Platform streamlines connection for local churches, OKDHS to serve families in need COTTON COUNTY – Lynn McCarn received a phone call two years ago from a paramedic letting her know her son had been in an accident and was being lifeflighted to OU Children’s Hospital.
As she started the hour-and-a-half drive to the hospital from Ada, she received over a dozen texts from her church family asking how they could help and more from her work family committing to carrying her workload while she was gone.
“I didn’t have to worry about anything because I have a community,” McCarn said at the CarePortal Launch in Cotton County. “The issue with the families we serve is they do not have that type of community. CarePortal gives churches the opportunities to know here are some people in your community, in your area, that need support and it gives them the opportunity to connect with them.”
CarePortal is an online tool that creates a fast and effective way for agency partners to connect with local churches and community members around the needs of children and families they serve.
McCarn, the Oklahoma Human Services Child Welfare Region 2 Deputy Director, has seen the positive impact CarePortal has on local communities and is excited to see churches become the support system for so many families.
“Our greatest goal is to build a support system around the family so the next time their family is in crisis, they do have someone they can call,” she said.
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