The Beacon

The Beacon is a web and iPhone platform that helps churches and recovery communities coordinate people, serving opportunities, and ongoing relationships. It brings schedules, volunteer requests, group announcements, and sponsorship connections into one place, helping people know what comes next and how they can take part. Connect. Belong. Serve. Ministry coordination involves more than putting dates on a calendar. People need to find a place to serve, understand their commitments, stay connected between meetings, and get support when plans change. Leaders need a clear view of those commitments and the requests that need their attention. Beacon connects those everyday workflows around the communities people already belong to. For participants, Beacon brings together upcoming assignments, serving times, locations, and role details. People can explore volunteer opportunities, respond to invitations, request coverage, help with an open shift, and follow announcements from their groups. Sponsorship participants can manage their profiles and connection requests and continue private conversations with their connections. For leaders, the platform supports people and group coordination, recurring activities and meeting plans, volunteer scheduling, training and attendance, announcements, and structured intake and sponsorship review. The iPhone app puts everyday schedule, volunteer-review, and community workflows within reach while away from a desk. Available tools depend on each person's role and the community's setup. A central design decision is to connect church operations and recovery sponsorship without treating them as the same thing. Organization membership and sponsorship-network access are separate, so a person's church role does not automatically grant access to sensitive sponsorship information. That distinction shapes the navigation, permissions, and shared web and mobile experience. The platform combines a JavaScript and Node.js application, Express APIs, PostgreSQL and Supabase, and a native iPhone app built with Swift and SwiftUI. The project spans product design, web development, backend workflows, and native mobile development. The web platform and iPhone app are live. The Beacon Platform version 1.0 is available on the App Store. An Android companion app is in development. Beacon works with participating organizations; people sign in to their Beacon account or follow an invitation from their community.