Building Trust: CarePortal's Role in Family Stability

Meet Kim And CarePortal

Guest: Hey, welcome to another episode of Rebooting Life After Dick Shannon. I'm excited to sit down and chat. I'm here with Rob. Rob, how's it going today, man?

Justin: Dude, you know, I'm actually extremely excited for the guest that we have today. Um she is someone that has welcomed me and is a great connector here in the city of Roanoke, and so it's awesome to hear what she does, and I love for our audience just to kind of get a glimpse of what's actually happening um in our world, right? And the need for things that this individual is doing. Her name is Kim. Um I don't want to introduce her and talk about her, so I'm gonna allow her to talk about herself and just let us know a little bit about what she does.

Guest: Kim, how are you?

Guest: Doing great.

Guest: I'm doing awesome. You just want to share your name and your ministry real quick.

Guest: Uh Kim, so my name is Kim Tulu, and I um am kind of leading Care Portal here in the Roanoke Valley. So yeah.

Justin: What has what's Care Portal? If you can like dive in a little bit deeper, right? Because like I never heard of Care Portal the first time I met you. And it was just like, you know, it's a nice name. But like what does Care Portal actually do? Like, how has it been uh of great impact here in Roanoke? But not just here in Roanoke, it's actually in the United States, correct?

Guest: Yes, yeah.

Justin: So if you can just tell us a little bit more

How The Network Works

Justin: about that.

Guest: Yeah, yeah. CarePortal is a connecting technology that helps connect our community to the needs of children all over um our each community. So uh it is a national organization, but it also is very grassroots because it's trying to help each community kind of support the children in their community. And uh and how it works is it has we have uh agencies that are enrolled. Uh here in Roanoke, we have um many agencies. We have Roanoke City DSS, uh, Roanoke County DSS, and then we also have uh, and when I say DSS, I'm talking about Department of Social Services. Some people don't know the abbreviation. So um, and then we also have some schools that are enrolled. We have all of Botatot County public schools enrolled. Um, and then we're we have some city schools and we're just working to grow through the schools. And then we have many smaller nonprofits that are a part of Care Portal, and they'll put in requests on behalf of children and their families as they're working with different children, they'll find out about needs, and then they will put them in the care portal, and then the 20 nearest churches will receive that request and have an opportunity to help meet the need. But it doesn't, it's not limited to churches. We have a lot of community organizations and community responders that also see those needs and respond on a regular basis. So, in uh for example, there is a faithful uh um donor who lives in northern Virginia and he regularly funds requests in Roanoke. And just because he sees the request and he has a heart for kids and he wants to help. And so we have many people that do that kind of thing as well. And then when that happens, a church would claim those funds and then go buy the item and then deliver it to the family. So that's so awesome.

Justin: It's amazing to hear that there is an organization that's out there that's like a secret Santa. So we don't know who's going to get blessed today, but like how many communities are have that you guys have discovered that are in need? Like what what's the is there like a statistic of the number of families that are actually reaching out? And

The Need In Roanoke By The Numbers

Justin: like what's the rate of individuals or families that are coming in monthly or even daily for that matter, that are needing help in uh the communities that you guys serve and support?

Guest: That's a good question. Uh so in the Roanoke Valley, we have uh 400 kids in foster care. That is the most kids in the state of Virginia. Uh it is a really high number, so we have a lot of need here in Roanoke. So we probably have the most care portal requests in the state here in the Roanoke Valley, and regularly we're averaging around 90 to 100 requests coming in a month from these agencies. And uh but on the same note, we have we're we're we're meeting 80 some percent of those requests as a community. So we're doing a great job keeping up and seeing those and meeting them. And um so but yeah, there these needs are all over the state. Uh and and each community has many needs, and and I can't speak to all of those because I'm only in charge of the Roanoke area, but we get a lot of requests coming in every the idea of Care Portal was to help intervene in the foster care crisis, which is another large number in our country of children in foster care. And um, and what we see are a lot of children that are needing support. So the families that we are serving are um really serving those vulnerable kids that are at risk of foster care, of entering the system, or they're already in the system and they need support. And um, so most of the families that we are serving are children that are being raised by a grandma on their own or an aunt. Um, our church has kind of adopted a family, and it's an aunt who took in five kids to keep them out of foster care. And she is in her mid-50s and has her own health issues and her own things from her, you know, childhood. And so she's trying to raise all these kids on her own. And there's so many families that we meet that are in those situations. Um, every now and then we're supporting uh a family that has two uh people working, but most of the families we serve are single parent households where they just don't make enough. But even like you said, when they are uh uh two people working and bringing in income, it can be really hard for them to pay all their bills and they don't have a they don't have a safety net. We see so many people that don't have a safety net. So, you know, they're doing okay, and then their car breaks down, and then all of a sudden they don't have the money to fix the car, they can't get to work, and then it can spiral, and that happens all the time. So when CarePortal steps in, we're usually stepping in in a crisis situation, something like that, where something happened and they need a little support to kind of get them back on their feet again. And so we we are not um typically in those spaces where we're just gonna we're not gonna pay a rent check every month. That's not what we're looking to do. We're looking to kind of wrap around support when things happen and help um build that family up to be able to take care of themselves because

