The Baby No One Had Room For

Brandon Andres Green, host of Good Neighbor Podcast Tulsa, sits down with Chris Campbell of the 111 Project to talk about foster care, prevention, church mobilization, and how ordinary people can become practical help for kids and families in crisis.

Chris shares the moment that changed his perspective: a two-day-old baby with no available home anywhere in the state. That kind of story could make people feel helpless, but for the 111 Project it became a doorway into a bigger mission: helping churches, families, and communities stop assuming “someone else” will handle foster care.

This conversation explains the simple idea behind the name 111 Project: one church, one family, one child. Chris breaks down why supporting foster care does not always mean becoming a foster parent, and how small, practical acts can help stabilize families, support reunification, and keep children from entering care in the first place.

You’ll also hear about CarePortal, a web-based platform that connects real needs from schools, caseworkers, and local partners with people ready to help. From beds and cookware to rent assistance, transportation, kinship care, and even trauma-informed support like tattoo removal for a young person healing from exploitation, this episode shows how specific help can change a real life.

If you care about foster kids, family preservation, church outreach, adoption, prevention, or helping vulnerable children without knowing where to start, this conversation gives you a clear and practical path forward.

You may not be called to do everything, but you can help one child, one family, one need at a time.

Transcript

Welcome To Good Neighbor Podcast

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Brandon Andris Green.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast Live. Most people care about children and families involved in foster care. But caring becomes powerful when someone is invited to step closer. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Chris Campbell with the 111 Project. Chris is a fifth-generation Oklahoman, a husband of 25 years and a father of five. But in his own words, he's ultimately just a regular guy who is invited to care about children and families in foster care. And that invitation changed his life. Now he helps mobilize churches and communities to better support children and ass at-risk families. Hey Chris, how's it going? Dude, honor to be here, Brandon. Thanks so much, man. We're honored to have you here. And we're so excited to learn all about you and the 111 project and how your team helps ordinary people turn compassion into action.

Why The 111 Project Exists

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Will you tell us a little bit about the 111 project and kind of the heart behind your organization?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah, Brandon, we've been around since 2011 and ultimately the founders of 111. Uh there was a group of folks who recognized the faith community and really the community at large wasn't really involved in the foster care work or space. It was mainly kind of abdicated to the government people, right? The professionals. And so they realized there was a need in our state, just like in many states, to involve the community more in advocating for kids involved in the foster care work. And so 111 was created not long ago, about 2011 in Oklahoma, to really advocate for the need for more foster families is where we started, recognizing that we don't have enough homes, and most states don't have enough foster homes needed for every community.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

And so what does 111 even mean?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yeah, so our history of the ones is that specifically in the faith community, what we recognize in most states, there's more faith communities than there are kids and foster care. And so specifically in Oklahoma, we have 6,200 churches and around 6,000 kids in care at any given time. So the 111s, the idea is if every church, one church would recruit one family for one child, we would actually have more than enough homes needed in any given time. And so something that seems really complicated and really seems like insurmountable is really something that can be simply solved when you get enough people engaged in the work. And so our heart is to recruit churches to recruit and support foster families in the state of Oklahoma. But we also realize as we've matured over the years that this is more complicated, right? We need the right kind of the home homes for kids, maybe with unique needs, or maybe there's multiple siblings and not every home is equipped or able, has the space to take in more than one child. And so it does get complicated. But also one of the really beautiful opportunities is actually supporting families and children. So those children never have to enter foster care in the first place. And so if we're looking to try to fix the ratios, right? One family for one child, one of the things that we can do is actually lower the amount of kids in foster care. Um, and so we we really advocate for good work in that in that space because nobody's wanting more children to enter the foster care system in the first place. And so uh what can we do upstream to prevent kids having to be involved with the system at all, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

And and how's that been?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

It's actually been one of the most uh fun parts of our work. Um you know, I think in every community there's families who are really trying, um, but oftentimes the system, uh the confidentiality, the difficulties, the legal stuff associated with things makes that makes that

CarePortal Explained With Real Examples

SPEAKER_01 4:32

complicated. Um, and so one of our uh platforms that we use is a is a web-based tool called CarePortal. Um, and we have set up Care Portal in Oklahoma, it's available in other states, but it really allows those who know the needs of children and families to connect with those in the community that want to help. And so that's one of the other big programs of 111 project that we facilitate here in Oklahoma at Care Portal.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

