Earlier this year, CarePortal, a “network of help” to work with children in or on the verge of entering the state’s overtaxed foster care system, formed a collaboration with five Osceola County churches and ministries.
The idea behind it is to make a list of child or family needs available to those religious groups, in order to make those groups a point of care for them.
Now, the City of Kissimmee is a partner with CarePortal. Mayor Olga Gonzalez and the city hosted a gathering of area faith leaders, to introduce them the FAMs (Family Advocacy Ministries) and CarePortal in order to better care for Osceola’s vulnerable children.
“We are joining efforts to continue helping children and families in need. After working closely with the Department of Children and Families for over 22 years, I used their electronic applications to assist thousands of families in our community,” Gonzalez said. “This introduction is about giving people the tools and help solve the problem of one. By working together, we can help many people.”
CarePortal is in its sixth year, and more than 2,800 church response teams have a presence in 27 states. Over 2,000 children have been served in Florida since CarePortal began going statewide last year, creating over $800,000 in economic impact through 208 churches. Nationwide it has a presence in 24 states and has served over 100,000 children.
Locally, Commission 127 is the implementing partner in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties. Faith-based services can register with them (www. c127.org) to get connected. That connection has already been made in the area; Greenway Church, the home church for Pastor Rupert Henry, who brought CarePortal to Osceola County, worked with a mother who needed a place for her family for one night on providing a hotel room.
Betsey Bell, co-founder of Commission 127 (referring to Bible passage James 1:27), who counts two adopted foster children among her family of six, formed Commission 127 with her husband Rechaud to help equip Central Florida’s 3,000 churches to better support foster families and help solve our local foster care crisis.
“We are excited to be able to bring together faith leaders in Osceola County who are excited and wanting to help the need of children that live here,” she said. “Often, they don’t know how to engage with that, so we are bringing everyone together to talk about CarePortal, a proven model across the country. We are excited that Osceola County is now going to have this opportunity to plug into this. CarePortal will allow churches to see in real-time what are the needs.
“Our goal is to stop generational abuse, and stop kids from coming into care, to plug in with each other to prevent that. This parternship helps meet needs, but also fills bigger goal of relationship building.”