Preventing Foster Care Through Support

Guest: that's what they that's what they want to do. And the people we work we meet, they aren't they are not looking for handouts, they want to do it themselves, but sometimes we all just need a little help, you know.

Guest: It's fascinating though, because you talk about the the support for keeping the kids from going to foster care, right? Yeah, the government doesn't step in until after they've been in the system, right? Yeah, so so we're talking about running up all these expenses and whatnot. And if you're a family trying to prevent, hey, I'm if we're just from an economical standpoint, trying to save the government hundreds of thousands of dollars here. Yeah. Can I get a little bit of help? Yes, you know, but but the government doesn't step in usually, right? Until until things fall apart and the kids in the system, yeah, and then they show up at our door, right, with a bag of clothes and and all that, and you know, kind of go through that whole process. But like, yeah, it's it's fascinating. I really love love hearing that.

Guest: Yeah, yeah, that is exactly true. That the if we can prevent them from ever having to go into the system, I so much better off because a lot of times if one thing happens and another thing happens, right, it can be detrimental to that family. So we uh that's where we really love um our preventative care cases where we can just kind of wrap around and support that family. So nothing has to happen there. And uh one of the things that DSS had told me um like last year, they said, we we don't know how we did our jobs before Care Portal. We don't know how we did it because they they didn't have that support. And when their funds run out, their funds run out, and they care about these families too. They want to help them, but they only have limited resources and limited ability to help. And so they love the churches and the just working together. A lot of times we work together, like a little bit of government funds are used, and then the church pays the rest. You know, we do that a lot.

Justin: What I love about this organization is that it allows the church to actually be the church, and what I mean by that is there's actually no walls that cause division and divide over any doctrinal issue, but it's meeting the need and having the opportunity to bless a family and show them the love of the Father.

Guest: Yes.

Justin: And I think this is something that's often missed in our church culture is that we get so wrapped up in our building in what we want to do that we don't even go outside to look and see who our neighbor is.

Guest: Yes.

Justin: And as you mentioned, there's so many individuals that are in distress and don't know how to make ends meet. And yet we have these opportunities right before our eyes. You guys get 80 to 90 um uh calls every single month that you have to meet the need of a family. It's like what if that was your neighbor? Yeah, like have you stepped outside to say, How are you doing today?

Guest: Yeah.

Justin: Like I see that you juggle a lot and you're taking the kid from this event to that event. It's like, but are you well? And more likely than not, if we don't have the eyes to see and look at people with eyes of compassion, we'll miss that opportunity. And so I'm so grateful that this is an organization that really bridges the gap, but also allows us to be that for the church or for for for the uh for the broken, right? So um I I wanted to ask this question what what compelled you, Kim, to get into this? Like, why did you like what was it that happened in your life that caused you to say, you know what, I really want to be involved in this, yeah, and I have a heart for this, right? Because I think often that times things are birthed from a place of pain.

Guest: Yeah.

Justin: And so, and and if that's not your story, absolutely that's okay, right?

Churches And Community Step Up

Justin: But I just would love to hear from your perspective, like what compelled you to get involved with care.

