Season 2 EP18 - Care Portal, Tami Carter

Welcome to Season 2 - Episode 18 of The Bridge to Kindness Project Podcast.

On this Episode you will hear from the following organization:

Care Portal - Tami Carter, Regional Manager                                             00:00 - 32:15

Each episode features interviews on how you can be involved, volunteer, donate and make a difference being a part of these non-profits in our region.  To learn how your organization can become a part of The Bridge to Kindness project send an email to theBridgetoKindness@gmail.com.  Thanks for listening!  New episodes air each week at 1pm on Saturdays.

You can also find out about The Bridge to Kindness Project by visiting our website at www.TheBridgetoKindness.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Welcome to season two of episode 18 of the Bridge the Commons Homic. Signature Carpet Care, Employees Financial Credit Union, Expressions Plumbing, and Lindsay Human. On our website, theBridgeTheCommunist.com, you'll find out more about our mission and have access to links to the organization's websites we spent money, as well as an archive of the interviews we have here on the PondCast. We would love to hear from you. Whether you're a volunteer or you lead a nonprofit organization, you can reach us through the website or email us at the bridge to communist at gmail.com. Our guest today is Tammy Carter, regional manager with CarePortal. Every child belongs in a healthy, loving family. No other environment has proven to be better suited to provide the safety, stability, and care so vital to a child's well-being. Across the United States, however, a hidden crisis has been ravaging our communities. Each year, government child protection agencies are alerted to more than 7.7 million children potentially experiencing maltreatment. These reports have resulted in over 328,000 children removed from their homes and placed in the country's overburdened foster care system. Welcome, Tammy. Share with us your background and what led you to the work that you do today.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

First of all, I really just want to say thank you for this opportunity. And I think any time that we get to boast in what God is doing, um, it's such an honor. So um, so a little bit of my background. Um, my husband and I and our three kids, we served uh 10 years in Tanzania, Africa as missionaries as part of a church plan team work, with the goal being to um equip and empower the nationals to do the work. So um we our goal was to work ourselves out of a job. So after 10 years, our our oldest child graduated from high school and was getting ready to go to college and didn't want us to be so far away. So we knew um it was time to move back to the states. And so we were able to um graciously hand off our part of the work to a local there in Tanzania. And it's a delight and joy to know that the work is still carrying on and advancing, God's advancing the work there with um unreached remote villages. So that's exciting. And then we served 11 years in a children's home here in America in Virginia. So it's uh Mountain Mission School, it's um a respite care home for families who just need a little support with their kids until they're able to get back on their feet. So that's been around for over 100 years. And um they started in the Appalachian uh community to reach out to help families who uh who the parents were actually dying in the mines or from uh mining accidents or from tuberculosis outspread. And so um God advanced uh expanded their uh reach and now they receive children from all over the world. So we were there for 11 years. And it was in that last year of serving that we heard the Lord that it was time to move back to Springfield, Ohio, which was where our adult children had settled when we came back from Africa. And now our four grandbabies live here. So um it was then that I just thought, okay, Lord, then what would you have for us to do? And I joke that I felt I feel like Care Portal dropped in my lap, but we know better because in the kingdom, nothing happens by accident. Um, because our ancient of days, he knew he knew our timetable and when we were gonna move back here. So um there's an organization in Clark County called the Nehemiah Foundation, and they partnered with CarePortal to start Careportal here in Clark County, and they just needed some crazy person who's willing to step in and trust the Lord to pioneer this work. And so that was me. So they hired me to do that. And um, we launched CarePortal here in Clark County in 2022 with one requesting agency, and I'm sure we'll talk about how it all works here in a minute, but with one requesting agency, Springfield City School District, a school of over 7,200 students at the time, and over four, well, about 400 of them were classified as homeless. So we knew the needs were great. So we started with uh one requester, Springfield City School District, and two churches who wanted to um reach out and help bring stabilization to families and really work towards family preservation. So uh by helping to meet needs and make powerful connections with families in crisis. So now here we are four years later, and God's expanded the work with his favor and his love for families. And we have 36 churches now all working together here in Clark County to come alongside families, and as well as I think we have 12 or 13 requesting agencies. So God then just expanded my capacity and opened the door for me to go full-time with Careport. And that's how I ended up in Franklin County, because now Franklin County is my area. Franklin and Madison, Champaign, Clark, and Lord willing Logan looks like we might get something started in Logan County, and it's brought me to now.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Through the last four years of this work that you've done, you've experienced so much impact. Can you share with us a few stories of what you've seen that has made a difference in people's lives?

