glossary
Online status
You are a neighbor, not an on-duty employee. Online is a choice you make when you can actually show up.
Online is opt-in
Current approval is required before online even exists as a useful state. Then you tap I can help on the live map when you are actually free — between classes on NDSU’s campus, after work in West Fargo, a Saturday near downtown Moorhead. Matching considers helpers who are online, not everyone who was approved last fall.
How you leave the pool
Go offline. Leave the app. Accept a request (you are now in that request, not the general pool). Go quiet. Any of those removes you from active matching. The product assumes a helper is a person with a life, not a shift board.
Location when you are online
You can use your location for genuinely nearby offers. When both sides have matching location, offers stay within about 10 km of the requester’s rounded area. You are not required to become a pin on someone else’s map. Requesters still see coarse areas until they consent after accept.
Questions people actually ask
Am I online just because I opened the app?
Helping requires current approval and going online. Browsing Home, Community, or the map as a requester is not the same state.
Can I help only on my campus?
You choose categories and when you are online. Nearby matching uses recent activity and, when you allow it, location. It is not a campus-only shift board.
What if I forget to go offline?
Leaving the app or going quiet removes you from active matching. Still, go offline when you are done. You are not on duty by default.
Keep going
helpers
Helpers show up
Apply in the app, submit identity evidence, wait on a staff decision. Current approval is required before you can see or accept requests in Fargo–Moorhead.
glossary
Matching
Help Me matching privately offers a request to eligible approved helpers who are online, suitable, recently active, and not blocked — not a public feed.
glossary
Approved helper
An approved helper on Help Me has current, staff-reviewed identity evidence. Anyone can join. Not everyone can help. This is not a background check.
glossary
The live map
The Help Me live map is where Fargo–Moorhead help happens. Request help or go online as a helper. Open asks show as approximate areas.
who it's for
For people who would have stopped anyway
If you live in Fargo, Moorhead, or West Fargo and want to help neighbors with everyday tasks, apply to become an approved Helper.
product
How Help Me works
Ask in a sentence. Approved helpers nearby see it. One accepts. You chat privately and meet in public. Four steps — that is the entire ask.
Help Me is a community app for adults in Fargo–Moorhead. It is not a K–12 student program, not a youth chat, and not campus police.