Estimated read time: 11 minutes
Overview
Response Team Settings determine how your team receives requests, approves responders, manages workflows, and engages families.
These settings should be configured intentionally so that the Primary Point Person and Team Leaders can lead effectively, protect trust, and disciple responders as they serve together.
This article walks through every Response Team setting and explains how each one functions.
Intended audience
Included in this article
- Adding, building, & managing Response Teams
- Accessing Response Team Settings by role
- Response Team basic information
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Response Team Settings
- New Member Approval Process
- Auto-Engage
- Manually Approve All Provided Responses
- Types of Requests
- Default Responder Type
- Customizing Your Areas to Serve
Adding, building, & managing Response Teams
To see step-by-step instructions on how to add a new Response Team, a breakdown of the various ways your Church can build and grow your Response Teams, and a practical guide to leading your team into spiritual maturity as you serve effectively together, please see our Adding, Building, & Managing Your Church's Response Teams Help Center article.
Accessing Response Team Settings by role
- Team Leaders can access these settings in the Settings tab of their Response Team Dashboard
- The Primary Point Person can access these settings in their own dashboard's Settings tab with the ability to select any team from the dropdown list to see and make changes as needed. This section for Response Team Settings will be shown under the Church Settings section.
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Pastors, Church Needs Leaders, or Connecting Church Leaders for the Church can access the Response Team Settings of any team at their Church by going to the Response Teams tab and clicking the
Editbutton for the team they wish to make changes to.
Response Team basic information
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Team Name
The name of your Church, as it appears here, will be exactly how your Church name is displayed throughout your CarePortal dashboard, Public Page, Responder Sign-Up Form, and when someone from your Church responds to a request. -
Physical Address
The address you enter will be used to determine which approved CarePortal requests you'll receive a notification for. Each individual Response Team can change this address at any time to operate from a different location, so they get notified of different requests. -
Team Logo
The image you select for your team logo will automatically appear in several locations throughout your dashboard and on the CarePortal platform, including your Public Landing Page and Responder Sign-Up Form.
Response Team Settings
New Member Approval Process
This setting is used when a member signs up via the Church or team's Responder Sign-up Form or when they identify your Church or team during account creation to respond to a request they've already found. When members are added by a Church or Team Leader (one by one or by uploading a list), they are pre-approved and are automatically activated. Remember: There is no limit to how many responders can be on a Response Team!
You have three options when it comes to how new members are approved for your Response Team:
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New Members are automatically approved
New members' responder type will be set based on the Default Responder Type for that team.
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A Team Leader manually approves new members
Note: A Primary Point Person may select this option to enable the creation of a custom email journey for each new responder. This changes the message new responders receive when they first sign up for the team, when they've been approved, and if/when they've been deactivated. To use this option, the Primary Point Person must select the "Team Leader manually approves new members" option andSavethe page. Then they can click the orangeCustom Emailsbutton under the setting (shown below) to access the page where they can edit these emails.
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Members validate by entering a custom code
When this is selected, the new team member will be automatically approved if they enter the correct custom code, set by their Church Leaders.
Auto-Engage My Response Team
Off: Requires a Team Leader to manually engage the team members on a case-by-case basis using the Engage your Team feature in the Leader Actions section of the request. This gives the Team Leader a chance to add a custom message about that request to encourage or give direction where needed. This feature is then renamed "Update your Church" to allow Church Leaders to send follow-up messages about the request once the team has been engaged.
On: Alerts all approved Response Team members for the team at the same time the Team Leader(s) are alerted. Team members will receive the same volume of request notifications as their Team Leaders, based on their team radius and settings.
Manually Approve All Provided Responses
Tip: This setting controls how Provided responses are handled and who is connected with the request submitter. It replaces the former Respond to Team Leader setting.
Off: When this setting is off, Provided responses follow the responder’s assigned responder type.
For Relational Responders, responses are sent directly to the request submitter. The Relational Responder and the request submitter automatically receive each other’s contact information. Team Leaders and the Primary Point Person are copied on the confirmation email (which includes the caseworker's information), so they stay informed.