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Let me first say that over 76% of kids in foster care are there because of unintentional neglect. And that simply means um they don't need to be. It's just that the family needed a little support. And so that could be um, we see this often, kinship caregivers, grandma who's on a fixed income. And she, we've seen it here, uh, we've seen it in Columbus. She received custody of her three grandkids. And but because CPS requires that every child have a proper bed, a frame and a mattress, the whole thing, not just a mattress on the floor, not sleeping on a couch. Um, CPS requires that, but grandma on her fixed income can't afford that. And now she's at risk of losing her own grandkids to a system that we know needs a lot of help. And so churches have been able to step in, help grandma not only provide that bed, but then provide that ongoing support for grandma. So she knows that there is a church right down the road from her who sees her, who cares, who it's not just about the beds for the kids, it's about helping those children to thrive. Because grandma's working hard and she's doing a great job. It's just she needs some support. It's hard work to raise kids, but I'm a grandma. I can't imagine raising my own grandbabies by myself. So that's one of one story. I have a favorite one though that I love to share, Ron. And it's what I love about it, it's a testimony of the power of the unified church and the power of connection. And um, it took place here in Clark County, but we see it in Franklin too. Um, and I want to see more of it in Franklin and the surrounding counties, uh, because I believe it's where God's heart is. But in this particular situation, it was um a mom and dad with four children. Dad was handicapped and not able to work. So mom was the sole breadwinner of the family. And through no fault of her own, mom uh lost her job. And so now the family, as a result, found themselves homeless with four children. Springfield City School District, whom we partner with here, and I'm telling you, that's not only uh that's a sign and a wonder that we have this beautiful, seamless partnership between the faith community and the local schools here. Um, but Springfield City School District put uh was able to help the family secure permanent housing, but they needed help to provide the furniture for the house. In other words, I think they needed like a stove, refrigerator, couch, and then of course beds for the children in the permanent housing. So uh four teachers came together to provide all those tangible items that were needed for the family to be able to move into their house. So while they were the over the weekend, while that they were moving into their house, somehow mom who had been sick, passed away. So now we have a family of four children moving into permanent housing. Um, dad can't work and they're dealing with the loss of their mom and now saddled with the cost of health care, the cost of uh a funeral. So I reached back to Springfield City School District and said, would you put a request into Care Portal for coverage for um the cost of a funeral? So and because they were homeless, um, it was uh it was assumed that they would just go ahead and do a cremation. And that's what they did do. So three more churches came together. I think that was like $1,200. So three more churches came together to help that. So now we've got seven churches working together seamlessly with the local city school district to come together to bless this family in a time of deep crisis. Well, in that, in that too, I started thinking, well, what about closure? They'll have the cremation, but what about this family who's dealing with this deep loss having an opportunity to have um a memorial service for mom? So because when the need goes into care portal, it's it goes in based on where that family lives, where that child lives, that zip code, I'm able to see churches closest in proximity. And there was a church within a mile of where this family was living, who uh the church was not yet a care portal church, but I knew the pastor there and I know his heart for community. So I just called him up and just explained the whole situation and said, would you guys be willing to um host a memorial service for this family? And that pastor said, Absolutely, and we'll even provide a meal for them. So when I tell you this family was undone, that's an understatement. They were just so amazed. They went back to Springfield City School District, thank them for submitting the request, but also said we had no idea that there was so much love and care in the community, in all of these churches. And it made such an impact on Springfield City School District that now it served as an impetus for this incredible um meal that Springfield City School District hosts for all their partnering churches. So every year we have a thank you uh brunch that they host, the school, the local school hosts for the partnering churches as a thank you for partnering with them to uh provide strength and family preservation for the families of the students they serve. And again, I'm like, come on, that's that's the power of connection, that's the power of the unified church. And I truly believe that's the model for what God wants to do, not just here, but across the nation. And it can be done because I say we are the church, we were made for this.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Through the local church, you've been able to do so much. So let me ask, what's next? Where do you see the care portal mission and project going?