Guest: Yeah, that's a good question. Uh well, I have an interesting uh story. My my sister and my brother both adopted multiple kids out of um foster care type systems, they adopted in their home. So my family is a very blended, extended family. Um, my sisters adopted four kids, and my brother adopted three. And so we I've lived in the adoption foster world, and um and I've always like wanted to help. And of course I'm there for my family, but I didn't, I knew that like we were never in that situation where we like the Lord told us to do that, and um, and so we were like, well, uh what can we do? And so when I found out about Care Portal and our church was also looking for ways to serve and give. And we know there's a lot of organizations where we can just volunteer, but it wasn't feeling very authentic to us. It wasn't feeling like we didn't have a connection there necessarily. It just felt kind of like, well, we could do that, but where are we supposed to be? And we found out uh CarePortal had just come to Roanoke and we found out about it and we're like, this is awesome. Like, this is what we want to do. This is gonna get us serving our neighbors and giving us a place to give. And so we uh our church so we started, I started out just leading our church team and did that for many years. And then uh somewhere along the way, they wanted me to step into a leadership role. And so that's kind of how I landed here. But it was really through just my heart and love of doing it. And one thing that I found is that the more that um you do it, the more that it honestly it changes us as Christians too, because you see you're just like that person, you know. Um, you that could have been you, that could be you, that could be you tomorrow, you know, like you never know what is gonna happen in your life. And we all need each other and we need to be there for each other. So the more that I met folks, the more I I loved it. I'm like, wow, look at everything you're doing, and you're doing that alone. Like I couldn't do that alone. Like, I don't think I'm as strong as you, you know? And I'm so impressed, and I want to do that. And and so yeah, I think that that's why the Lord tells us to love our neighbor because he knows that not only is that serving them, but it's transforming you as well, you know.

Guest: So it's really good. I think one of the things I always um noticed when like my wife and I would talk about our foster care experiences. We have our youngest is adopted, we adopted her out of the foster care system, and then we have kinship. Our second oldest kid is as my niece.

Guest: Oh wow.

Guest: And um, remember we would talk about it in church and try to inspire people to get involved, you know, be a part of the system and and help. A lot of people just lock up. Yeah, I I can't bring them into my home. I don't feel like I'm supposed to bring them into my home. Yeah, but then there's always that missing piece, like you you make the statement, well, you can do something. Right, right. And that's that missing piece where a lot of times people are like, I really don't know

Kim’s Why And Family Roots

Guest: what to do. But I'll just send a check to DSS. Yes. And they're like, what do I do to help? Yeah. And so hearing a ministry like yours that bridges that gap is phenomenal because it gives church people, because a lot of church folks do want to get involved. Yes. They just a lot of times they just don't know how. Yes. And then they they they first thing they start thinking of is seven-year-old temperature interms in the bedroom, 20 miles apart. And it's like, no, I'm running from that as fast as I can. Yes. And so I really love that that being a connector and and your family experience. Yes, like driving that. It's such a cool story.

Guest: Yeah, yes. That's what I I always forget to say that when I speak to church. This is a way that everybody can be involved. This way everybody can step in and help. And it's simple. Like it can seem scary, but it's pretty simple to buy a box of diapers and say, hey, here's a box of diapers, you know. So it's not it in that way is accessible, right? For if you're a little scared, it it can help you step into the space where it's a little scary, but I'm just leaving a box of diapers, right? And so it kind of I think helps you get comfortable with meeting people you don't know in a way that then maybe one day you meet somebody and your heart breaks for them and you fall in love with that family, and and you can keep continue to do things for them, you know, because at that point it's a relationship. It's not, you know, it's not dropping off a box of diapers. It's like, hey, I care about you. You know, good note.

Justin: I love that you just said that. Um, it's a perfect segue because I couldn't help but think about how it's so important to continue to build the relationship as we meet their need. Yes. It's the opportunity to now meet their spiritual need. Yes. And so a lot of these individuals have physical needs, but they don't realize that their physical need is the opportunity or the doorway to their spiritual need. Yes. Right. And so it doesn't just end there because at the end of the day, we have to look at it and say, Well, who is our provider? Well, the father's our provider, he's Jehovah Jirah.

Guest: Yeah.