For Resource Responders, responses are still sent to a Team Leader for approval. Resource Responders are never connected directly with the request submitter, even when this setting is off.
On: When this setting is on, all Provided responses — including those from Relational Responders — are placed in a pending status. Team Leaders are alerted and can review each response before it becomes an official commitment.
Pending responses do not notify the request submitter, and other teams may still respond to the same items.
When ready, a Team Leader can approve, edit, or decline the response. At approval, the Team Leader chooses whether to share their own contact information or the Relational Responder’s contact information with the request submitter. Resource Responder contact information is never shared.
Tip: For more information on responder types, check out our Responder Types Help Center article!
Enable Types of Requests
Child-Centered Requests: Receive approved requests from verified Agencies that serve somewhere on the spectrum of child welfare, whether prevention, in care, or transition (aging out of care). The caseworker will select from one of the following purpose statements when entering a Child-Centered Request:
- Help Make a Foster Care or Kinship Placement
- Help Make an Adoptive Placement
- Help Preserve a Foster Care or Kinship Placement
- Help Preserve an Adoptive Placement
- Help Prevent a Child from Entering Foster Care
- Help Reunify a Bio Family
- Help Strengthen a Bio Family
- Help Support a Youth Aging Out
- Help Improve a Child’s Well-Being
- Help Reintegrate a Survivor of Human Trafficking
- Support an Expecting Mom and Her Unborn Baby
- Prayer Request
Disaster Relief Requests: Receive approved requests by verified Agencies who are serving in response to a local disaster in your area. These are temporary designations given to a specific area in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency, allowing the Church access to serve as part of the response and recovery process.
The caseworker will select from one of the following purpose statements when entering a Disaster Relief request:
- Support an Emergency Worker
- Alleviate Food/Essentials Insecurity
- Stabilize Housing Insecurity
Default Responder Type
The Default Responder Type setting allows you to choose how new Church Responders will interact with CarePortal requests when they join a Response Team. It determines whether new responders are added as Resource Responders or Relational Responders by default.
How this setting behaves depends on where you are viewing it.
At the Church level, it sets the default responder type for the Church’s Default Response Team and applies to responders who self-enroll using the Church’s Responder Sign-Up Link.
At a specific Response Team, it applies only to that team and overrides the Church-level default for responders who join that team.
This setting applies to responders who are manually added to a team, as well as those who join through a sign-up link, if enabled. It does not change the responder type for existing team members.
Churches can choose between two responder types:
Resource Responders provide items or financial support only, and their responses require approval from a Team Leader. In this model, the Team Leader serves as the primary point of contact with the request submitter. This option works well for teams that prefer centralized coordination.
Relational Responders are able to connect directly with families and communicate with request submitters when providing items. This option supports a more personal, relationship-based approach to serving.
You may want to adjust the Default Responder Type when launching a new team, using a self-enrollment link, or when you want all new responders to serve in a consistent way from the start.
Best Practice: Choose a default that matches how you want new responders to serve. You can always update an individual's responder type later.
Customize The Areas Your Team Serves
When this section of the Response Teams Settings is expanded with the Show + button, two sections are revealed:
Response Team Radius: Changing the number (miles) in this box and clicking Save will change the distance between your team and the requests you're notified about. Increasing this number will likely increase the volume of requests your team leaders are notified about, making these requests potentially farther away from your physical address. Decreasing this number will likely decrease the volume of requests you're notified about, making these requests closer to your physical address.
Tip: If you're considering making your radius smaller, CarePortal recommends connecting with your local Network Leaders to ensure you're both aware of any gaps in coverage this may cause. Your settings within your Response Team will take precedence over other network settings, as they should!
Communities of Critical Need: Each of the cities or counties on this list has been identified by their local Network Leaders as having a higher level of need than they have current local resources to meet those needs. Selecting one of these cities or counties would add the Team Leaders to the list of Community Responders for that area so that, when a local Church Leader chooses to Engage the Community on a specific request, you would receive their custom message, the request details, and the opportunity to easily respond and partner with that Church.
Comments
2 comments
Explain Tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 requests, please.
Hey Brenda, thanks for your comment! Check out this article for more information on how we define Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 requests: https://careportal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050717593
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