By: AIF Staff
American Idea Foundation President Paul Ryan has long believed that America is at her best when civil society, which he often defines as the space between citizens and their government, is strong. Rather than simply waiting on government to help fellow citizens in times of need, Americans have always prided themselves on assisting their neighbors and community members who are struggling, often utilizing churches, philanthropic, or civic groups to organize these efforts.
This community-driven approach to solving some of America’s social challenges is what animates the work being done by CarePortal, one of the organizations that the American Idea Foundation will be supporting in 2025 with financial assistance and technical expertise.
CarePortal is an online hub, a digital platform, and a networking community that links caseworkers, social service agencies, churches, local philanthropists, and aid organizations with individual families and children in times of crisis.
CarePortal predominately serves those involved in the child welfare system or those who are at risk of entering the child welfare system due to preventable causes like poverty and neglect. The organization’s mission is to keep families together, keep children healthy and happy, and harness the power of technology and networking to create a community of caregivers that those in-need can turn to during trying times.
Each service provided or request met via CarePortal is designed to prevent children from entering foster care, to strengthen their families, to improve their educational or health outcomes, and to do so before a breakdown occurs.
Here’s a quick example of how CarePortal works:
- A social worker or caseworker identifies a specific need for a child, ideally before they enter the foster care system, and enters a request for assistance via the CarePortal platform or app.
- This request for assistance is then shared with local churches, businesses, non-profits, and individuals, giving them a real-time opportunity to immediately respond and help those in their community.
- These requests can be for financial assistance on rent, transportation, food, clothing, or any type of support related to a child’s well-being and safety.
- These requests are met by these civic or faith-based organizations and ideally, a family is strengthened, or a child is helped in a way that prevents them from going into the foster care system.
This video drives home further how CarePortal works with individuals and organizations to help local families and children in need.
CarePortal’s growth is driven by individuals and communities’ desire to support their neighbors in-need. The Wall Street Journal’s Andy Kessler described CarePortal as “The Uber of Foster Care,” and explained the organization’s maturation in this way:
“The origin story: Healthcare executive Adrien Lewis and his wife began fostering children in 2011 and spent two years trying to get churches in the Kansas City area to recruit foster parents—no easy task. Then, “out of nowhere,” Mr. Lewis says, “I get a vision for CarePortal, to leverage technology to connect. In crisis, those touched by the child-welfare system could connect with churches and people who care in proximity that would want to help if they knew. What would happen if you could expose people to the reality that a bed or crib or car seat, or paying a bill, things that were small, like 6-inch barriers, would actually make a difference to keep kids out of foster care and reunify biological families?” Heck of a vision.
So “with shoestring and duct tape, we pulled together different software platforms and kind of jimmied them together. A pilot of CarePortal hit the market in Austin, Texas, in late 2014. People went nuts over it. The very first request was for a family with a bedbug problem who was trying to adopt a cousin who had been in foster care. Supplies and volunteers solved their bedding problem.”
From those earnest beginnings, CarePortal has developed a network of 1,000 agencies and 6,000 local church and aid response teams across 37 different states that serve a projected 140,000 children and families annually.
In the same Wall Street Journal piece, CarePortal CEO Joe Knittig summed up the group’s work succinctly:
“Uber is to ride-sharing what CarePortal is to care sharing—community-based care sharing. Every day, we have 350 children that are actually being served by their neighbors through CarePortal.” The plan is to scale it to thousands.
Mr. Knittig explains, “CarePortal at its essence is a request-response loop.” On one side are social-service professionals, social workers and others who enter “real-time vetted needs of kids and families in crisis” into the CarePortal app. On the other side are local churches and community responders who see the need and jump into action. “Bedding is the No. 1 need entered into CarePortal. But there could be relational things like ‘I need a mentor.’”
Today, there are over 400,000 children in the U.S. foster care system. The United States spends $30 billion on foster care annually, yet research increasingly shows that preventing foster care is more cost effective and yields better outcomes for both children and families. CarePortal leans into this idea by providing a proactive, connected system of local support for families and children facing immediate crisis.
By combining modern technology with local civic, philanthropic, and faith-based organizations’ desire to help society’s most vulnerable children, CarePortal has hit on an innovative and impactful strategy to keep families intact. The American Idea Foundation is proud to support their efforts to strengthen civil society and assist our neighbors in times of crisis.
To learn more about the American Idea Foundation’s 2025 grant recipients, click here.