🏛️ Agency Rep & Supervisor Training Guide

⏱

Estimated read time: 10 minutes

Overview

Being an Agency Rep or Supervisor means you're the quality checkpoint for your Agency's requests — and one of the most important connectors between families in need and the Churches and community members ready to help. This guide walks you through how to invite Agency Workers, submit requests on their behalf, and review requests against your Agency's standards. Let's get started!

Intended audience

Requesting Agency Partners

Included in this article

Prerequisite: Agency training video
How to invite an Agency Worker
Submitting requests on behalf of other Agency Workers
Reviewing & approving requests: things to watch for
Examples of well-written request stories
Examples of poorly written request stories
Troubleshooting common problems & errors
Additional resources

Prerequisite: Agency training video

Before diving in, watch the Agency training video below. This guide is designed to accompany it and give you a written reference you can return to anytime.

How to invite an Agency Worker

Agency Workers are added by invitation through the User Management table. As an Agency Rep or Admin, you can send invitations directly — no workaround needed.

The Invite Users button opens the Invite Users drawer with two ways to add new workers to your Agency:

Personal Invite — send a manual invite by email to a specific person (selected by default)
Join Link — share your Agency's enrollment link or QR code so workers can self-register

Personal invite

Select Invite Users in the User Management table.
In the Invite Users drawer, the Personal Invite tab opens by default.
Fill in the required fields and select Send Invite.
The invited user receives an invitation email.
The invitation appears in the Invitations tab with a status of Pending.

Invitations expire after 24 hours. From the Invitations tab, Network Leaders, Agency Admins, and Agency Reps can select Resend to issue a new invite or Revoke to cancel one before it's accepted. The tab shows each invite's Name, Email, Invited At, Invited By, Status (Pending or In Progress), and Expires At.

Once a worker accepts their invite, they'll move out of the Invitations tab and appear in the Users tab as an Agency Worker.

What the invited worker will do:

Select Accept Invite in their invitation email.
Create a password that meets the validation requirements.
Confirm their personal information (First Name, Last Name, Phone, Extension) and agree to the Terms & Conditions.
They'll be redirected to their Dashboard as an Agency Worker.

Join link

Your Agency also has a permanent enrollment link and QR code that new workers can use to self-register — no individual invite required. Select the Join Link tab in the Invite Users drawer to access them.

Enrollment link

Preview — opens your Agency's enrollment page in a new browser tab
Copy Link — copies the link to your clipboard; a "Copied!" confirmation appears

QR code

Open Full Screen — opens the QR code in a new browser tab
Download PNG — downloads the QR code as an image file

Share the link or QR code however works best — by email, printed materials, or at an in-person event.

If a worker gets an error when trying to enroll, check the following:

Personal email address — Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, iCloud, and similar domains are blocked. Ask the worker to use their work email.
Domain mismatch — if your Agency has a required email domain configured, the worker's email must match it.
Account already exists — if the worker already has a CarePortal account under that email, direct them to log in instead of enrolling.

Agency Admins and Network Leaders can enable, disable, and regenerate the join link from Agency Settings. For full details, see Understanding the Agency Roles Within CarePortal.

Submitting requests on behalf of other Agency Workers

Agency Reps can submit requests on behalf of other workers in their Agency through their CarePortal Dashboard. The first page of the form will ask for the email address of the caseworker who is in charge of the request. This field defaults to the Agency Rep's email, but can be changed to any worker with an approved email domain for the Agency.

Since the Agency Rep is filling out the form, no additional approval is needed when the Worker Email Address field is changed. The request will be immediately open for responses. Those responses will be sent to the Agency Worker listed in that field, as well as each of the Agency Reps assigned to the county where the family is located.

Reviewing & approving requests: things to watch for

🌟

Best Practice: Try spreading out your approvals instead of doing them all at once. Each time you approve a request, CarePortal immediately sends an email to Church leaders around the family in need. Approving many requests from the same area at once may decrease the chances of local leaders opening each one.

As you review requests, here are the top five things to watch for:

1. No names or contact information in the story

Edit any request that includes contact or identifiable family information to remove it immediately, or decline the request. CarePortal will immediately close any open requests found with this information to protect the family. Request stories are publicly visible.

2. Realistic estimated values

An estimated value that's obviously under the realistic cost of an item or service will cause confusion and may prevent the right amount of funding from being contributed. Responders can contribute less than the estimated value, so there's no concern about accuracy — the number should always reflect the real cost.

