April 23, 2024 • 58 mins
Adrien and his bride felt called to foster and adopt three boys. And then came another calling of building a technology platform that connects families whose kids shouldn't be in foster care, but are at-risk because they can’t afford basic needs, with churches and individuals in their area who want to serve those needs. CarePortal has helped 265,000 kids to date and they're just getting started!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, everybody, it's Billed Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue now a part two of our conversation
with Adrian Lewis. Right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And while we're going through that process, the leadership of
the Globe War From Project also really felt led for
us to stop flying over the kids in our own backyard.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I was going to say at some point, I didn't
know that part, but I was going to say, at
some point, it is wonderful war helping kids. It's Haiti
and Mexico and Guatemala and Uganda and everywhere else. But
I do struggle with the notion of us flying to
all of these countries all of the place, employing tons
(01:01):
of money and resources, when right here in the United
States we have hungry children.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Right, So your organization said, we're friends at home, orphans
at home.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
That's right, orphans at home. Who are the orphans at home?
Where are the orphans at home? Well, these these are
the kids in the foster system. These are the orphans
at home. And we set out as an organization to
try to encourage and support churches in Kansas City to
encourage their people, their congregants to become foster and adoptive parents.
(01:39):
At the time, there was seven hundred and seventy three
kids who were available to be adopted in Kansas and
the Greater Kansas City areas seven hundred seventy three at
the time. That's right. This is back in two thousand
and eleven twelve, and we got met with crickets, crickets
from the congregation, from the right, the churches. The leaders
(02:01):
that we approached agreed this would be a great thing
to do and didn't do it. And it earned at first,
it was very disappointing at first, like what the heck,
come on, man, this is it's very clear love your neighbor.
Oh and by the way, caring for the orphan in
the widow is actually true religion. So what's the problem. Well,
(02:26):
the problem is taking kids into your home is a
huge commitment, and if you, as a leader don't feel
that personal call yourself, it's very difficult to go to
your congregation and say we should do this. Right. It
takes someone who sees all the way around the corner
to say, you know what, I'm not personally called to
(02:49):
do this, I'm called to do these things. But we
collectively Big C Church are the ones who have the
responsibility and opportunity. Dare I say to show up and
bring these kids into our home? And don't you Devil's
advocate here? And I'm hearing you as if I'm a
(03:09):
congregat in your church.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I'm in my pew and I'm hearing your plea and
I'm hearing the demographics that just came out of my
own mouth, which makes me, from what I'm about to say,
an incredible hypocrite.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Man, I mean, I've got my own wife, I've got
my own kids, I've got my problems at work, I've
got my normal life problems. And I know if I
bring a foster kid or two, and if they're brothers
or sisters, you need to bring them together, that I'm
going to be bringing their baggage and their trauma and
(03:48):
poking my family in the eye with this. And that's
that's a hard commitment to make. I mean, I can
get the crickets, I guess, is what I'm saying. Me too,
(04:09):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It was hurtful, and I understand, just like my parents,
my grandparents, it was hurtful and I understand, But.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
You were training of being graceful and forgiveness and not
being a victim of the circumstance. Said to you, but
I ain't quit. I'm not done.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And dude, we have a team of people in organization
who are not done, who have such courage to take
risks and to keep on when we believe we're doing
something we're supposed to do. So would you do to
answer the crickets? Yeah, So we kept trying for two years.
We failed for two years. Years years, We failed for
(04:49):
two years. But we met people along the way who
had had some success, one of which is Bishop Aaron
Blake out of Brownwood, Texas. His wife. His wife started fostering.
Then they encouraged their congregation who stepped up huge hundreds
of kids were fostered. Then he started engaging churches in
his community to say we can do this, and because
(05:12):
he was and they were, there was tons of success.
Then he got the ear of the state and they
started getting excited. And so he now had a seat
at the table at the state level for child welfare
in Texas to say, what can we do with a
church partnership here? How can we go faster and stronger
and better? And so We went spent time with him,
(05:34):
and we got hooked at the hip. We learned about
child welfare things. We spent time with the agencies there,
we understood some things that were going on with them.
And one day, December of twenty thirteen, I'm reading a
summary document that our CEO, Joe Kennetick wrote, right I'm
reading this document and I'm sitting there reading this document.
