CarePortal Common Terms & Phrases

Overview

CarePortal uses a variety of terms and phrases that can sometimes be tricky to keep track of. This resource is designed to be your go-to guide, offering clear and standardized definitions for a lot of the common terminology you'll encounter. Whether you're new to the platform or just need a quick refresher, this resource will help ensure everyone is on the same page.

To get the most out of this article, we recommend using the keyboard shortcut control + f (on PC) or command + f (on mac) to find the term you're looking for with ease.

CarePortal Common Terms & Phrases

• Activate Church or Team: A feature in a Church Leaders' dashboard that allows them to send a custom message to a specific church response team about a specific request, inviting the response team members to respond.
  
  
• Active Community Gathering (ACG): A regular gathering of network partners in a specific community, coordinated by Regional Managers, Ambassadors, and Community Coordinators, with a strong focus on active churches and including agency and community representatives, as necessary.
  
  
• Agency Admin: The Agency Admin is responsible for getting their agency approved to use the CarePortal platform and configuring its overall settings. They have access to their agency's CarePortal account to view all requests and activity, though they are not included in individual request email chains.
  
  
• Agency Rep: The Agency Admin is responsible for getting their agency approved to use the CarePortal platform and configuring its overall settings. They have access to their agency's CarePortal account to view all requests and activity, though they are not included in individual request email chains.
  
  
• Agency Supervisor: Only relevant to agencies using request approval option 1, a Supervisor is not an official role in CarePortal. This request approval option allows an Agency Worker to designate who their supervisor is, as they submit the request, so that that person can approve the request for submission.
  
  
• Agency Worker: Agency Workers are child-serving professionals trained to identify and submit vetted requests through the CarePortal platform. When a church responds to a request, the Agency Worker who entered it is notified and receives the church responder’s contact information. Similarly, the church responder receives the Agency Worker’s contact details. Each agency may have different processes for obtaining family consent and sharing family information with church responders. Ultimately, Agency Workers are trained to ensure church responders have the necessary information to serve the family effectively.
  
  
• Area: Designated by a collection of Regions and assigned to one Area Director.
  
  
• Area Director: The Area Director identifies, cultivates, and supports relationships with agencies and implementing partners. They provide ongoing assistance, training, and support to implementing partner staff across the area, lead fundraising efforts, and help partners develop effective fundraising strategies.
  
  
• Area of Critical Need: Churches and Champions can opt to receive requests from communities that are listed as Critical Need areas. When a church in an Crititcal Need area decides to Engage the Community on a local request, anyone who has associated themselves with that community receives an invitation to partner with that church. This allows churches and champions to respond to needs beyond their local area, county, or state by partnering with nearby churches to the family in need.
  
  
• Auto Activate My Response Team: A church response team setting that determines how a response team is alerted about a local request. When this setting is on, Church Responders only receive notifications about the Requests for which a Team Leader "Activates their Response Team."
  
  
• Care-Sharing: A social impact service that locates, meets and delivers the needs of the most vulnerable in local communities through caring people who want to help. This marketplace "category" of technology is what CarePortal has established as a method of organizations and individuals stepping into their mission. Other platforms of this category exist today, such as Promise 686's "Promise Serves" and "Meet the Need".
  
  
• CarePortal Card: Churches who are Connecting Churches or who have their church's CarePortal Fund enabled can request a CarePortal Card which allows them to purchase requested items with money donated within CarePortal.
  
  
• CarePortal Fund, Champion: Every Champion has a CarePortal Fund, which enables streamlined fundraising that remains separate from the champion's internal accounts, budgets, or transaction processing costs. Money collected into a Champion's CarePortal Fund can then be used to respond to specific CarePortal requests to equip a church local to the family to respond and meet the need.
  
  
• CarePortal Fund, Church: A CarePortal Fund allows a church to receive tax-deductible donations from congregation members, community members, local businesses, and even strangers. Church Leaders can steward these funds without using their own budgeted resources or online giving processes. The donations are used to meet the vetted needs of families through specific CarePortal requests.
  
  
• CarePortal Fund, My: My CarePortal Fund is a virtual wallet for CarePortal users to manage donations. When you fund a request, the money is first placed in your CarePortal Fund and then automatically allocated to the chosen request, allowing a local church to purchase the needed items. If the money isn't used, it returns to your CarePortal Fund for future requests. While donations, including those for specific requests, are non-refundable, users have control over which requests their donations support. This fund enables tax-deductible donations to be used flexibly to meet real-time needs.
  
