Allen Chapel AME Church has launched its new interactive website, at http://www.acamec.org. The dramatically redesigned site, created by AssureTech, embodies this historically rich church's forward–thinking vision and commitment to the growing needs of its patrons. Based on extensive research with its congregants and community partners, it offers:

• rich content provided by church staff from a wide array of resources
• direct access to reference articles from almost every page
• streamlined searching and more intuitive navigation
• interactive exhibitions using multimedia and technology

The site’s homepage welcomes visitors with bold new colors, a clean uncluttered design, and moving images with featured content centered on Allen's mission to inspire dialogue, advance the Gospel and strengthen our communities.

New Types of Content
The website will feature new types of digital content, inspired by Allen Chapel's collections and other resources. The first of these projects, a unique and interactive event calendar and many other features.

New Underlying Technology
A major aspect of the new site is the use of Joomla!, an open source software platform. Joomla! eliminates the dependency on commercial software vendors that provide rigid frameworks with little room for customization. Switching to an open source platform allows the AssureTech digital team to implement extensions for the Washington Informer's specific needs as well as share and benefit from innovations across the Joomla! community.