Justin: And so as it has been freely given to us, we must freely give on to others. And so it's like now when you have another need, you call upon the name of Jesus, and he will open up another door for you.

Guest: Yeah.

Justin: Right. And so it's I think people have a tendency of meeting other people's needs because they don't know how to share the gospel.

Guest: Yeah.

Justin: And I think this is a great way to get the church out of the building as we get these requests through the portal. And it's like, all right, there's a need for a family. Hey, Jackson family, you've never been out here yet. I want you guys to do it. I don't want the pastor to do it. Right. The pastor's been called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

Guest: That's right.

Justin: And so this is an opportunity to get these families that have like-minded or similar age children to have even their children come up with the gift of food and say, Hey, we just wanted to bless you guys today. You know, what does that do for the kid for when they get older? Now they understand the importance of like, wow, I've been blessed with a family that has always provided. Now, when I see someone else in need, I'm gonna also teach my kids when they get older to meet that need as well.

Guest: That's right.

Justin: And so like this is a generational, um, ongoing secret Santa. Like, I just I love this whole thing, Kim. And um, I my scatter brain, but I think about basketball, right? In basketball, one of the most underrated stats, in my personal opinion, are the assist because you didn't score the basket,

Making It Accessible For Everyone

Justin: right? The left hand, you know, like the the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing or the opposite, sorry. But anyways, you didn't get the like you're playing the background most of the time. But from a different vantage point, you get to see all the blessings that come through and the requests that are made. And so it's like, man, wow, God used me in that.

Guest: Yeah, yeah.

Justin: You're the greatest assist, if you will, however you would say it, you know, in that terminology. But it's like, man, you're just throwing out assist all day long.

Guest: Yeah.

Justin: And you're just making things happen. And so, like, that's why I connected with you, Kim. Is because every person that you've allowed me to step into their life since I've been here has spoken nothing but highly and wonderful things about you, right? And so, like, I want you to understand this in this moment the impact that you have in your community goes far beyond just the lives that you've been able to transform with Care Portal, right? You're actually bringing the body of Christ together in a way that's very unique by meeting the needs of others. And so it's getting people to understand, man, this is actually bigger than me. This is bigger than my vision and my ministry. This is about us coming together to meet the needs of the world because God came to meet our need by setting us free and causing us into his mar calling us into his marvelous light, you know.

Guest: And so I'm I'm I know I got a little wounded there, but so I'm just curious, do you have any favorite stories, people that have been connected through Careportal or people that you've you've come across that I know it's hard to pick one, right?

Guest: But just call them out.

Guest: Your first time and anytime somebody asks you, you know, like what what what gets you up out of bed in the morning or what you know makes you excited about this ministry? What's the first story that pops into your mind?

Guest: Oh gosh. Um well the I mean the first story is probably the longest running story, it's still running uh in my life, is an aunt that I met, and she's the one I told you that our church kind of felt called to adopt, but she had uh five kids at the time that we met her, and she uh had taken them in to keep them out of foster care, and she needed help because she had just agreed to take in two twins that were addicted to meth when they were born, and they called her, you know, in a moment, like we need a place for these twins, and you're the you're the the um the best kin to care for them, right? Like she doesn't have she's she's like kind of the only one that could do it in her family. Um, and so so she said yes, uh, which I'm like, you're an angel that you said yes to that. And of course, that set her back financially that month because she had to get a bunch of stuff. So we helped her pay her rent that month. And uh just thinking, you know, this is like got to bless you, but um didn't think a whole lot past the paying