SPEAKER_01 12:58

That's such a great question. Honestly, we see ourselves care portal in that preventative space. We know foster care has serious issues, and so when you hear statistics, like over 30% of people uh experiencing homelessness have uh been in foster care, or over 60% of children and women rescued from uh sex trafficking raids have spent time in foster care, and um over 70% of those incarcerated have spent time in foster care. And the one that really grips me is of 80% of women and men in on death row were once fostered youth. It goes without saying that foster care is ground zero. And we want to do what we can to come alongside families, provide strength and stabilization to prevent any children from having to go into foster care and then put them at risk of being another statistic. So we see ourselves with Care Portal at what we say the upstream of partnering with church, partnering churches with families in crisis in their neighborhood that they might not have even known existed outside the use of this free tool to churches that highlights these families so that the churches can come alongside and provide tangible items that may be needed, like again, that bed that grandma needs. And if she doesn't have it, she risks losing her children to foster care. It could be a grocery card, it could be a gas card, might even be um a utility bill for that month just to get the family over a hump. Um, because we've had families, um, again, kinship caregivers, uh, grandma who uh she needed some help with rent assistance because all the money that she had set aside for rent that month went towards paying for legal fees to be able to receive custody of her grandkids. She just needed help to get over that hump. And so that's what we do as the church. And I think we were made for this. So many of our families that we serve um feel isolated, they don't have family or friends that they can turn to, they don't have that community. And I say, but the church, we are community, it's in the fiber of who we are, that we are a community. And I often say it's at the it's in our DNA of who we are, because we have a heavenly father who came to this orphan planet to make us sons and daughters. We get a family, and so not only is the church through Care Portal able to be there at the point of care to meet any tangible needs that may be needed to provide support for that family, but more importantly, we're there to make those meaningful connections with the family so they feel seen and known and valued. And the and the beauty of it is we're not just a glorified Amazon where it's you know, hey, we delivered this stuff and now we're out. Nope, it's the church going texting two days later. Hey, I just wanted to check in, see how the kids are sleeping with those beds. And um just wanted to know how we can be praying for you. And it might be a week later then that the church connects with the family again to say, hey, we've got somebody in our family who loves to bake and they were praying for you and thought you that your family might enjoy some cookies. Would there be a time that I could stop by and drop those cookies off to you? And then it's uh another week later that uh of checking in with the family and just again helping the family feel seen and it and it opens the door. It's a bridge, speaking of bridges to kindness, right? It's a bridge to um to help the family get the support that they need and open the door to sharing the love of Jesus with them because that's the ultimate goal goal, is not that they know Care Portal, not even that they know our church. We want them to know Jesus and sometimes a bed, all it takes is a bed to open the door to a life transformation that I truly believe has the power to change the trajectory of every single member of that household. And it begins with the church just showing up and saying yes.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

When we come back, we'll talk with Tammy about what really is the church and how effective it can be to make a difference in the community to help those in need. That comes your way next. As the Bridge to Kindness Podcast continues, I'm Ron Smith. We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

You're listening to the Bridge to Kindness Podcast. Today's episode is made possible through the generosity of EPS, Pathways Financial Credit Union, Signature Carpet Care, Expressions Floral Design, and Lindsay Honda. For additional information about today's guests and the organizations we spotlight, go to www.thebridge tokindness.com. That's thebridgetindness.com. To reach us, you can email us at thebridgetness at gmail.com. We would love to hear from you whether you want to nominate an organization to be on our show or share with us your own experience in the nonprofit industry. That's thebridge to kindness at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Welcome back to the Bridge to Kindness Podcast. I'm Ron Smith. With us is Tammy Carter, regional manager of Care Portal. What you said before our break, Tammy, was so relevant about what people call the church. I think it brings home the message that the church is not a building or a structure. The church is the people. It's how we, as people, can we respond to the call to be involved and help one another. Can you share with us how we can be effective in joining together to help those in need?