  
• CarePortal Vetted Request: A request approved by a trained professional from an authorized CarePortal Requesting Agency, aimed at addressing an immediate need for a family to ensure their safety, well-being and/or sustainability.
  
  
• CHAD: The County Health Assessment Dashboard (CHAD) is a feature on the CarePortal platform that aggregates and simplifies data on requests, responses, requesters, and responders within a county. It provides CarePortal implementers with a quick overview of county performance since launch and trends over the past 12 months, culminating in an overall health score ranging up to 12.
  
  
• Champion Admin: This is the equivalent of the Primary Point Person for a Local Church. They have the highest level of permissions and access to change their Champion account's settings, manage their teams, and act on behalf of any of their teams.
  
  
• Champion Observer: This is the equivalent of the Pastor for a Local Church. They have the ability to login, respond as a Champion Leader, and manage their various response teams, but are not able to change settings for the Champion account.
  
  
• Champion Responder: These are the equivalent of Church Responders for a Local Church. Their responses will be tracked as part of the overall impact of the Community Champion as well as by the individual responder.
  
  
• Champion Team Leader: This is the equivalent of the Team Leader for a Local Church. They have the ability to respond to requests and are considered the "admin" for just their team's settings and customizations.
  
  
• Child Centered Request: A request entered by a child serving professional with a purpose statement that helps make a child more safe, stable, and/or successful.
  
  
• Church Ambassador: Church Ambassadors are leaders assigned to specific church partners based on affiliation or relationships, rather than geography. They focus on engaging, training, and supporting these churches, as agreed upon with the Regional Manager(s). Often, Regional Managers also fulfill this role for some or all of their network's churches.
  
  
• Church Entered Needs: Church Entered Needs is a CarePortal feature that allows churches to vet and enter requests on behalf of their own congregation, and alerts the church's internal response teams.
  
  
• Church Needs Leader (CNL): Church Leaders with the ability to enter and approve church-entered needs for their own response teams. These leaders often have a unique awareness of specific opportunities to serve people in the church or community.
  
  
• Church Responder: Individual members of a church team authorized to respond to requests based on their church's settings. Responders do not receive individual request notifications unless their team leader activates the team or sets it to Auto-Activate. They do not directly communicate with the requesting caseworker unless permitted by their team settings.
  
  
• Church Team Leader: Based on the type, settings, and location of the team, these leaders are the only ones who automatically receive individual request notifications and have the ability to engage their team through their own account, as well as the ability to Engage Community and Church-to-Church.
  
  
• Circles of Care: The Circles of Care is a visualization CarePortal uses to represent the system of care around a child. The child is at the center, surrounded by rings to represent family, church, and community. Gaps exist in the system due to the brokenness of the world. CarePortal seeks to facilitate connections within the Circles of Care to close the gaps around the isolated child.
  
  
• Commit & Claim: "Commit & Claim" is the process where a Connecting Church agrees to steward resources offered by others on a specific request to serve a local family. When a Connecting Church completes this process, they will become the Lead Church for that request.
  
  
• Community/Communities: Active Communities are a collection of zip codes that enable Network Leaders, primarily Regional Managers, to designate which churches, champions, individuals, agencies, and implementers collaborate on responding to requests.
  
  
• Community Champion: Organizations, schools, businesses, or other groups that wish to help meet specific requests they choose through partnering with specially-trained churches who are local to the family in need. Champions receive a public page and leader dashboard, which empowers them to develop a culture of meeting needs as an organization.
  
  
• Community Coordinator: Leaders of individual Active Communities who are equipped to engage on the individual request level to inspire collaboration and resource discovery. Active Communities are created by Regional Managers by selecting particular zip codes. This role can be played by Church Ambassadors or Regional Managers as well. Active Community gatherings are often led by Community Coordinators.
  
  
• Community Responder: Individuals who've opted to receive notifications about escalated requests to their community.
  
  
• Connecting Church: A Connecting Church partners with Community Responders and champions to meet requests. When a community responder offers resources, the CarePortal platform alerts nearby Connecting Churches. These churches then commit to the resources, collaborate with the requesting Agency Worker, and take the relational lead in serving the family.
  
