NORWAY — After months of work, volunteers with the Oxford Hills Resource Coalition are ready to begin distributing a guide they hope will change the way people access social services in the area.

“It puts people in touch with people, and it puts people in touch with resources,” the Rev. Anne Stanley of the coalition said.

Containing 78 pages of listings designed to help people plug into the support network available to them, the Oxford Hills Community Resource Guide contains information on 160 potential sources of aid for locals in need.

The guide has listings on everything from peer support groups and substance abuse services, to food pantries, transportation and clothing options.

Currently, Stanley said, when people in need approach a church, a town office, a social service agency or a hospital looking for help, the staff at those organizations might or might not have the information that the person needs.

“We might know where to send a person, which agency or whatever,” she said. “Sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we’re unsure, so we have to call around and find out. We just don’t always have that at our fingertips.”

Now, each organization will be able to access the guide, which will allow them to refer people to the right place.

In addition, since the guide will be hosted online through at least one participating organization, Healthy Oxford Hills, staff members can physically put information directly into the hands of the person who needs it.

“If somebody wants information about something, the person on the computer can print out the relevant page and give it to that person,” Stanley said.

She said the guide will be subject to regular revisions from those who host the guide at town offices, churches, libraries, area hospitals and social service agencies.

Stanley said she regularly sees situations in which the guide would be helpful.

“For example, there’s a new minister in the area and we had a clergy meeting the other day,” she said. “He hadn’t been there very long. He asked, ‘is there some sort of resource book?’ He doesn’t know what’s available. People don’t know.”

Stanley said she understands what it’s like to come into an area without knowing that critical information.

“Boy, I would have liked it when I first came,” she said.

OHRC formed in 2010, after Stanley heard from a local official that churches should be the first resort for people seeking aid.

Spurred by that comment, Stanley put together a working group of interested individuals from churches, towns, hospitals and social service agencies, to properly identify the right place for people to go for the solutions to various problems.

It quickly emerged that the organizations which offer help of one kind or another don’t work in a coordinated fashion, and indeed don’t even know about each other.

Now, key individuals in about 50 local organizations are receiving folders containing the guide. Volunteers hope that the online version of the guide will be ready soon.

In the future, the group might tackle another goal that was floated in early 2011: the creation of a physical Resource Center, where those in need could be walked through resources available to them by a trained volunteer in a comfortable setting.

The group’s efforts were aided by a $3,780 grant from the Diocese of Maine, some of which was spent on a computer and related equipment.

OHRC will meet next in the early summer.