Churches meet the needs of over 14,329 families through CarePortal network
OKLAHOMA – What started as a dream over seven years ago between Oklahoma Human Services staff, local pastors and community members across the state has now become a reality.
History was made as Oklahoma churches served over 30,000 children connected by CarePortal from child serving agencies who advocated for needs representing 14,329 families.
“It’s another significant milestone,” 111Project Executive Director Chris Campbell said. “It’s really fun to see numerically the scope and scale that just continues to increase and the fruit shows.”
Campbell said they held this dream lightly so many years ago because there not only needed to be plenty of opportunities to serve, but also that many steps of obedience.
“We’ve got to praise God and we’ve got to recognize that the church said yes,” he said.
Since January of 2016, churches statewide have been meeting needs through CarePortal. CarePortal is a connection technology managed by the 111Project, which allows agency partners – like Oklahoma Human Services Child Welfare – to submit vetted needs to the community and local churches to serve families in crisis.
“CarePortal makes a difference in the lives of the families in our communities through not only meeting needs but by offering hope to those we serve,” Oklahoma Human Services Tulsa County District Director Matt Baccus said. “It is a true blessing to have people who are committed to generously supporting others with no expectation of return and who honor our DHS teams for the amazing work they do.”
In the first month that CarePortal was launched, seven requests were made, and 10 children were served. In December of 2023, CarePortal has been launched in 54 counties where 357 requests were met and 841 children were served.
CarePortal is launched in 54 Oklahoma counties including Adair, Atoka, Alfalfa, Canadian, Carter, Cherokee, Cleveland, Choctaw, Comanche, Craig, Creek, Custer, Delaware, Dewey, Garfield, Garvin, Grady, Grant, Garfield, Haskell, Hughes, Kingfisher, Latimer, LeFlore, Lincoln, Logan, Love, Major, Marshall, Mayes, McClain, McIntosh, Noble, Nowata, Okfuskee, Oklahoma, Okmulgee, Osage, Ottawa, Payne, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Pushmataha, Rogers, Seminole, Sequoyah, Stephens, Tulsa, Wagoner, Washington, Woods and Woodward.
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.
In 2023, over 165 new churches enrolled on CarePortal, bringing the total number of active churches to over 665 – which means more than 70% of the church enrollment goal is met, but more churches are needed.
Every year, up to 14,000 children go through the child welfare system, with at least 6,000 children in state care at any time, Campbell said. The dream is to continue to serve the number of children coming through the system and grow the capacity to serve every child that is in need, he said.
“We’re getting close in 2024 to seeing that reality,” Campbell said.
Looking forward, 111Project would love to see local churches serve 10,000 children in 2024 and all 77 Oklahoma counties launched so every need can be presented and advocated for by 2025. Lives are impacted by the advocacy of local churches and the church members that step up and say “yes” to serving those in need.
“Meaningful connections are leading to lifelong changes,” Campbell said.
Any churches or individuals interested in learning more or getting involved can visit 111project.org.
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