(05:56):
I'm telling you, Bill in a flash, the vision for
care portal. Can you just spilled the beans care portal?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Which is the craziest thing that I'm gonna let you
run with, And I really am going to try to
shut up and let you go.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
But the craziest thing is your life.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
You graduate, first of all, you get these unique tenants
seared into your psyche and your soul of not being
a victim but always being forgiven and graceful, which sets
you up perfectly from a human standpoint. And then when
you graduate college, you're in care. It's healthcare, but it's
(06:42):
still care, and implementing software to make the effectiveness of
the education of that care and thusly the total care
system better. You're giving all these tools along away to
(07:02):
get to this point in life, which nobody would have
ever anticipated.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
So tell us about it. Well, what you need to know, Bill,
is these markers I've been telling about. I didn't ask
for the markers, and this vision was not mine. This
is God's idea. And it's not a new idea. To
empower neighbors to see and serve other neighbors, that's not
(07:29):
a new idea. Right, using technology to connect kids and
families in crisis with churches and people who care in
proximity that want to help, Like that, that was the thing.
And how can we take the six foot barrier of
taking a kid into your home and bring it down
to six inches where you might be able to help
(07:51):
a mom keep her kids if you could provide some
things she really needed for that to happen. Or you
might be able to help kids get out of foster
care if you could provide some things that they really
needed to make that happen. That's a six inch bar
And so if I ask you, Bill, would you be
willing to receive an email about a single mom who
just left an abusive relationship and she's got a new
(08:14):
place now, but she needs some beds so her kids
can get back with her. It's the last thing that
she needs before she can have them back, before Child
protect Services will reunite them. It's called reuniting, reunite them,
that's right, before they can get reunited. And I sent
would you be willing to see an email about that need?
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Not only would I see the email, I'd buy the
damn bed. You buy the damn bed. That's right, And
that idea from what all we learned, is actually super
important when you talk about prevention. What is the things
that are barriers that make it so that families are
not able to stay on course when you're in poverty
(08:55):
one hundred and fifty dollars two hundred dollars at bed,
it might as well be one thousand dollars. I'm trying
to figure out how to get food.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I can't get to that right. But Child Protection Services
is not going to reunite your kid with you when
you've got to lay them on the floor on some clothes.
How could they right? They would be a dereliction of
their duty to the child, even though they may want
to reunite the child with the parent, absolutely, and the
parent it's not in this situation because they're bad parent,
(09:22):
they were abused who are you going to blame? So
everybody's everybody's been institutionalized and put into a system, and
eventually these folks lead to the very demographics we're talking about.
But what you're saying is caring about the foster system
(09:44):
doesn't necessarily mean you have to adopt a kid. There's
lots of other stuff we can do if we can't
adopt a kid to remedy the foster care problem. Come on,
that's exactly what I'm saying. That's right.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
In fact, do you hear that everybody? Yeah, no, we're
we're sitting here imagining how everybody is thinking, well, dang,
I want to be part of that. Right, yes, you do,
because you are an at all of a sudden, it's
not so scary. That's not so scary. And when we
started casting this vision, not only did child Welfare say,
oh my goodness, this would be amazing if that actually existed,
(10:17):
but the churches started saying, dude, we would do that.
Of course we would do that. How can we do that?
How soon can we do that? And so we set
out to go build this Mickey Mouse, a little software
that we had no business building. I can't write code.
I'm a little geeky and so I can think through
some stuff, but I can't write code. But we just
duct tape and shoe string and made this product that
(10:41):
was ugly and clunky and it worked, and it is
called it's called care Portal. And tell me soup to
nuts what it actually does. So we build care sharing
networks in a given city. Right, we'll take it. And
this is the other beautiful thing. It's city to city.
(11:03):
It's city.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So you're not hearing in Topeko with somebody in Marleyborn needs.
You're hearing in Kansas City what a person in your community.
It's equal seeing areas of need in their community and
filling those gaps. And you've created a system to inform
the people who can about the people who can't and need.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That's right. We call it care sharing. That's what we
call it. So talk about how it works. Yes, So
we have a team of people who build a network,
a care sharing network. They bring child welfare agencies and
schools and homeless shelters and pregnancy centers, places where there
(11:50):
are case workers who see the needs and it's their
job to help people move along in their life. Right,
they have a caseworker and then we build churches and
businesses and people who care, and they're the responding side.