3. Manageable list of needs

The needs added to a request should be those with the highest impact for the family. Responding Churches may seek out other smaller needs they discover along the way, but those don't need to be listed on the request itself.

4. No insider language

Church and Community Responders likely won't understand Agency acronyms or program names. It also helps to briefly explain why your Agency emphasizes certain needs over others, so responders understand how that need impacts the family's overall case.

5. A story that advocates for the family

Request stories should highlight the strength and perseverance of what a family or child has overcome and how the requested items will support them directly. When stories include these details, the chances of a response increase significantly.

Examples of well-written request stories

Example 1

A long-time foster parent is in need of a set of bunk beds because the set she has used for many years became a safety concern for the foster children placed in the home. She does not have the funds to purchase a new set, and the children are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, which does not meet state licensing standards. The bedroom in the home is small, and bunk beds are needed to accommodate more children rather than single beds. The foster parent has mattresses for the beds.

What works: Descriptive and thorough — helps potential responders understand exactly what's needed and why. Could do a bit more to explain what's causing the financial strain for this foster parent.

Example 2

The father worked hard to get his children back home. The transmission went out on his car, and he has been struggling to get back and forth to work, paying others to take him. This will become a burden, as that money should be going toward the care of his children. If he could get some assistance, he would be truly grateful.

What works: Advocates for the father and explains the need in a relatable, human way.

Example 3

I am currently working with a single mother with three small children who are residing in our transitional housing. The mom had just started a new job in January of 2020 that she absolutely loved. Unfortunately, COVID caused her to become unemployed, and that company was forced to close. The majority of her unemployment went to living expenses, her car payment, and insurance each month. During this time, the mother was successfully released from Children's Division and regained custody of her children. Recently, she received her housing voucher to move into a new home — but past-due utility bills are preventing her from making that next step. She is currently enrolled in a local community college for the first time and received all A's in her first semester despite caring for three small children who were often out of childcare due to COVID shutdowns. The mother is in need of help with past utility bills of $183 and $600. This would help strengthen her family and support her new start.

What works: Clear, descriptive, and makes it evident how hard this mother is working to build stability for her children.

Examples of poorly written request stories

Example 1

Two girls with their maternal aunt. They need dressers to clean and organize their living space.

What's missing: Not enough detail about why the aunt is unable to provide the dressers. Knowing the ages of the girls and any space limitations would also help responders prepare.

Example 2

The Department is currently working with a mother and her daughter, age 5, and son, age 3, due to mental health. The family is in need of a dresser for the children to keep their clothes. The Social Worker is [name], and she may be reached at [phone number] or [email address]. Thank you for your assistance.

What's wrong: Contact information should never appear in a request description — stories are publicly visible. When a trained Church Responder commits to a request, they'll automatically receive the caseworker's information through CarePortal.

Example 3

Mother needs help with trash cleanup at her house. Mother has lots of trash, including a couch and other things that she needs help getting rid of for cleanliness.

What's missing: Not enough detail about what's specifically causing the concern. Responders are left wondering what situation they'd be stepping into.

Troubleshooting common problems & errors

The platform is preventing workers and/or Reps from entering a new request

This is usually due to one of two issues:

The zip code of the family is not within an approved county for your Agency and cannot be selected
Your Agency has reached the county's monthly request limit, if one has been established

An open request's public link shows a response, but the worker wasn't notified

CarePortal only alerts the worker who entered a request about a response from a local Church. If responses come from Community Responders, the platform directs them to specially-trained Local Churches who can steward the resources and serve the family. Once a Church is ready to deliver the item(s), the worker will receive an email.

A request was entered and approved with confidential family information

CarePortal advises the Regional Manager to edit the request description to remove any sensitive information and contact the relevant Agency Rep(s) to discuss how to prevent this in the future. This is a serious matter that may require retraining to protect the dignity and identity of vulnerable families.

Additional resources

Request Expiration & Escalation Timelines: The urgency level a request is approved with determines when and how CarePortal automatically escalates it to include an additional set of Church Response Teams. This article explains what those time frames are.

Agency Worker Resource: 5 Tips for Entering a Quality Request: Share this with Agency Workers to reinforce training and give them a simple, actionable list for entering requests that get responses.

Articles in this section