  
• Connecting Church Leader (CCL): Church Leaders who are approved to be notified when a community responder is offering resources for a request near where they worship. These leaders have the ability to Take the Lead for the request and use the resources from community responders to make the connection with the family in need.
  
  
• Connecting Church Radius: A setting determined by the Connecting Church that represents the distance that church is willing to go to serve a family with community resources.
  
  
• Crux Code: A crux code is a zip code in a "50 in 5" or "25 in 1" county (meaning that 50% of all children in foster care are from 5% of America's counties, or 25% of all children in foster care are from 1% of America's counties). In addition, the zip code must fall within a "red" zone on the "50 in 5" map, indicating that the median household income is greater than 150% of the Federal Poverty Level or that the percentage of families in poverty is 25% or higher, and the zip code must have a "black pin" in it on the "50 in 5" map, indicating that Black Americans make up 40% or more of the population.
  
  
• Default Response Team: Each church or champion has to have at least one response team to receive requests so a default team is created at the same time the church or champion is, with the same address. As more response teams are created, the default designation can be reassigned. For churches with their CarePortal Fund enabled, it will technically be tied to the Default Response Team, meaning that all church leaders as well as Team Leaders for the Default Team can allocate that money toward CarePortal requests.
  
  
• Disaster Relief: A feature that can be turned on as a result of (or in anticipation of) a local emergency that adds three additional purpose statements for agencies to use (Supporting an Emergency Worker, Helping Families with Emergency Food Needs, Helping Families Avoid Homelessness). This feature may warrant additional requesting agencies to be temporarily activated and approved to submit requests with these new purpose statements.
  
  
• Earnest C Widget: When you use CarePortal online, there will always be an orange “Support” widget at the bottom-right corner of your screen. Once you click it, you’ll be offered some self-support options and an option to connect with your Support Specialist. When you engage with these self-support options, you'll be engaging with Earnest C Widget, as we have affectionately named him.
  
  
• Engage Community: The Engage Community feature enables a church to write a custom message and notify other churches and champions within their community to get involved with a specific request. When a church engages the community, it takes the lead on the request, becomes the Lead Church, and receives any subsequent community responses. The agency worker who entered the request is not notified and if community resources are already available, the Engage Community option is removed.
  
  
• Escalated Church Need: A Church Entered Need that has been vetted and approved by a Regional Manager to notify response teams from other churches in the community.
  
  
• Escalation Radius: The Escalation Radius is set per county and determines the maximum distance (in miles) from a family Active Communities can be to receive Escalated Request notifications. This distance extends the initial request radius by the difference between the escalation radius and the initial radius. When a church is within a Request's Escalation Radius, they are considered "local." If a church Response Team has a custom radius in their settings, it will override the county's escalation radius.
  
  
• Escalation Teams in Radius: A county setting that determines the total number of response teams within the escalation radius that receive the request when it is escalated. This number includes the initial teams notified but does not re-notify them.
  
  
• Field Director: Leaders overseeing large regions and supporting multiple Area Directors. They are tasked with broad launch efforts and development opportunities.
  
  
• Implementing Partner (IP): An Implementing Partner (IP) is a local organization that implements the CarePortal platform, often leveraging an existing network of church and community relationships. Multiple IPs can operate in a given area, each supporting their network's churches as as requests are entered and approved by local requesting partners (agencies) and met by churches of all networks. The primary role of an IP is to support their network's churches and facilitate collaboration. Their goal is to develop and maintain a dynamic ecosystem that balances request opportunities with partners' capacity to respond.
  
  
• IP Admin: Often executive directors or high level leaders who are involved in direction and decision making for the way their organization will use the CarePortal platform within their context and ministry focus. IP Admins have login access to the CarePortal platform to see all activity of churches assigned to their IP but are not involved in the Request/Response loop like Regional Managers, Church Ambassadors, and Coordinators are.
  
  
• Lead Church: A Lead Church is a church that has either committed and claimed resources on a request or has engaged the community. After a church Takes the Lead, they will facilitate the delivery of all future Community-sourced donations for that request.
  
  
• Max Radius: When a church enrolls or a new Response Team is created, their radius defaults to the county's Max Radius. If a church Response Team customizes their radius, it overrides the county setting, potentially affecting the volume of requests they receive compared to another church that retains the default radius.
  
