services (Organization Members) – paid add on

The Taxonomy is included with all organizational memberships. The Taxonomy is a hierarchical classification system used for indexing human services databases. It allows resource information to be categorized in a systematic, unambiguous manner using language that is consistent from community to community. InformCanada has collaborated in the development of a full Canadian English-language and French-language version of the Taxonomy.

InformUSA I&R Training Manual (former ABCs of I&R) Canadian Edition (Organization Members)

The InformUSA I&R Training Manual is included with all organizational memberships. This 600+ page publication is the foundation for training new Community Resource Specialists and Community Resources Specialists – Database Curators, and also serves as a reference tool and refresher for more experienced staff – especially anyone preparing to obtain their Certification. Instructional sections include discussion issues, role-playing options, scenarios, guidelines on language to use in certain situations, and questions on the objectives.

InformCanada/ InformUSA Certification Program

Professional credentials are awarded to individuals who successfully complete the appropriate InformUSA/InformCanada Certification Program for I&R practitioners. It is a measurement of demonstrated and documented competence in the field of I&R reflecting specific competencies and related performance criteria, which describe the knowledge, skills, attitudes and work-related behaviors needed by I&R practitioners to successfully execute their duties.

The following Canadian Certifications are available: Community Resource Specialist; Community Resource Specialist – Database Curator

InformCanada/ InformUSA Standards for Professional Information and Referral

First published in 1973 and now in its 8th edition, the InformUSA /InformCanada Standards underpin and bind together every aspect of I&R. The Standards are the foundation of 211 service delivery and the prime benchmark of quality I&R. The Standards, covering every facet of an I&R operation including disaster preparedness. Members of InformCanada work collaboratively with InformUSA on the development of new Standards and to ensure their applicability within the Canadian context.

InformUSA Accreditation Program

Accreditation assesses the ability of I&R providers to demonstrate full compliance with the InformUSA /InformCanada Standards for Professional Information and Referral. Accreditation is a multi-phase process that culminates in a detailed onsite review to verify that all documentation really does meet the distinct components of the accreditation criteria.

InformUSA Networker

The Networker provides access to online communities. It is the professional social networking application for I&R practitioners. The Networker gives you the ability to create and participate in public and private discussion groups, search archived and ongoing I&R resource libraries, directories and blogs.

InformUSA LMS Learn

InformCanada members can access a variety of interactive online training courses including “Onboarding for I&R Teams” and “Certification Preparation”. For more information, check out https://learn.InformUSA.org

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Membership Costs and Advantages