So you have the requesting side and you have the
responding side, right and in that given city, Now we
(12:12):
end up having these vetting organizations, these requesters. They're submitting
this need for the mom I just told you about
into care Portal, which then goes out to the network
who are in our network and our platform of churches
and businesses and people who care who can see a
need and say I want to help with that, or
they can ignore it.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
There's no obligation. How are the how are the how
are the givers notified?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So the givers are notified by signing up to join Careportal.
So if you went to careportal dot org right now,
you could sign up as a church, You can sign
up as a business, you could sign up as an individual,
and you could start to see and meet needs. Do
I log on or do I get an email? Both?
You get to push notification, you get an email, you
go to the website.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
So I may get an email that says, hey, Sally
X left an abusive deal. She is two steps away
from being able to have her six year old who
is now in child protective services being reunited with her.
They got to have a table with two chairs, they
got to have a bed with some blankets so they
(13:20):
stay warm. And oh, by the way, it wouldn't be
bad to fill up their pantry exactly, And you could
get an email that says that just like that, and
the sooner we act, the sooner this child and this
mother reunited. One of the biggest things I hear all
the time my brother is I want to help so much,
I just don't know how from the givers. And you
(13:44):
hear all the time from people who need Where do
I go to get help? You're answering both questions with it.
I mean, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
What I am saying is that there are all around us,
and care Portal helps remove those barriers because connections change everything.
That's what we do. We make those connections. We'll be
(14:19):
right back. How long has this thing been in operational?
We just hit nine years and in what cities? Oh gosh,
(14:40):
it's starting in Kansas City. Yeah, so we yes started
in Kansas City and in Texas pretty much simultaneously. At
the church guy, that's right. It was Austin, Texas Bishop
Aaron Blake and Austin is where we piloted. Then we
came to Kansas City right after, and we got officially
launched in a couple of markets at about the same time.
(15:00):
Thirty one states now I think thirty one state, thirty
one states. Yeah, we kind of roll out, counting by county,
and we're in the four hundreds an all exact number
of counties. Major metros like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago.
Do you have numbers on the amount of children you've
been able to read? So here's cool. Last Wednesday, we
(15:25):
met the one hundred thousandth request happened last Wednesday, which
represents two hundred and sixty something thousand children and over
three hundred thousand people when you include their parents. Well, well
say that again. You met the one hundred thousand, one
hundred thousandth requests, right, which represents about two hundred and
sixty five thousand children who have been served through churches
(15:49):
and communities connected by care Portal, and you add their
parents and we're in the three hundred thousands of number
of people, right, So we're over three hundred thousand people
served total, and oftentimes the givers don't even know who
they're giving the don't know on a personal level or
anything who they're given too. Yeah, but they're able to
just do it. They're able to do it because what
(16:11):
care portal brings is a currency of trust. Okay, let
me unpack. That's interesting. Yeah, it brings a currency of trust.
So the case workers are super important because they're the
ones bringing vetted needs. You are not bringing your own
need to care portal. You are not saying I have
a need for X, Y and Z, because if you
(16:32):
did that, then the responders wouldn't really know can I need?
They really need this well, and that also allows the
need person some level of dignity because they're not having
to ask initials doing it in their stead absolutely absolutely,
it's they have an advocate who is on their behalf,
(16:54):
which is the casework which is the caseworker. Right, So,
so vetted needs come in. That's pillar number one. Pillar
number two is that anybody can participate. So we have
businesses and sports teams, We've got rotary clubs and individual families.
It would be an awesome fil entry for rotary clubs.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Awesome every monthly meeting to say hey, here's the needs
on the care portal. Who wants to who do we
want to help this month? Absolutely? Absolutely, Everybody pull out
twenty bucks. If there's one hundred people in here, that's right,
everybody pull out twenty bucks and we're in. We can
we can help and even children in our community. You
could do it right through your app. You could do
it in your phone, your phone like you. The giving
(17:36):
process is super simple and you're giving to a specific need,
right so anyone can participate. We got synagogues and anybody
can participate in that part of the process. But pillar
number three at the point of care has to be
a local church. Really, and let me unpack why. Okay,
(17:58):
the last thing that you.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Want is for a single woman to have some person
with no accountability show up on her doorstep. Because what
we're really after here is not just here's your bed.