SPEAKER_01 19:46

I love it. Great question. I'll say this first of all, go to our website, careportal.org, and learn everything that you want to learn and then some on that website. And there's also a place where you can sign up as an individual. You can sign up your church to respond to requests. And even businesses and organizations can sign up to help provide for uh tangible items and fund requests. And so I'll say this too in answer to your question. You're right. The church, we are the people of God. And we were made to do this. And I always say churches have the people, the man in power. We have the resources most of the time. We have some, if not all. And the resources that we may be lacking, businesses and organizations can help partner with the local church to provide those local resources so that the church can be at the point of care. So we have access to resources. We have the heart and the passion of Jesus. At least we should, as the church, as the people of God. And scripture goes on to say, even that we um have the mind of Christ and that we've been given everything we need for life and for godliness. So we, I truly believe the church is God's answer to the broken places, the broken spaces in our world, the broken systems in our world. And what I love about Care Portal is it's just simply a tool for the church. But the church is the ministry. Care Portal is just a tool that equips and empowers every member in the congregation to love their neighbor. And it doesn't have to be complicated. It could be as simple as baking a plate of cookies, like I said. Um, we know from the truth of scripture that God says every one of us has been given gifts, and those gifts are irrevocable. So I I always come back to maybe it's the um the shut ins who only feel like they can they can't get out. They don't maybe they even feel irrelevant, which makes me sad. Um, but they say all I can do is pray. And I'm like, that's actually the most profound thing you can do. Faith is the the foundation of everything we do. Or sorry, prayer is the foundation of everything we do. That prayer is what lifts the faith in the room. And we know that faith is the victory that overcomes the world. So we want those praying shut-ins who can see these needs, hear about them, pray about them. And should they feel that, they might even want to write a little note of encouragement for their church to take to these families. So from the praying shut-in to um maybe you own a truck, a pickup truck. We need people who have pickup trucks to help us get those big tangible items from point A to point B. And maybe you like to cook. Well, guess what? The majority of the families that we serve are dealing with food insecurities. So how wonderful would it be to get people in your church who love to cook just to sign up on a rotation to bring the family a casserole? We joke that here in the Midwest, casseroles are anointed because they have the power to really bless people. Um there's just something for everybody in the church. And you may feel like, um, you know, what have I had to offer? Well, we know God's giving you the gifts, and Care Portal just helps make it um possible for every person in the church to provide in some way. Maybe you're not comfortable making those connections with strangers, but you know what? You may have been blessed with resources. You may have been blessed, maybe you have the gift of generosity on you. Well, we need people, but it kind of goes back to Romans 10. How will they know unless they're unless they hear? How will they hear unless someone's been sent? Um, well, how will those people who want to make in your church who want to make connections with the family, how can they do that if they don't have the resources to take to them? So there's people who have that gift of generosity on them that can help fund requests or help provide items. Maybe they have a refrigerator that they're not using. The items don't have to be new, they can be used for sure. And so it might just be maybe they see there's a request for a washer and a dryer, and somebody might say, I have this washing machine I don't use anymore. Can you use that? And there you go. Now, somebody in the church who had this washing machine just sitting in their garage, waiting to go to wherever, now there's a purpose for it. So everybody can get involved in some way. And so again, if you go to careportal.org, um, you can sign up yourself as an individual to see receive requests. You set your radius for how far you want to receive requests, maybe within five miles of you, 10, 25, you'll see requests that come in and they're from all kinds of different situations. And then you um you can trust Holy Spirit that he'll lead you to the ones that you're to respond to. And that's the same for churches and businesses and organizations.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

What do you believe is the solution that we can accomplish together as a church and as a community?

