Community Empowerment with CarePortal

For Others’ third priority in the Well-Being Support Ecosystem is community empowerment. Community empowerment allows towns and neighborhoods to build strong relationships and unite community members in a network of support. With a healthy community, at-risk kids and families don’t need to look far for help, and positive change becomes more sustainable.

Our partner, CarePortal, makes it easy for at-risk children and families to connect with local churches and organizations in their time of need. Their online care-sharing platform posts vetted real-time needs, allowing churches and other providers to respond swiftly and establish a lasting connection. These long-term relationships are what community empowerment is all about: connecting local kids, families, volunteers, churches, businesses, and caseworkers to form a robust network of support that strengthens the entire neighborhood.

Adrien Lewis, founder and president of CarePortal, shares more with us about how the platform works and what makes community empowerment essential to helping kids and families thrive.

Could you please introduce yourself and CarePortal?

I would be happy to. I’m Adrian Lewis, founder and president of CarePortal. [I’ve] been around since the beginning, which is 9 years and some change now. We started CarePortal because we saw local churches help vulnerable kids in meaningful ways, and we wanted to do that in our own backyard. So, we started working with churches in Kansas City and figuring out how we could come alongside them so they could serve the most vulnerable kids and families in their neighborhood. At first, we mostly asked them to become foster and adoptive parents, but we realized that doesn’t work for everybody. But everybody has a role to play. And that was the birth of the idea of CarePortal.

How did the idea of using a tech platform—a digital portal—come about?

This is actually pretty simple: it was just God’s idea. I know what that sounds like, but it’s what happened. I mean, there was no boardroom conversation. We weren’t a technology company. I’m not a developer. It was literally a step of faith for us to go down this path.

Now, though, I believe nonprofits should embrace technology in how they serve people. We don’t live in the 1950s anymore. If you think about it even further back, the printing press is a piece of technology, and that’s what unleashed the Bible to everyday people. So we use technology in all kinds of ways to better communicate with the people we serve and those trying to help. It’s necessary.

What makes CarePortal different from other organizations that meet local needs?

CarePortal’s requests are always vetted, so a caseworker submits the request on behalf of a family. That’s huge because it builds trust in responders. They don’t wonder if the need is real, they just consider whether they can meet it. Taking out that element of uncertainty helps people feel comfortable to respond.

Another is that while we allow anyone to participate, the point of care[, the one who fulfills the need in person,] is always a local church. Why is that? Because connection is what drives long-term change for a family. It’s great to meet the physical need and have a touch point of hope, but we want to establish something beyond that moment. It becomes a relationship where the child, youth, or family being helped develops a connection with the responders. And that has a lasting life to it. The local church is best positioned to mobilize that work because of our calling to ‘love thy neighbor’. That’s what we’re fighting for.

So churches are the point of contact, but can anyone sign up to meet needs on CarePortal?

Yes, anyone can sign up–individuals, nonprofits, churches, businesses, rotary clubs, caseworkers, sports teams, you name it. For all of our different care stakeholders, the starting point is simple and the same. They go to our website or app and create an account. Then our people, wherever necessary, will help show them how to best leverage technology for their organization type and how to plug into the community.

CarePortal excels at helping communities come together to surround local kids and families in need. Why does community empowerment matter?

Well, on a personal note, my family is a foster and adoptive family. That’s my own home, and we have seen our community rally around us to help make that possible and sustainable. And on the CarePortal side, I can tell you church after church has told us how meaningful the platform has been in bringing awareness and access so their congregation’s families can serve others.

How do you rally people to get them excited and involved?

Well, I’ll tell you, over 5,000 churches have signed up for Care Portal. It generally starts with a passionate person within the church who wants to see their church mobilized to care for the community. Then our team comes alongside that person to build a strategy and teach them about the platform.

The challenge, frankly, is that churches have competing priorities just like any organization. So while there can be passion, there can also be a lack of movement that stalls things out. I would love to see churches ask themselves this question: How is our congregation serving the community on a daily basis?

If they have an answer to that question, CarePortal can make it easier. We can provide some backdrop and create a system, if possible. If they don’t have an answer, CarePortal can be the solution. It creates an easy framework for your church to get started.

What have you seen empowered families and communities been able to achieve?

One of my favorite stories is about Mikasha. Mikasha was 17 years old, pregnant, and aging out of the foster care system. She had nothing. Like no money, no family, nothing. She needed a crib, a basic thing, but she had no way to get one. But she did have a caseworker, so Mikasha’s caseworker went to the CarePortal platform and entered the need, asking for any support. Instantly, the Denbow family from a church down the road, People’s Church, got this request. And they’re like, ‘We can certainly help.’

So they responded, and the caseworker connected the Denbows and Mikasha. The Denbows went to her house, and as they set up the crib, Mikasha shared her story. And the next thing you know, the Denbows felt overwhelmed with this thought that ‘Mikasha needs more than a crib, and we can do more’. So they offered to help her go through Driver’s Ed and threw her a baby shower, and Mikasha even went to church with them sometimes. In short, the Denbows treated Mikasha like family.

It’s through that radical love and support that Mikasha’s life transformed. Her baby did not go into foster care. She broke the cycle. She married a youth pastor, and she and her husband now lead a ministry at their church where they serve youth aging out of foster care, just like her.

Her story will never be the same because a church family got connected to a young woman and came alongside her to make a meaningful connection that transformed her life.

We All Have a Part to Play

As Adrien indicates, the amazing thing about community empowerment is that it’s for everyone. You don’t have to be a social worker, a nonprofit, or an expert. A truly empowered community bands together all walks of life with their gifts and talents to meet the needs of the vulnerable in their very own neighborhoods. When a child and family are surrounded by local support, the solutions the community provides can be more holistic, nuanced, and personal. The relationships forged in such circumstances are what will carry at-risk children and families through hardship and help establish lasting change for their stories.