Implementing Partner Leadership Roles

Overview

This article reviews and clarifies the various leadership roles that are available for Implementing Partners (IPs) in the CarePortal platform. When a new IP joins the network, it's important to have people who are qualified and prepared to fill these various positions. 

Additional questions can be directed to [e-mail] or a CarePortal Area Director.

Intended Audience

Potential/Current Implementing Partners, Area Directors, Regional Managers, Church Ambassadors

Included in this Article

• What is a CarePortal Implementing Partner?
• Who is an Church Ambassador and what can they do?
• Who is a Regional Manager and what can they do?
• Who is an IP Admin and what can they do?

What is a CarePortal Implementing Partner?

The CarePortal platform was created to be a tool that allows organizations that exist to serve the local church to coordinate a deeper network of collaboration and partnership around kids and families in crisis. These networks are developed with CarePortal through relational training and support for churches, community champions, sponsors, as well as requesting agencies in many cases. These organizations are faith-based, Church-centered, and have a goal for the Church to be at the point of care for families and children in crisis. They have an interest in training church and potentially requesting agency partners to deeper in collaboration around this work, and they have (or intend to create) capacity on their team to be involved in the day-to-day use of CarePortal by their church, champion, and agency partners.

An IP is able to obtain a license for the CarePortal platform and offer it as a tool of their ministry to churches in their area providing vetted, real-time, and scalable access to the local child welfare system. This also allows IPs to write for grants, recruit county sponsors, and/or request church support to help fuel the ministry they are called to engage.  

Note: While many Implementing Partners sign up to be a part of CarePortal already having a network of churches and community resources, that is not a requirement to be an IP!

Implementing Partners can provide two types of leadership: Ambassadors & Regional Managers, outlined below.

Who is an Church Ambassador and what can they do?

Church ambassadors are coach/trainer/mentor-type leaders who seek to help churches use the CarePortal platform effectively. These leaders are assigned to churches based on relationship rather than geography, meaning one church ambassador could be assigned to churches from anywhere, so long as the church is enrolled with their organization, and multiple church ambassadors could have churches from the same county or zip code in their network. Churches, however, can only be assigned to one church ambassador at a time.  

Church ambassadors are made aware of new CarePortal requests and Church responses for the purpose of helping to spark collaboration between churches, community partnerships, and coaching/support opportunities with church ministry teams.

Each church ambassador is given dashboard access to the CarePortal network where they can support the churches that have been assigned to their care and guidance. This can include church orientations for newly enrolled churches and teams, coordinating local gatherings for collaboration, and other tasks that benefit the ministry and churches they serve. Each of these tasks can be done in partnership with the local regional manager and other church ambassadors as needed.

Who is a Regional Manager and what can they do?

If an implementing partner is seeking to launch a new county with CarePortal, they will need to provide a Regional Manager to oversee that county. Each active county is assigned one Regional Manager who works in partnership with other area leaders to determine each county's system settings. Regional Managers are dynamic leaders who can serve in multiple ways for multiple members of the CarePortal network. Since they are defined by a geography instead of a relationship, Regional Managers will see all churches, agencies, and requests located within the county (or set of counties) they're assigned to in their CarePortal dashboard. The relationship with each requesting partner or agency is led by the local Regional Manager, since requests are based on the geography of where the family in need lives, and will notify local churches regardless of which implementing partner or church ambassador they are being served by. Many Regional Managers also play the role of Church Ambassadors for the churches they support, but some choose to equip others in their organization to serve in the Church Ambassador role for a select set of churches within their county or counties.

Each Regional Manager is equipped with system emails alerting them to each newly enrolled church, each new request, church response, and community partnership inquiries as well. These emails are able to be easily filtered and sorted into different email folders based on unique codes built into each email (coaching is provided for this upon activation). 

In the CarePortal dashboard, Regional Managers are given admin-level authority to manage their region and partnering churches, including the ability to support each Agency and Network IP (with their Church Ambassadors) that is active in their region. 

Additional unique permissions given to Regional Managers:

• Ability to approve specific churches in becoming Connecting Churches within their region (done in partnership with the relevant Church Ambassador)
• Ability to approve specific churches to request the escalation of their Church-Entered Needs to the entire Community
• Ability to approve specific Church Needs that a church has requested be escalated to the community (in this way, the Regional Manager acts like an Agency Rep to ensure there has been an appropriate vetting process).

Who is an IP Admin and what can they do?

Each Implementing Partner organization must designate one leader who will serve as the Administrator for their organization's use of CarePortal.

For Implementing Partners with multiple Church Ambassadors, the IP Admin must assign new churches to the preferred Church Ambassador so the appropriate training can occur based on the most relevant relationship(s) they have. The IP Admin is given executive-level administration in the CarePortal dashboard to see everything happening for every church and church ambassador associated with their organization.

For Implementing Partners with only a Regional Manager leading their church engagement (thereby serving in the role of Church Ambassador themselves), the IP Admin is alerted only when a new church is approved for activation by the Regional Manager. IP Admins are given executive-level administration in the CarePortal dashboard to see everything happening for every church, agency, Church Ambassador, and Regional Manager that is associated with their own network.