From Drop-Offs To Relationships

Guest: the rent, you know, in that thing. Um because it was over phone. Mostly we were trying to coordinate how to do it. And so we were talking a lot on the phone, but I hadn't met her in person at that point. And she uh calls me like a week later and she's just like, how's it going? I just just want to, she just wanted to chat. She just wanted to talk to me. She was talking to me about raising the babies, and she was like, you know, I forget how to do this. And I was like, Yeah, I I do too, kind of. And so we were just talking about having babies again and what it was like and twins, you know. And uh, and then she would just kind of chat with me and call me, and she just regularly checked in on me. And I was like, well, you know, let's just talk, you know? And so we kept up that relationship. And then she had a situation where she was thinking about moving. And so she would call me and ask me what I thought about it, you know, and I was like, well, I think maybe it could work. It sounds like a sounds like you've done your research. And she's like, Well, I don't know what to do. I don't know how I'm gonna do this. I'm like, well, I think our church could help, you know. So we rallied our church and everybody came and we all helped her move into a she really needed a bigger space. She had a really tiny space and she had a lot of people in there. And it was um actually not a very safe apartment, which we have a lot of in Roanoke, a lot of these really old apartments that aren't that safe that people are living in. And and so we helped her move into this bigger space. And when we did that, our church just fell in love with her. She had um middle school boys, they fell in love with them. They they're the sweetest boys, and uh and they said, we really want to support her. Like we loved meeting her, we loved this, and we wanna keep helping her. Like, and she was our neighbor. You mentioned that, Robert. She lives like four minutes from our house. And we would have never met her probably if without if it weren't for Care Portal. And so, uh, and our kids went to the same middle school, had no idea. And so from that, we just continued a relationship, and her boys would hang out at my house. Sometimes there would be situations where she would have to go overnight somewhere, and she didn't want the boys to miss school. So they would just hang out at our house, you know, during those times. And and I would sometimes she would need me to pick them up from middle school, and I'd pick them up, drive them up. So it just became this relationship that we've just been walking with her um along the way. And and she needs a lot of support. She has to make hard decisions. She's made some decisions that have really trapped her financially. And so our church is really wanting to help her with those decisions and how to get out of that and free her up financially. And so uh so she kind of she she relies on us for a lot of emotional community support. Um, our and it and it also isn't just our church, which is the beautiful thing about Care Portal. From all this, we've had like folks that go to three different churches that have supported this family in different ways. Like, so um their Young Life, uh, the boys were going to Young Life and connecting with a lot of folks there, and we got them plugged in there, and then they go to a youth group at a different church that was, I thought, going to be a better fit for them with the youth group. And uh, and that was Mayo. He leaves the youth group that you met. Mayo's awesome. And so he goes, yeah. So Mayo will pick them up and take them to youth group, and then the boys go to church with Mayo and some other folks that lead young life that go there. And then there was another couple that has stepped in and helped in different ways and different times that goes to a different church. So it just shows you the beauty of how honestly, like myself alone,

A Family Story That Kept Growing

Guest: I can't even help meet all of her needs. Like, that's too much for me. That's overwhelming to me too. Like, so we all really need each other in all these spaces. Like, if we all come together, there have been times where I'm emotionally overwhelmed with her burden. Like, I don't know how to do this. I can't fix this myself either. And then when I call out to the church community that I love, I'm like, guys, this is her situation. They're all like, this is what we can do, and this is what we can do, and let's take our meals and how can we love her? And I'm like, yeah, let's all do this together. And it's so much more fun and it's and it's less overwhelming for all of us. So that's something that I see with CarePortal happen all the time, where a lot of churches come together and because none of us can do anything alone, you know.

Guest: So yeah, I heard a preacher say one time, I can't remember who it was. So if anybody knows the preacher, you can drop it in the comments. But um Joel Olstein. No, oh, sorry. You just threw me off. So yeah, I just saw the big grin, you know. And um, but um like we always typically want to be the means or the end, right? But the gospel's called us to be the means to an end. Yeah, it's that level of humility and that piece of connecting people, like you said it earlier, like like you just get in the middle. I mean, that's really what Jesus did when he stretched himself out on the cross, you know. He was the means and the end, but he stretched himself out on the cross so he could become the means to the end. Yes, right in the middle, and that's our call as Christians. And I and that's something I've been wrestling with, you know, because I'm so used to being in leadership and ministries. And it's like, okay, God, where are you where are you calling me to just kind of fade into the background? You know, and just and just point, you know, parenting four kids has kind of taught me a lot about that, you know, walking, walking through our foster care journey and realizing that like like man, I I don't need a large ministry, I don't need a church of 500. Like, who else is gonna take care of this this newborn infant that we've been called to take care of? And and so on the surface it looks a lot smaller. We're just behind the scenes hiding, nobody really knows, you know? Yes, but yet it's in those moments that stories like yours, like this family's life is being transformed because you were willing to step in and just be the means to the end.

