Child resource website upgraded, goes national

When Chelsea resident Krista Brackin launched her “Everything for Kids Birmingham” website — a site geared toward helping families search and rank a variety of services and activities — in August 2015, it was set up as a local resource for parents in the Birmingham area. 

After several months, she realized she wanted to make some changes. She decided to expand it, add searching capability and take it from local to national. 

“There are so many websites out there for any major city, I didn’t want to go down the same path,” Brackin said. “Instead of doing one city and being a niche, I decided to learn from them and put everything on it.” 

The site got a complete makeover and new name: “Now What Mom?” After making a wish list of everything she wanted the site to include, she worked with local web designer RedShift Creative, and Brackin’s new website was launched in January. 

It included a new logo, improved search capabilities, including Google recognition for location, and a calendar to search by area. Users can create a profile, save their favorites and add feedback. They can also suggest a listing, write reviews, rate businesses and post anonymously. 

Businesses now have full control of their listings (priced at an introductory rate of $24/year), and registered users can set up their own free account. Nonprofit users are free.

“I wanted to make it so much easier for users to access,” Brackin said. “Categories are broken down to encompass everything a child could need that a parent would need help with. From the DMV to schools to any extracurricular activity they can think of. If a category isn’t there, we will add it.”

Categories include community, education, health care, local links, shopping, sports, arts and things to do. 

“The short-term goal is to encompass everything within Jefferson and Shelby counties, but my big overall goal is putting everything we can find for any child anywhere in the U.S., since it’s built for the entire U.S.,” she said. 

For more information, go to nowwhatmom.com.