And will you uh go in a little deeper and help explain what exactly the Care Portal is?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah, absolutely. Um, so on a regular day of the week, we're meeting with churches and community partners to really advocate for foster care. Um, but what's really great about Care Portal is we recognize that there's there's other organizations that are connected, maybe not directly to the foster care system, but can contribute to the foster care system. And one of the greatest examples of this is the schools, right? So children are involved in their local school system, and maybe something happens with their family or some abuse happens in their home. And so the first line of defense that actually could really support children is their school. Um, and it's oftentimes where we find other families that know these children, um, that can wrap around these children, maybe even foster these children, ideally, so that that child can stay in their school system or could be supported in their school system so that they never even have to enter foster care in the first place. So, what we do as an organization is we look for all those different partners. We give them the ability on Care Portal to make requests on behalf of children and families based on a need that they know that's vetted. Um, so maybe it's a rent assistance. So one of our partners this last week, um, they had a mom who, because of some health issues, was not able to make her rent, which was leading to an eviction. Well, that mom had six children in her home. Right. So, on the from the foster care perspective, if that those dominoes continue to fall, um, mom potentially could have some child welfare involvement, not directly because of her being homeless, but because of all the ancillary things that could come from her being homeless, right? Um, and so why don't we support that mom then, right? And sometimes the school is the one who knows about that need first. But sometimes that needs popping up because of child welfare being involved, right? They're trying to get those children back with mom, who maybe has recovered from some addiction. Um, and so she's making great progress with her sobriety, but she needs some help with housing or or needs some household items, right? That that could really be beneficial, like cookware, right? Like so, mom wants to really provide for her kids, but all of us know the cost associated with setting up a household can take some time to get all the things that you need. And so CarePortal presents some of those opportunities that the agency partners know about because they're working with these families, and they give any normal person in the community a chance to jump in and either donate some of the cookware that they don't need anymore, or go buy you know, some dishes and some items that then through the agency can be given directly to the family.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

And what's the general reception

What Community Support Changes

SPEAKER_02 7:50

been? How have churches and uh the community at large received this concept?

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yeah, I I think in line with your uh your hope of your podcast here is there's actually more good in the world than we think there is. And that that actually is the the big encouragement and the seat that I get to sit in is daily, I get to see children and families helped by the community, like strangers giving extravagantly to giving simple gifts of $20, $30 that are directly going to help families on a day-to-day basis. And so um in Oklahoma, we reached a height of almost 12,000 kids in foster care back in 2015. That was actually the year that 111 project started CarePortal, um, was in 2015. We brought CarePortal the state of Oklahoma. And since 2015, we've seen a reduction of the children's amount of children in foster care down to under 6,000 kids. And we can give a lot of credit to the community and their participation in CarePortal because we've helped kids stay out of foster care. We've helped kids get back to their families faster. Um, and we've helped support those families that are fostering or adopting children and helping make life easier for them, whether it be a wheelchair because they're trying to adopt a child that has some special needs, um, to you know, that that grandma who's caring for the grandkids. And we would much rather do the things necessary to support grandma than load those kids up and put them with a stranger, even though it may be a good home. I think every kid would rather be with their family when and if we can make that happen. And so everything in between. Um, two, even the things that maybe there's not a connection opportunity, but we know everybody knows in the system that this is helpful for the kids, the child's healing

A Story That Redefines Help

SPEAKER_01 9:45

journey. Um, so one example, you know, that I would give is we had a we had a young lady that had fled foster care. Um, she actually ran away from her foster home, got involved in sex trafficking, um, but then got rescued. But then she had to go back into foster care. And while she was visiting with some of her caseworkers, she had actually been tattooed up by some of her abusers uh while she was being trafficked. And they had put her initials on her arm. And in one of her counseling appointments, she just simply said, the best thing, the thing I wish could happen is I wish I could get their names off my arms, right? I wish I could get those initials off my arms. And so one of the workers reached out to us and said, Hey, we don't we don't have a bucket of money for this, but would you guys ever be okay with us putting a tattoo removal request on Care Portal? We're like, absolutely. If that's what that young child, young youth needs, uh, I think that community would care about that. And uh, Brandon, within 36 hours, our local churches and community partners had raised the $1,500 to start that treatment.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Right. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

And so one of the challenges in the social service sector is we have all these grants and we have all these buckets of money and they're restricted to this, that, and the other. And sometimes that's helpful for integrity and intention and purpose, but also sometimes it helps and it it hamstrings the folks that are really trying to help our children and families because it's not what they need right now, right? Um, and so one of the beautiful things I love about CarePortals, it's not restricted. We we trust the professionals to tell us, hey, what do you, what does your families need the most right now? And how do we bring resources to them instead of them having to navigate the world in their crisis and go find the resources that may not even be helpful to them after they spend hours filling out applications or whatever the other thing is. And so that's that's the big work that we do is how do we mobilize a network of care of both financial resources but relationships too, that can really lean into the space of foster care and and we believe it can change it.

Chris’s Invitation Into Foster Care

SPEAKER_02 12:01

It's amazing. Also, I noticed, Chris, that you describe yourself as a regular guy who is invited to care about children and families in foster care. I'm curious, what was that invitation? And and maybe tell us how did it change your life?

