OKLAHOMA – Throughout the entire CarePortal Network, 32,534 Oklahoma children have been served by local churches across the state since CarePortal launched in 2015. 

CarePortal, a tool used to connect children in need to local churches, has three different pathways that children can be served: single family requests, multi-family requests, and church entered needs.  

Requesting agencies – like Oklahoma Human Services or Circle of Care – can submit single family requests. There are 66 active agencies submitting vetted, child-centered requests for families across the state. These child-serving agencies include non-profits, schools, pregnancy centers, women’s shelters, etc. Over 29,604 single family requests have been met, with more than 90 percent of those requests being from OKDHS, 111Project’s primary requesting agency.  

Multi-family requests are requests that serve more than one family, like a coat drive or school supply drive. This feature is mainly used by schools and has served 428 children.  

Church-entered needs allow church leaders to submit the needs of their congregation and community to their church responders. Over 2,500 children have been served through church-entered needs.  

“As the Church takes on the care of vulnerable people across the state, we expect the number of church-entered needs to grow as they become the front line of care,” Church Engagement Director Dree Hogue said. 

111Project is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) 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. 

More information on CarePortal can be found here. Training on how to enter church-entered needs can be found here. 

Any churches or individuals interested in learning more or getting involved can visit 111project.org.