Estimated read time: 9 minutes
Overview
Children thrive in families, and families thrive in community. CarePortal mobilizes a network of caring people to help connect vulnerable families back to their local community. This article outlines the guiding principles, eligibility requirements, and commitments involved in CarePortal's child welfare partnership. Let's get started!
Intended audience
Included in this article
- Guiding principles for partnership
- Eligibility requirements
- The Grid
- Value of partnership
- Targets for success
- Requesting Agencies commit to
- CarePortal commits to
- Financial agreement
Guiding principles for partnership
Circles of Care
CarePortal is guided by a model called Circles of Care, where the child is always at the center. CarePortal believes every child belongs in a healthy, loving family, and that families should be supported by their local Church and caring members of the community. For this reason, CarePortal focuses on building up the capacity of local Churches so they may provide local, proactive, and effective care for children and families in crisis. CarePortal also establishes on-ramps for businesses, community groups, and people who care to be involved in this work (included in the outer Community circle).
Collaboration is critical
No single organization can do this work alone. It takes cross-sector collaboration to achieve real, sustainable, and system-wide change.
CarePortal serves any child in crisis
Jesus cast the widest net of love, tearing down cultural biases and promoting radical, personal generosity and concern for those in need. With that example, CarePortal brings together diverse constituents — government agencies, Churches, businesses, schools, and other ministries — to support children and families in crisis regardless of their race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, nationality, political leanings, etc. If any partner is found to be discriminating against the children and families they are meant to unconditionally serve, they will be removed from the network.
CarePortal is ecumenically minded
CarePortal is a ministry platform of its parent organization, The Global Orphan Project, and seeks to promote unity in and among the Church by building a network across denominational, ethnic, and socio-economic lines. While CarePortal is open to and encourages the support of other faith-based organizations, The Global Orphan Project exists to help Bible-believing Christian churches care for vulnerable children and families in their own communities. CarePortal was developed as a ministry tool to help accomplish the mission of meeting needs, making connections, and establishing meaningful relationships within and beyond the community of Christ-following believers.
Eligibility requirements
Child-Centered requesting partners using CarePortal must:
- Serve children and/or families in crisis
- Highly value community engagement using one or more of the Tiers described below (The Grid)
- Desire to collaborate with local ministry partners that facilitate CarePortal (Implementing Partners)
The Grid
Tier 1 Requests represent physical items or services that local Churches could provide to a family. These requests would not require a background check by your Agency but may require the family needing assistance to sign a release of information. (Churches may require background checks for their own responders.)
Tier 2 Requests represent more relational needs of a family, provided by a Church responder that first needs to complete an approval process by your Agency.
Tier 3 Requests address familial needs of a child or family and require responders to complete further training and licensing.
Value of partnership
Requesting Agency workers identify needs of local children and families, then go to CarePortal.org or the CarePortal app to submit a request for help. Each request is thoroughly vetted and approved before it is immediately sent to local Churches.
One of the following purpose statements must be assigned to each request:
- Help improve a child's school attendance
- Help remove an educational barrier for a child
- Help improve a child's safety/well-being
With CarePortal, your Agency will be able to select one of the following requesting options to efficiently identify and approve requests in the way that best fits your operational protocols:
Option 1: Worker > Supervisor and Agency Rep
- Worker submits a request (online or via mobile app)
- "Supervisor email address" required in the request form
- Review email sent to Supervisor email and Agency Rep
- Supervisor or Agency Rep can select the link to edit, approve, or decline the request
- Request sent to Churches; confirmation email sent to Worker, Supervisor, and Agency Rep
- Responses sent to Worker
Option 2: Worker > Agency Rep
- Worker submits a request (online or via mobile app)
- Review email sent to the Agency Rep for that Agency and county
- Agency Rep selects the link to edit, approve, or decline the request
- Request sent to Churches; confirmation email sent to Worker and Agency Rep
- Responses sent to Worker
Option 3: Agency Rep
- Request information collected from Worker by Agency Rep
- Agency Rep submits a request with login access
- Request sent to Churches; confirmation email sent to Agency Rep
- Responses sent to Agency Rep
Targets for success
In each county, CarePortal aims for:
- 75–85% of Agency requests met by Churches and community partners
- Stronger connection to the community for families, Churches, and Agency workers
- Economic impact of requests that significantly exceeds the annual Agency investment
Requesting Agencies commit to
Protect the Trust, which is established by where requests come from and how they are vetted. All Agency workers selected to access and submit requests into CarePortal must be authorized in the following ways:
- Qualified — through education and/or experience, to discern needs and serve children and families in crisis with first-hand knowledge of the stated needs (never entering a request on another's behalf)
- Approved — by the leadership of the requesting Agency, including verification of all qualifications for the safe and trustworthy connection to children and families
- Trained — in all required Requesting Agency Training and ready to accept accountability to ensure that each request is promptly closed once it has been met
All requests entered by Agency workers and/or Reps must be appropriate, as defined by:
- Specific — to the wellbeing or case plan goals for the children and families involved, and will not contain a petition for ongoing financial support
- Accurate — including a description without confidential information, and individually-added needs with realistically assigned values
- Conflict-free — meaning the need is not related to a need of the Agency worker entering the request, a member of their family, and they have no personal financial interest in the request
Requesting Agencies also commit to:
- Designate appropriate staff (Agency Admin + Representative) to oversee use and training of workers, and collaborate with local CarePortal network leaders
- Provide any publicly available data that may assist in educating and recruiting Churches
- Establish a policy for communication by workers to clients regarding confidentiality before releasing family information to the Church member willing to help (if applicable)
- Make appropriate requests through CarePortal at the frequency agreed upon in each county
- Monitor and engage responses in a timely manner
- Collaborate with the local Implementing Partner by attending Active Community gatherings and training events as needed or requested
- Follow the payment schedule agreed to with the local Area Director
Specific to Tiers 2 & 3:
- Implement background checks and other processes/training necessary to clear volunteers to help once they've responded
- Participate in training Church volunteers similar to training other Agency volunteers
CarePortal commits to
As a platform, CarePortal is used by various Implementing Partners that provide local support to Agencies, Churches, and community partners. Through this partnership, CarePortal provides:
Access
- CarePortal website, mobile app, and other technology in support of the platform
- Unlimited user access to submit an agreed-upon number of requests
- Connection of Agency partners to Churches and their members, on a volunteer basis, to serve children and families in need of assistance
Training
- Support to the requesting Agency by providing live platform training to staff
- Online resources and in-person experiential training opportunities
- Convening of local Active Community gatherings for Agency staff participation
Support
- Systematic reporting and metrics to track impact and cost avoidance
- Opportunities for requesting Agency leadership to collaborate and communicate with local and state CarePortal leadership
- Technical support team
Financial agreement
This document describes the agreement between CarePortal and its requesting Agency partners for the non-exclusive use of the CarePortal platform. Formal evaluation will take place each year by Agency leadership, the CarePortal Area Director, and Implementing Partner leadership to jointly assess progress. If any party feels this is no longer an effective approach, the agreement can end with 30-day written notice by either CarePortal or the requesting Agency. Any fees paid by the Agency partner beyond the end date will be refunded to the Agency.
Cost varies based on Agency type, because of expected use, support requirements, and value.
Get started with CarePortal — a CarePortal representative will contact you to discuss details.
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