Pilot project addresses foster care

Published 11:02 am Tuesday, May 31, 2016

MOULTRIE — If a church is looking to expand or add a new ministry, Kayla Jones has just the cause to embrace. It’s called Care Portal.

In a nutshell, Care Portal partners with the county’s Department of Family and Children Services to help “families in crisis.” More specifically, it helps address the many needs of foster care.

“Officially we launch Thursday. We’re the first county in Georgia to implement Care Portal,” said Jones.

The pilot project will network area churches with DFCS via email. Already seven churches have signed onto the project, and Jones expects as many as 10 could become involved by year’s end.

“Portal Care is not so much an organization as it is a tool,” said Jones.

Jones, a stay-at-home mom, has been involved with foster care for a couple of years, having led the “Forgotten Initiative” here which also was designed to help the foster care needs of the community.

However, she said a broader approach was needed with more people and more energy involved. 

A while back the portal idea was presented to the state’s Child Welfare Council and state DFCS Commissioner Bobby Cagle. 

“He was so moved by the potential this tool offered to promote foster care and community awareness, that a plan to implement the Care Portal for every county in the entire state was begun. The beauty of the Care Portal is that it offers the faith community a way to partner with the child welfare system in a simple, yet elegant way; through receiving an email. 

“When a case worker has a need, they simply fill out a digital request that is sent through email to a point person for all churches that have enrolled and they then forward the same email to the members of their congregation. If an individual can meet the particular need, they just reply to the original email and it goes right back to the case worker. The case worker contacts the individual and connects them with the family, child, or foster parent in need. In that connection, a situation becomes a person and a few words in an email becomes a face-to-face interaction. That’s it, but that interaction can be the life changer for both individuals involved,” Jones said.

Why is this such a big deal for Colquitt County?

 When a plan to implement Care Portal was being devised, the state really wanted to see one county pilot the program, Jones said. Ån Atlanta church contacted her in November 2015, searching out community foster care leaders throughout the state to gauge which county would be the best pilot county.

“After many conversations with those choosing the pilot county, Colquitt County was chosen to pilot! We are the first to use the Care Portal in the whole state,” she said.

“Colquitt has the incredible opportunity to show the entire state just how big our love for our community can be and that, in the end, we are all just people. None better than the other. Yes, this program brings together the church and the state. Care Portal is not state funded, state owned, or state led. It is funded, led, and directed by the churches directly involved, working together for the greater goal of loving people and meeting them where they are in crisis,” Jones added. 

The Care Portal is successfully working every day in 8 other states .

On any given day, Colquitt County has 100 or more children in foster care.

Jones said this project is welcomed by DFCS, noting that it will be a tremendous asset to foster care here.

“It may be something as simple as providing a bed to a family. Or it might grow into a mentoring thing where a child is provided transportation to ball practice or some other activity,” said Jones. “The needs are many.”

Jones said in the big picture, Care Portal will put names and faces to a cause that otherwise might have been erroneously stereotyped.

Colquitt County DFCS Director Meredith Willis said her department is very excited about Care Portal. 

She said at the next level of Care Portal development, DFCS will be able to go into the churches and actually recruit foster families.

She described a need that is ever-growing.

“We have so many cases now, we sometimes have to go outside of the community to find foster care. It means so much to be able to keep these children local … in the same schools, with the same doctors, etc.,” said Willis.

Inquiries may be made at Kayla@goproject.org> and more information is available at careportal.org.