What we're really after is a meaningful connection. What we're
(18:20):
trying to do is to empower neighbors to see and
serve other neighbors. And so the showing up at the
doorstep with the bed coming two by two, with the
authority of your church who you are part of, and
they have let you into their care portal account, they
know who you are. You have said yes on behalf
(18:40):
of your local church that I am going to do this.
When you show up two by two to go serve
that family, there is accountability and there is an opportunity
for you to make a meaningful connection. Because that mom,
she doesn't just need a bed. She is isolated. She
needs people to come alongside of her as neighbors. She
(19:02):
needs community, stable community, people who care about her, who
are motivated by love, who can help her see a
different way forward, who might be there in three months
after they build a relationship when she actually needs a
babysitter every Thursday afternoon so she can go to whatever
class she's supposed to go to that she has to
go to because the state says she has to go.
(19:24):
Who's going to do that? Well, you're going to do
that because you've just been hanging out with her for
the last three months and now she's a friend. That
is what transforms people. That's the secret sauce.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
It also first of all, wow. Second of all, one
of the things I hear a lot about trying to
help people that are existing in poverty is accessibility. Is
a lot of people don't have it. Things are not accessible,
(20:01):
and it's so simple to think of somebody to watch
my kid for an hour while I have to go
to this class. But if that help isn't inaccessible, you
start down the vacuum of misery all over again because
you miss your class. Now you risk losing your kids,
and the whole thing goes and it's all because you
don't have accessible to somebody to help you with your kids,
solid childcare. And so this is not only giving people
(20:24):
what they need to get reunited, but it makes friendship
and community accessible to people who need it the most.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
That's right, That's exactly what we're talking about. And that
doesn't happen every single time, right, but it's there. But
it's there, and there's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
stories of that actually happening, of those things leading to
significant life transformation. And even when that doesn't happen, Dude,
mom has a bed now. She didn't have that bed
(20:52):
for her six year old before, and now she does,
and that freaking matters. It matters a lot, and you
may have just transferred some hope from you to her
in a really hard moment where now she feels like
I can actually take this next hill.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
We keep talking about beds, but it could be an
operable refrigerator or stove, or that's right. Pick something that
a child needs or a woman and whatever that's right.
And it's not all single moms. It's it's dads, it's parents,
it's grandparents, it's all kinds of people who are in there.
It's foster parents who have taken kids in and they
(21:29):
they need some things in order to keep going. It
could be a kinship placement, a grandma who took in
some kids. She wasn't expecting these kids. She's not ready
for these kids. Grandma and grandpa don't have all the
things that they need for a four year old and
a five year old all of a sudden, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
But you know what happens in my house when I
have an immediate need, either I can afford to buy it,
or I got ten people I can call right right,
these folks don't. These folks don't.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
So care portal has no thing to do with placing
foster kids. It has everything to do with reuniting people
and stopping kids from being falster kids in the first place.
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Upstream prevention is what helps us stop those downstream statistics
about homelessness and sex trafficking and an incarceration that you
talk about. You're being proactive instead of reactive best we
possibly can. And our theory of change is that neighbors
seeing and serving neighbors is what actually makes the difference
(22:32):
in somebody's life. Government has a role to play to protect,
for sure, But on my doorstep, I don't want a professional.
That's not what I want. Yeah, we're here from the government,
We're here to help. Is really not what you want
to hear on my doorstep. That's not what I want, right,
But if you are a neighbor motivated by love and
(22:54):
you show up on my doorstep, I can't help but
wonder what the heck, dude, what are you doing this for?
How was this not in every single city and county
in the in the country. Because we hadn't met on
this podcast yet, we haven't met the army of normal thoughts.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
So it's about me now, huh. So the success rate
is everywhere it is? I guess.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah. So here's here's the and how big is the
organization now? So we have one hundred and thirty staff
across the country.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You're kidding me? And this started with you going to
Haiti and winning your job about fifteen twelve years ago,
fourteen years ago, fourteen years ago, and you have one
hundred and thirty staff, dred and thirty staff. Now, where's
the money come from?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Bro? That's a great question. So two things. One, what
do we use the money for? You asked a question,
why is this not everywhere? It's really expensive and time
consuming to build the care sharing network in a city
I would expect. Yeah, you're connecting lots of lots of people.
