111Project receives $180,000 grant from Arnall Community Fund through the Oklahoma City Community Foundation
OKLAHOMA CITY – 111Project is pleased to announce it has received a $180,000 grant from the Arnall Community Fund at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation and its Child Welfare grant program. The grant will be used to assist in funding the expansion of CarePortal in Southwest Oklahoma over the next two years.
CarePortal, a growing connection technology managed by the 111Project, allows agency partners – like Oklahoma Human Services Child Welfare – to submit vetted needs to the community and local churches to serve families in crisis.
These vetted needs can range from diapers and wipes to bunk beds and blankets, which will help support a foster family, strengthen a biological family, or help a family get one step closer to reunification.
“We are grateful for the generous grant from Arnall Community Fund administered by the Oklahoma City Community Foundation,” 111Project Western Director Kristin Langrehr said. “The funding from Arnall Community Fund has complimented our partnership with OKDHS to expand to all 77 counties in Oklahoma.”
OKDHS Region 2 covers 21 counties including Caddo, Carter, Cleveland, Comanche, Cotton, Garvin, Grady, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnston, Kiowa, Lincoln, Love, Marshall, McClain, Murray, Pottawatomie, Stephens and Tillman.
There are 1,420 children in care throughout OKDHS region 2 as of September 1, according to an OKDHS report.
There are currently eleven counties in Southwest Oklahoma already active on CarePortal; those counties include Carter, Cleveland, Comanche, Garvin, Grady, Lincoln, Love, Marshall, McClain, Pottawatomie and Stephens. Stephens County was one of the original counties launched as a part of a pilot of CarePortal back in 2015. Before the Arnall Funding, expansion had stalled beyond the OKC metro due to a lack of staff support who drive community mobilization.
“The local networks of church and community partners in the Southwest Region have made a tremendous impact, having served nearly 3,500 children and families in crisis since the program began,” Langrehr said. “The additional funding from Arnall Community Fund will continue to accelerate the expansion to the remaining ten counties in the Southwest Region. It’s exciting to think about the exponential impact that will be had when we mobilize ten more networks of church and community partners working together to care for families in their own backyard and see that every child has family!”
111Project is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission to mobilize the local church so every child has family. The organization’s initial goal is to mobilize 1,000 churches across Oklahoma that can serve at least one family a month on CarePortal and recruit and support a foster family every year.
If 1,000 out of the 6,200 churches in Oklahoma commit to recruit and support one foster family a year, and serve one family a month on CarePortal, the state will move closer to having more than enough help for children and families in crisis.
Founded in 1969, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity that works with donors to create charitable funds that will benefit our community both now and in the future. The Arnall Community Fund at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation supports organizations creating lasting change to systems associated with animal welfare, criminal justice reform, and foster care and juvenile justice. To learn more about the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, visit www.occf.org.
If your church, business, or civic organization would like to be involved in CarePortal in southwest Oklahoma, contact us here to learn more.
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