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Yeah. Uh so if you looked at my resume, you you might think that I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, you know, like I'm a music major, you know, I studied music, I like to sing and realized I didn't want to make a career out of that. And then I worked at a local ice cream plant, you know, in the warehouse for a little while. And then I eventually got into some business and we had some businesses and started some different things. And but then I had an opportunity to serve at a church, and so I was a pastor for a season, and now I'm running a nonprofit, right? Like, like it's kind of a wild mixed bag of skills and abilities, right? But I had an invitation from one of my really good friends who said, Hey, uh, and this was why I was a church leader. I was at I was serving at a local church in a staff position, and she said, Hey, I want you to come down to this child children's shelter that we had in our city. And uh Brandon, I was ignorant of it. I didn't, I didn't know we had kids there. And and uh I volunteered at this shelter. The first day that I volunteered, uh I got handed a two-day-old baby in the state of Oklahoma, that there was no home available for this baby anywhere in the state. And that was my moment, right? Um, that was the moment that I kind of was awakened that like this is unacceptable. Um, as a church leader, as a community member. Why? I mean, I had I probably had some strong expletives as a as a pastor that that like why is this why is this a reality for us in our state? And so that that really was my invitation to get involved. It was a friend that just said, hey, I think you need to know about this and come with me. I'm volunteering here, um, which then led me to get more involved and kind of get my eyes open. And and Brand, that was 10, 15 years ago. Um, and now I'm highly involved, right? Like I'm I'm text messaging friendship with a lot of our child welfare leaders and community nonprofit partners, you know. But I don't I don't have a degree in psychology. I don't, I'm not a counselor or social worker. I'm I'm just a normal dude who said, okay, I'm just gonna keep on asking questions to learn uh and be educated and then look for ways that I can help as a normal guy. And then, oh, actually, it would be better if I could help find more people to help, you know. Um, and so one of the things that sometimes people are surprised, like I don't personally foster because one of the reasons I don't foster is I'm trying to recruit more people to foster. And I feel like I can do that better and more effectively when I'm not fostering. Um, and so that connecting role is a role that I think anybody can do, you know. Um, and so connecting people to these epicenters of need and opportunities to serve with wonderful organizations, nonprofits, partners. Um, there's so many opportunities out there that just people don't know about, or they're intimidated by stepping into because they don't feel qualified. And I would just say, man, like let's get that off your off your chest and lean in because you really could be helpful.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Yeah, it's impactful.

What To Remember About Families

SPEAKER_02 15:30

And Chris, what's one thing you want our listeners to really remember about children and families involved in foster care?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah, so as I got involved, I think you know, all of us unpack our stories over time, and especially as we start getting a little gray in our beards, maybe we we become a little more reflective, right? Um, and I look back at my story and recognize that there was a couple of pivotal moments, even in my own family's life, where if some decisions or actions were different, um, I probably could have bumped up to a different reality. And and so I think the reality that all of us without connection, without support, are maybe a few decisions away or life circumstances away from having a hard experience. Um, and so I think the community at times can cast a little too much judgment on the reality of children and families that are involved. But also, uh, you know, just because somebody hasn't had an addiction, uh had an addiction, or even even made some bad decisions doesn't keep them away from redemption and restoration. And and there's pathways for that. Um, and so we see it all the time of even in abuse and neglect, families restored and reconciliation. But when that's not possible, when the adults don't make those choices, man, we want to care for kids. And and uh, I'm just passionate about that kids don't need to be in institutions, they need to be in families. And so we need more good families. We need more people that are willing to say, hey, I got a little extra. Um, I don't think love is a commodity that runs out, you know. Um, and so extra love, we got extra capacity, we got extra space. Um, and maybe we don't feel like we're completely adequate or trained, you know, to step in. Well, let's get you there, right? What are the experiences that you need to be equipped? And I just feel like that's what we want to be about is helping develop people into deeper levels of engagement. And when you have experiences and wisdom, that that's really what negates fear is you know, exposure and understanding to the right kind of things that make you feel more comfortable with stepping into harder things.

How To Learn More And Get Involved

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Chris, how can listeners learn more, maybe connect with the 111 project and get involved?

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Yeah, so I I would ask questions first, you know, if if somebody's not willing to answer your questions, that's probably not a great place to start, you know. So, so you know, like look for those folks that are open to your curiosity, and then I would say, like, keep on being curious, right? Why is this? Where is this? Who handles this? Right? So, in your community, when a child is subjected to some abuse and neglect, who's responsible? Is that a nonprofit? Is that a government agency, or is it no one? And and what should your church or community organization do about that, right? What can you do? And and that may be starting out in some kind of small, what seems small kind of effort, um, but it could be something that develops into a lifelong calling as well. And so um ask questions and then look for the helpers that are already helping in your community, right? And um, I think a lot of us recognize we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes we can create things that compete with existing and actually hurt the existing. When if we kind of dropped our egos at the door and just volunteered, even if it's not perfect, with that local child welfare office or that local nonprofit that's really just trying to help. Man, your energy, your expertise, your connections could really be the catalyst to make it better.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

It's amazing. Well, Chris, I really appreciate you being on the show, and I wish you and the 111 project the best moving forward. Love it. Thanks so much, Brandon.

Closing And Listener Call To Action

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptulsa.com. That's gnptulsa.com or call 918 301 6356.