(24:07):
You've got to have humans who wake up every day,
rallying the troops, galvanizing, making relationships, building this network and
sustaining it. There's all kinds of distractions that can happen, right,
So the technology is a component, but that technology is
only twenty five percent of our expenses. Seventy five percent
(24:27):
is the boots on the ground, which is why we
have so many staff across the country. They're the ones
who build the network city by city, and so that's
what the money is used for. Twenty five percent platform,
seventy five percent implementation. Where's the money come from? About
half of it comes from government relationships where they're paying
for access and use and implementation in their cities or counties.
(24:50):
Or state. Right, So we've got statewide arrangements with eight
or ten different states across the country. Some are just
county based in this place or that place. Have you
got crap because they're so closely related with churches. So
have there been barriers to make that hard? Yes, there's
been barriers, but far less than you would expect. Good. Right,
(25:12):
we have some very clear tenants. I told you where
the three are vetted needs coming in from case workers.
Anybody can help church of opponent care non negotiables. They
have to be there, and if the church and state
says no, then you're out. Ah, that's right, Like if
you're going to tell.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Us, but if a state's stupid enough, I have to
say no, yeah, you're out.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We just don't play. And that slows down our process,
right because it is a process to work with the
government about any particular thing. But it's slow and hard,
and so we move, we don't move super fast. And
then the other fifty percent is mostly through major donors
who say I want this in my city. What's your budget? Annually?
(25:56):
Last year we were just under ten million. This year
will probably be around fourteen.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I'll be honest with you, fourteen million that's a big
number for anybody. Yeah, fourteen millions a lot of money.
But the impact you're happened for fourteen million dollars versus
the hundreds of millions our government blows on this crap
and doesn't get anything done to drop in the bucket.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, the ROI if we want to talk business, I
was a business guy. The RO is multiple factors, Right.
We have cost avoidance numbers, we have economic impact numbers.
We know based on the type of request that was met,
the value of that to the ecosystem that's around us,
and in some markets it's a ten x of value.
Some markets it's a three x of value. It depends
(26:43):
on what's going on there. But there's no question that
what we're doing is not only more effective in ways
we can measure, it's more effective in ways we can't
even measure.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
It's also effective in reducing taxpayer expense on caring for
the needy, because when you take it out of the
system and put them with their parent, the taxpayer is
no longer caring for the kid. It's there's a return
on that investment, a legitimate financial return on that investment.
It is almost can you qualify that or do you
guys qualify that, Yes, we do.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah. So thirty eight thousand dollars is what the average
number is for one year of a child being in
foster care. Thirty eight grand a year is what it
costs the taxpayer.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Taxpayer, not the foster parent, no what the foster parents
getting in, just the tax tax payer, faseworkers. This legal
sits Sact times four hundred thousand. That's a big number.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
That's a big number. Thirty billion is the foster is
the child welfare number annually, it's thirty billion. So when
we have a request that's met and the caseworker says
the purpose of this is to help prevent a child
from going to foster care, then we apply an allocation
of one month of cost avoid that's it. That's it.
(28:01):
That's not even one month. You're slow playing your own numbers.
And why am I doing that because the last thing
I want to do. You don't want to add. You
want to be above reproach, above approach. That's right. So
one month, one month, that's all you categorize. That's what
we count, one month.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
And then that's where you get your three or five
or ten times return on the investment. Where if you
did it three months, which is probably more accurate, your
numbers are even exponentially better than what you're selling.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
That's right, that's right, and we're okay with that for
right now. There may be a day where we do
some more extensive research and we get to a place
where we can say, these folks over there did their thing,
and this is the conclusion they came up with, and
now we're going to use that number. Right, we have
our own ways of doing data, but we've not yet
had that thing done, and so we're not going to
stretch it because we don't need to stretch it. It's it's
(28:50):
still super it's actually it'd be wrong for us to
stretch it, and it isn't necessary. Right, Both of those
things are true. And we haven't even talked about what
we're doing for the child. Yeah, I mean when you
say what can we measure, there's a little bit we
can measure. But what happens when that child is now
(29:12):
home instead of somewhere else and being loved by their
parents as their parent, and what happens when that parent
is now in relationship with someone who cares for them
and they're not desperate, they don't feel hopeless. The transfer
of hope is actually the thing. And when your army
(29:35):
of normal folks can transfer hope, they change the world.
