FRANKLIN — A single mother of six who fled domestic violence across the country faced losing her home in October after losing her job. With no health insurance, mounting medical bills and a child requiring treatment in Nashville, she had nowhere to turn.
Then local churches connected through CarePortal stepped in, providing rent assistance, grocery cards and gas money so she could make the twice-weekly drives from Franklin to visit her hospitalized child.
She is just one of the many examples impacted by CarePortal.
van Woudenberg
“What we’re really trying to do with CarePortal is use those physical items to create meaningful connections to create opportunities for gospel conversations with those families,” said Paul van Woudenberg, the platform’s area director for Tennessee. “What they really need is community.”
CarePortal, a digital platform connecting churches with families in crisis, is rapidly expanding across Tennessee. The system has served more than 5,000 children in the state since 2021 with over $1.2 million invested in items. The number of church responders is about 2,600.
The platform partners with child-serving agencies including the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, allowing social workers to anonymously post specific needs for families they serve. Those requests are then sent to members of nearby participating churches who can donate money, provide items or volunteer to deliver assistance.
The Franklin mother’s case is typical of families CarePortal serves — she needed immediate help with rent and gas cards, plus clothing and shoes for all six children as temperatures dropped. She moved to Tennessee more than two years ago to escape the children’s father, who owes tens of thousands in child support she has been unable to collect.
The platform expanded significantly after partnering with the Governor’s Office of Faith and Community-Based Initiatives as part of the Every Child TN program, which launched last year. CarePortal now operates in 33 Tennessee counties and serves families in 39 states.
Unlike traditional church ministries that place demands on pastoral staff or dedicated teams, CarePortal notifications go directly to individual church members who choose to respond.
“It’s really the people in the church who are able to respond and interact to those requests,” van Woudenberg said. “We have some really cool stories where obviously sometimes a simple connection leads to a lot more meaningful relationships later on.”
When agencies submit requests, they include brief anonymous descriptions of family situations. Church members receive notifications and can pray for the family, donate funds, or provide physical items.
One church can take the lead on a request, so the funding from the platform goes toward a reloadable debit card those churches have.
“The churches will use that to then go buy the bunk bed, whether it’s at Amazon or Walmart. And then they have the opportunity to actually go meet with the family, set up the bunk bed in their home,” said van Woudenberg.
“It allows opportunities for real connection because we know that grandma, grandpa might’ve asked for the bunk beds, but what they really need is community.”
Social workers ask families if they are willing to be contacted by local churches before needs are posted, van Woudenberg added.
The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board recently became an implementing partner, allowing Southern Baptist churches to join under a unified umbrella that tracks collective impact. Twelve churches currently operating under that partnership have served 1,691 children with more than $1 million in economic impact, van Woudenberg said.
CarePortal served just 668 children in Tennessee in 2023 before accelerating its growth through the state partnership.
Churches interested in joining must operate in counties where CarePortal has sufficient church support before the Department of Children’s Services can begin posting requests.
Van Woudenberg encouraged churches in areas not yet served to organize informational meetings with other congregations to help launch county-wide coverage.
Van Woudenberg, who has worked with CarePortal for three and a half years, called the platform “probably one of the easiest ways to get involved with the before, during and after of foster care” and to discover needs of families in crisis that churches might not otherwise know exist.
Churches can sign up at www.careportal.org, where staff members assist with setup and implementation. B&R
