Stewarding Community Resources Through Connecting Churches

Overview

CarePortal Community Responders, which include Church Response Team Members and Leaders who are not local to the individual request they want to help with, play a vital role in meeting the tangible and financial needs of vulnerable families within the CarePortal Network. Each donation from a Community Responder—whether it’s a financial gift through the platform or a commitment to provide a tangible resource outside of the platform—is stewarded by specially-trained church partners called "Connecting Churches." These churches build and lead response teams that act as trusted stewards of your resources, ensuring donations serve the family as intended while aiming to foster meaningful relationships that point to lasting hope. This article shares more about how how CarePortal works, and why it's been built on this particular process.

Included in This Article

• How CarePortal Works
• Circles of Care
• A Safe and Reliable Donation Process
  

How CarePortal Works

CarePortal was built on a vision to mainstream Care-Sharing through local churches, one meaningful connection at a time. We believe this connection can be an important solution to multiple complex problems facing our communities, including family breakdown. Together, we can ensure there is more than enough care for every child.

Anyone is welcome to create a free account with CarePortal and participate in helping to meet requests that have each been vetted and entered by a trusted vetting agency parter.

When approved, local churches step up to help, they are given access by the Agency Worker to be at the point of care to ensure vulnerable families have the best chance possible to experience an impact that goes beyond just meeting a specific material need. If a Community Responder or someone who is part of a non-local church's response team wants to help meet a request, a specially-trained local church called a Connecting Church, each equipped with a reloadable CarePortal Card, plays a unique role by facilitating the important process of stewarding the responder's resources to meet the request. 

Circles of Care

The CarePortal platform was built on a model called the Circles of Care, which emphasizes that children thrive in loving families, families are best supported by their local church, and the Church flourishes when it is trusted and respected within its community. However, gaps often exist between these circles, preventing beneficial collaboration from taking place. And CarePortal's solution to help bridge the gap between Community partners and the kids and families in crisis is Connecting Churches.

When resources are provided through CarePortal, it isn’t simply about meeting material needs. Instead, the Church becomes the relational connection between community responders and the families they support.  This model ensures that vulnerable families are served by individuals who are not only as local as possible, but who've also been trained and prepared to engage them, regardless of the circumstances that led to their moment of need. The Church’s unique calling and motivation to “serve the least of these” with a message of hope comes to life in ways that impact both the giver and the receiver.

A Safe and Reliable Donation Process

The CarePortal platform’s Connecting Church feature, paired with the CarePortal Card, ensures that resources are handled responsibly and effectively. Each request shared on the platform is carefully vetted by a child-serving profession, providing responders with confidence that their donations directly address real needs. All CarePortal requests are reviewed and verified to ensure they meet specific criteria, safeguarding the integrity of each donation. No CarePortal request is entered as a self-referral from the individual or caregiver in need.

Here's how the response process works on an open CarePortal request:

1. Responding to Meet Needs: Community Responders from anywhere can choose to Fund or Provide (or both) items included on the open request.
2. A Connecting Church Takes the Lead: The closest Connecting Church to the family in need will receive an alert about the available community resources for a request within the local area they are equipped to serve. If they are not able to Take the Lead within 24 hours of the response, all Connecting Churches equipped to serve in the area of the request will be alerted and given the chance to Take the Lead.
3. Meeting the Need: The Community Responder will receive an alert to let them know a local church has taken the lead on the request they offered to help with, which includes any next steps that may be necessary based on what they've offered or given. Collaboration and follow-up between the specially-trained church leaders and their team members and the Community Responder will continue as needed in each unique case. 

By funneling community resources through Connecting Churches, CarePortal creates a model that empowers God’s design for the Church to serve as a reflection of hope and restoration, regardless of how many financial resources exist within the congregation itself. Every connection made has the potential to serve a greater purpose, extending far beyond material support to foster relationships and strengthen the local church’s role in the community.

CarePortal Card Security & Transparency

There are three reasons why you can trust the process of money you donate through CarePortal to be stewarded with integrity by local Connecting Churches:

1. When a Connecting Church steps up to Take the Lead on a request in their community that someone has donated money toward, the money is automatically loaded onto their CarePortal Card and the agency worker who entered that request is alerted to make sure the need is met for the family, as intended.
2. Each transaction for a church's CarePortal Card, both for money being added and money being spent, is documented and tracked within their CarePortal dashboards to encourage internal accountability within the leadership team of each church.
3. CarePortal Cards have built-in restrictions that prevent anyone from using them to pull out cash at an ATM or make cash transfers using online apps.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding any of these processes, please reach out to [e-mail] for more information.