Dan Green

PACT runs family programs out of two locations, one in Cole Harbour and one in Eastern Passage. Their website had been on Wix at parentsandchildrentogether.info, and they were ready for something that better reflected the centre today. The goal was a fresh site on their pactfrc.com address that the staff could easily keep up to date themselves.

I built a custom WordPress theme from scratch, designed around PACT's branding and the way their staff actually work. Instead of a page builder, the staff get a set of 12 page sections I designed for them, including content blocks, image galleries, card grids, a team section, forms and carousels. They can add, remove and reorder these on any page without touching code, and every page stays on brand.

The biggest piece was the calendar. PACT has 17 regular programs and a steady stream of one-off events across both locations. Staff enter a program once with its schedule and it fills in the calendar automatically. Each location has its own colour and filter, so a family in Eastern Passage can see just what's happening near them. Staff can also mark closure days that clear the calendar for that date.

Before launch I checked the site for accessibility, so it's easy to read and use for everyone who visits, whatever device or setup they're on. I also set up the hosting, SSL, security monitoring and the site's outgoing email for contact forms.

On launch day I moved pactfrc.com over to the new site. Every page from the old Wix site now redirects to its match on the new one, so old links and bookmarks still work.