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Rev. Ray Belford, First Christian Church Shawnee, is involved in finding much needed care solutions for children and families in the DHS System. Read about Ray’s experience, and find out how you can get involved as well.

The Department of Human Services CarePortal Program for churches is in place to help provide needs and services to children and families in the DHS system.

There are currently more than 9,000 children in the State of Oklahoma who are in the Department of Human Services custody. Only about half are in foster care. Now there is something that every church can do to help improve the lives of these children.

The DHS has adopted the CarePortal program that has been very successful in other states for helping churches become involved in being a part of the solution. Rev. Ray Belford, first became aware of the magnitude of the foster care needs in our state last April when he attended a Children & Law Conference.

While at the conference, Ray was struck with the reality that most of the homes willing to accept DHS children, only wanted one child, and the foster parents wanted a specific age range. The bottom line was that there was no place that would accept both a 6-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl. The role-play exercises during the conference were eye-opening and heart breaking.

Oklahoma’s extremely high incarceration rate, particularly of women, is a major reason many children end up in DHS care. According to Kris Steele, former speaker of the house in Oklahoma, about 80 percent of the women incarcerated at Mabel Bassett are mothers, with the majority of that group being mothers of small children. In effect, a mother serves time in prison and her children serve time in DHS custody.

The CarePortal is a step toward improving life for these children. The purpose of CarePortal is to provide support services through local churches to children and families in the DHS system.

The CarePortal is an email notification system that forwards needs via email to participating churches. It requires a group of about 20 churches within a community that agree to provide what resources they can to meet specific needs of children and families in their area.

The CarePortal works in this way: A DHS worker becomes aware of a need, and that need is emailed to the member churches that are part of the CarePortal. The church then forwards the request to members of their church to see if anyone can supply what is needed in the request. If the church, or a member of the church, is able to meet the need then the church responds to DHS to fulfill that need.

As soon as the need is met, the other churches in the CarePortal receive an email message that informs them that the need has been met. A simple and powerful process!

A common type of request is the need of a bed. One of the requirements for taking in a foster child is that the foster family must have a separate bed with mattress for the child. If a bed is requested, it is very likely that someone in the CarePortal group has an extra bed that is not being used or is stored in the garage which can be donated, and the need is met.

One of the things the CarePortal advocates is meeting specific needs and discourages providing cash for numerous reasons.

With all the problems that we have in our state, this is one for which churches from all denominations pulling together can certainly make a difference.

Remember, Matthew 25:40 tells us, Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. (NRSV).

There is a website for the CarePortal program with step-by-step instructions for participating. The website can be accessed at careportal.org.