Eight churches enrolled to serve local families in need
GRANT COUNTY – Eight churches are signed up and ready to serve their community in Grant County through CarePortal, a growing connection network managed by 111Project.
CarePortal launched in Grant County last week and allows agency partners – like Oklahoma Department of Human Services Child Welfare – to submit vetted needs to the community and local churches to serve families in crisis.
111Project Regional Manager Jennifer Holbert said the excitement at the Grant County Launch was encouraging.
Grant County churches are working together and crossing denominational lines to serve families in need.
“I really see an increase in them reaching out to their neighbors,” Holbert said. “They’re already pretty well connected as communities and they know each other pretty well, but even a deeper level of connection with the people that they’ve been serving. I’m really excited about that, because it’s going to allow opportunities for deeper relationships and love in spaces that are kind of off limits in a lot of other situations.”
Five churches including First Baptist Medford, Medford Church of the Nazarene, Medford Methodist Church, First Christian Church of Medford and First Christian Church of Pond Creek were a part of the initial launch.
Three churches including Jefferson United Methodist Church, Lamont Christian Church and Lamont United Methodist Church enrolled after the launch – 111Project would love to have many more in the community enroll.
“[Having eight enrolled churches] opens the conversation for how we can serve in the schools,” Holbert said. “We’ve been beginning that conversation because we have connections with those in Lamont schools and Medford schools. There’s a great representation from three different towns in Grant County, which is also really great.”
111Project is a not-for-profit 501c3 with the mission to mobilize the local church so every child has family. The organization’s initial goal is to mobilize 1,000 churches across Oklahoma that can serve at least one family a month on CarePortal and recruit and support a foster family every year.
If 1,000 out of the 6,200 churches in Oklahoma commit to recruit and support one foster family a year, and serve one family a month on CarePortal, the state will move closer to having more than enough help for children and families in crisis.
Grant County has 13 children in foster care as of June 1, according to monthly numbers released by the OKDHS.
Grant is the sixth county launched in 2023 and is the 46th county launched in total, which is more than halfway to statewide expansion.
Latimer County launches June 27 and Marshall County launches July 13.
Any churches or individuals interested in learning more or getting involved can visit 111project.org.