SPEAKER_01 25:12

I do believe God's answer to all the brokenness is his church. Because we're his bride, we've been given everything we need for life and for godliness. We have the people, we have the resources, we have the heart and the mind of Christ. Oftentimes, what we don't have is the knowledge of where the needs are, and that's where Care Portal helps. It is a tool for the local church to know and identify a family in crisis right down the street from them that they may not have known outside of this tool. And it allows the church to be at that point of care and then provide that ongoing wraparound care. And if I could, I want to, I just want to share a little bit how it works for our listeners. So every request that goes into Care Portal is put there, put in Care Portal by a local child serving professional. So this could be a caseworker, a school counselor. And these uh caseworkers and counselors are in touch with families. They uncover a need. And here's the part I want the part I really want people to understand. They fully investigate that need and they vet that need. So after legitimizing the need, that's when they put it into Care Portal. Care Portal then immediately sends that uh need out to local churches as a request. And it brings that request right into your inbox. And so it's at this point, I always say, just because it comes into your inbox, it doesn't obligate you at all to respond, but it gives you the opportunity. And because that request went in based on that child's zip code, that family zip code, because a child is at the center of every need. Because remember, we want to do what we can to help families to prevent children from going into foster care. So because that need went in based on that family zip code, the church is able to see, hey, that family is right here in my neighborhood, and then give them opportunity to respond again with any tangible items that they can, but also that ongoing, meaningful connection that the family needs. And I will say, um, right now, just to give you a comparison, um, Clark County, we're what, some 50 to 60,000 people in comparison to Franklin County. In Clark County, we have 36 churches working together to help meet needs. And we're at about truly 95% of the needs that go into Care Portal get met. Here's my shout out to the local churches and businesses and individuals in Franklin County. Right now, we only have 17 churches signed on to partner together to come alongside families. And um we are only meeting about less than probably around 54% of the requests that go in are getting met. So that's a significant amount of requests that go in that are not getting met. And so I would love to um call out the Ollie Olioxin-free to our churches and say, join us in this endeavor to come alongside families. If this is about family preservation, this is about doing what we can to work together to uh bring stability to families, to prevent children from having to go into foster care. And if churches, maybe you feel that you're in a high need area, which is true. On the west side, there's gaps. We have of those 17 churches, the majority are on the east side of Columbus and the um in the Grove City, I've got one church there. I think in the um up in the Lynnworth, I've got one. Um, but on the west side, I have one. And that happens to be a concentration of high needs. And a lot of the local churches too feel like they're under-resourced. But here's where I say if you are a business or an organization and you have a heart to see families flourish and children thrive, then sign up your business and organization to receive requests in Care Portal. And you can go to careportal.org to do that. You'll see requests. You can help provide the resources needed so that the church can respond and be there at the point of care. I recognize that businesses and organizations don't have the time. They're they're busy. Churches, we have the time. We have the people. We may not always have the resources, but that's where businesses and organizations can help uh enable and empower and equip that local church to then be there at that point of care. And I've seen it here in Clark County, and I do believe it is the prototype of what God wants to do nationwide, because we're in um, I think over 40 states care portals in over 40 states. And I just say our eye has not seen, our ear has not heard, and our minds can't even begin to conceive what God has prepared for the people of Franklin County and surrounding counties through the unified church and through the power of connection of sharing with people at their point of need. So, yeah, more churches and more businesses and organizations partnering with churches means more families get served and more children, um, Lord willing, will be saved from having to go into foster care.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Tammy, thank you for sharing with us today. Tammy Carter, regional manager of CarePortal. That brings to a close this edition of the Bridge to Kindness Podcast. This podcast is made possible through the generosity of EPS, signature carpet care, Pathways Financial Credit Union, Expressions Florida Summoning, and Lindsay Hammond. Special thanks to Tammy Carter of CarePortal for being with us today. Take a moment and think about how you can engage with a nonprofit organization in your community to make a difference in those around you. Join us again on our next episode and more from more individuals and nonprofits in the comments region, and you're having help people, and how you can be informed, and help an informalist of the prince economists, number to make a difference, make an impact.