  
• Max Teams in Radius: A county setting that determines the maximum number of response teams within the max radius that will receive the request. The platform will select the closest teams and stop notifying others (even if they are inside the Max Radius) once it reaches this limit.
  
  
• Minimum Viable Interest (MVI): A measurement of county readiness designed to help you determine when enough churches are activated for either child-centered requests or disaster relief requests.
  
  
• Multi-Family Request: A request should be identified as Multi-Family when an agency worker would like to invite broad participation in a collections drive of a specific list of items that can be used by the agency to serve multiple families over time or across a large region, such as coats, blankets, beds/bedding, school supplies, shoes, etc.
• New Member Approval Process: A response team setting that determines how a new response team member will be approved to join a church or champion's response team.
  
  
• Pastor: Church leaders with the ability to login and access the church account to engage Response Teams on various requests and needs. Pastors do not receive request notifications unless also given a Team Leader role.
  
  
• Primary Point Person (PPP): One individual with the ability to establish or change all church account settings. Point People are defaulted with the additional role of Team Leader for the church's default team, which allows them to receive individual request notifications when their church is inside the established radius set by the church (or defaulted by the county settings). Without the Team Leader role, Point People would not receive these notifications. Point People are also given access to all response options, including Activate Church, Engage Community, and Church-to-Church. The Point Person is also included on Community Responder alerts when/if their church has been upgraded to a Connecting Church.
  
  
• Recommended Connecting Church: The Connecting Church that is closest in proximity to the request will receive an email after a provided or funded response has been made and is available to be committed and claimed. This church would then take the lead on the request and become the Lead Church.
  
  
• Region: A collection of counties assigned to one Regional Manager.
  
  
• Regional Manager: These leaders are given specific county assignments with access to the individual requesting partners and church/community responders within the assigned geography. They lead and support most training for agency users and determine county settings with the goal of finding an effective balance for all users. For churches assigned a Church Ambassador, the Regional Manager will serve and support based on an established plan of engagement with the Church Ambassador(s).
  
  
• Request Escalation: This happens when the CarePortal platform notifies more response teams (or responders) of a specific request, based on urgency, settings, approval options, or other factors.
  
  
• Request Radius: The distance from the family in need used by the CarePortal platform when searching for which churches/response teams to notify.
  
  
• Requesting Agency: Vetted, trained organizations that have direct and consistent access to families in crisis with professional ways to measure the safety, stability, and success of children and who are approved to enter requests into the careportal platform.
  
  
• Response Team: A group of responders and team leaders associated with either a church or a champion with the ability to customize the way they want to engage in the CarePortal network through their own unique settings. Every response made by a church or champion to a CarePortal request is on behalf of one of their response teams.
  
  
• Response Team Radius: A Response Team setting that determines the maximum distance a response team would like to be notified about a request. This setting defaults to the county max radius, but when changed will override that setting.
  
  
• Strategic Partner: An organization where a mutually beneficial relationship has been established that includes forms of collaboration other than being an implementing partner, requesting agency, champion, or church. In many cases, these organizations are large influencers who want to encourage their network to join CarePortal but cannot handle the day-to-day training and support processes of an implementing partner.
  
  
• Take the Lead: An action that can be taken by a church which will then receive emails and updates regarding the request and be responsible for coordinating the delivery of Community donations to the family.
  
  
• The Grid: The Grid is a CarePortal tool that maps out the full spectrum of child welfare needs. It outlines four general ways to get involved and presents three levels of engagement, each requiring increasingly deeper relationships.
  
  
• Tier 1: Tier 1 - Physical; represents the vast majority of CarePortal requests. Examples include: beds, diapers, clothes, home or car repairs, and bill assistance.
  
  
• Tier 2: Tier 2 - Relational; represents situations where the requesting agency prefers or needs to complete their own background check or offer their own volunteer orientation training for each of the church responders who are put into contact with the family or child. Examples include: mentoring or babysitting.
  
  
• Tier 3: Tier 3 - Familial; represents situations where the agency would need to ensure that proper licensing or advanced training is provided to each responder, and potentially the responder's entire family, before the responder is allowed to fulfill their response commitments. Examples include: safe home placements, foster placements, or adoption placements.
  
  
• Zone: Designated by a collection of Areas and assigned to one Field Director.