Guest: Yeah, they're her middle schoolers, and when you talked about kids and the impact of kids, like it's not just our kids that are benefiting, like the kids that we serve, they see the church show up for them over and over. And think about like the life-changing impact for them. But yeah, to your point, I what I'll describe our care portal community as, which I love them so much. All the people in our community are like the most beautiful, loving people you will ever meet, and they're like the secret people, like nobody knows about them, and they're the amazing because they're so humble and they just love people and they just do what Jesus tells us to do, and they do it over and over and over again, and they step into things that are overwhelming, but they trust that the Lord's gonna show up and he always does. And I think that's why it's so faith-building to do this work because it's it is, it's out of our control, and we just have to trust the Lord. Like, Lord, what are you gonna do right now in this situation? Because I don't have enough money to fix this problem, but you you do, like you can fix this. Like, I mean, not to say fix, that's the wrong word, but you can step in and provide the beautiful answer that's needed here when we don't have it, you know. Yeah.

Justin: So, Kim, you have been so gracious to share so much about the ministry. Where could our audience and our listeners find viewers, listeners, however you want to look at it, find CarePortal? Like, where can we find you? Like, how do we how do we do this in our own community? How do we create this in our own community? Yeah. For those that don't necessarily live here in Roanoke. Um, what does that look like? If you can just give us a little bit of details on that.

Guest: Yeah, yeah. So CarePortal is uh really accessible for anybody. If you just go to uh www.careportal.org, you can um actually respond, you can see all the needs in your community,

Many Churches, One Mission

Guest: and you can actually meet a need directly, even if you're not an enrolled church, you can meet a need and um and then it will connect you to somebody with the church nearby to meet the need, or you can enroll your church and or you can even if you're an agency and you want to post requests, you can actually apply to submit requests on the portal. So you can do a lot on that to get you connected. If you open up that map and there is no requests around you, then that probably means there's not care portal in that community yet. And just uh just call me and I'll connect you to the people to help you start get it going. Uh, it can get going from a lot of nonprofits will start Care Portal in their organ in their community. Uh they'll they'll just do it as another part of what they do to serve kids and families. Um or you can actually uh some people just start it directly through CarePortal National and they'll start it that way. So it it just depends on the different area in Virginia. We have all of it. Um and and there's so there's a lot of ways to get it going if you don't have it where you are.

Guest: Yeah, that's so good. Thank you. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. And I I just want to thank you like for stepping up and like filling this need and meeting this need. Like I I could tell story after story of seasons in our life where like our early days on ministry, even even not just foster care, but like missionaries, like doing the whole work of the ministry and you know, secret, secret Santa's, if you will. Yeah, not knowing a not knowing a detail about what's going on in our life, and just like a grocery car dropping at our front door at the right time. Or even when we were in foster, we were we were we had on our newborn, and my wife was over the mountain in Charlottesville, which was an hour and a half from our home, every every week for four or five days. And so we're homeschooling the other kids and still working full-time, and wow, and the right people would show up and just randomly drop a meal on our front door. And people like kind of discount the impact. But when your whole world is like just feeling like a pressure cooker, and then that person steps in and just relieves just the tiniest bit of pressure, like what it does for those families that are being impacted. And so, you know, we haven't used Care Portal directly, but I still feel compelled to say thank you. Yeah. You know, because it's people like you that are doing work like this that really make a huge difference for you just to de like, yeah, decompressing the stress and all that stuff. Those little, those what seem like little needs have such a huge impact on foster families.

Guest: So it's all just knowing that you're not alone out there, that there's others that see you and care about you, you know. Yeah, it's powerful.

Justin: Oh Rohie, oh Rohie, the God who sees, he sees all of our needs and he meets them in ways that we can um unexpect. And so man, here at Rebuilding Life, we truly believe in rebuilding life. And it was an honor to have you, Kim, here on the podcast today. And uh we're gonna leave a link below um for careportal.org. Uh so if you guys have any questions and you guys want to learn more about what CarePorter is doing, please hit the link below. Also, give this video a like and a subscribe. We want to hear from you, leave a comment below. How has this impacted you? Um, how can we be praying for you? We love you, and uh, we hope to hear from you all soon. Peace.