It's phenomenal to We will be right back.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Do you take stock of where you are versu where
you started and how this thing has happened? I mean,
do you allow yourself that I'm driving to work last
week and I am not confused at all, Bill that
this is my assignment. I know that I know that
(30:25):
I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
But what I couldn't quite figure out what overwhelmed me
was why?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Why is? Why did you choose me? Why is this
my assignment? And I don't know the answer. There's nothing
that I've done to deserve to be in the spot
that I'm in. I have said yes to opportunities that
have been put before me that I believe were divine,
(30:55):
and I keep slugging it out day after day after day.
But I'm grateful that I was asked, invited to change
the world in my unique way, and so if I
can inspire and empower thousands of other people to see
and serve their neighbor, well done, my goodn't sir? You know?
(31:24):
I asked you do you take stock? You know?
Speaker 1 (31:28):
And I ask a lot of people that because frankly,
it's a personal thing because I have I take stock
of me and know one, I mean, my background and
where I came from, and mine in my own business,
and then the movie and the Academy Award and the
book and the speeches and all. I really, honest goodness,
(31:49):
never look for it, but it gave me this platform,
and and I do. Sometimes I wake up and I
look at the mirror, and when I look in the mirror,
I know what I'm looking at. I'm looking at a
broken guy who had did daddy issues until he was
in his forties, who dealt with a lot of insecurity,
(32:12):
who was blessed with Lisa and then my children and
now all of this. And I do often ask myself,
you know, how come this?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
You know?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But anyway, that's why I ask people all the time
if they take stock, because I don't even know if
people really listening to us even understand it. It's probably
just my own personal interest in people's stories. But when
you take stock, you have to reminisce about near and
(32:50):
dear stories that really reinforced you how awesome the work
that you found yourself doing. Is do you have like
a do you have like a favorite story that the
portal has actually provided for someone that you want to
share with us? You know there are many stories. It's
(33:12):
probably not fair to say a, but share one one
of your favorite ones. So will let our listeners understand
just how profoundly important this work is.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, I can give you one. So there's a young
girl named Mikeaisha and seventeen. She is pregnant, and she's
about to age out of foster care. Oh gosh, a
pregnant seventeen year old in foster care in foster care?
(33:44):
Does it get worse? About to age out? Right? She's
about to be on her own. And when age out happens,
there is no safety net, right, there is no family. Right.
There are some things that you could tap into resource,
but they're part of a system, and that's very more
systematic under your stuff. But family, right, the family that
(34:06):
she was with, they weren't going to be with her anymore.
She was terrified, right, She's seventeen, pregnant, about to be alone.
She does not want the same life for her baby
that she had. But she's got nothing. And when I
say nothing, I don't just mean financially, like she's got
where do I even go? What do I do? Who
(34:27):
are my people? No family? What she did have was
a caseworker and that caseworker had care portal, And so
the caseworker goes to care portal and says, I have
a seventeen year old, pregnant young lady who's aging on
of foster care and she needs a crib to keep
her baby safe. Any help you can provide to be
(34:51):
appreciated submit.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I cannot imagine that fifty cribs didn't show me or
fifty responsors to that. Yeah, So how does this work? Well,
it goes to the closest churches in the.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Area, so it's even used this proximity proximity all the time.
That is amazing. So the Denbo family at People's Church
get this request and they're like, we can help out
with the crib. So they respond. So the caseworker and
the Denbo family get connected. Makasha gives permission for the
Denbos to show up at our house. And the Denbos
(35:30):
show up and they're at Macasha's house and they start
a conversation and they see the beauty and the brokenness
and the fear and this little girl, and they think
we can do something else, and so they do. They
throw her a baby shower, they start taking her to
driver's head, they invite her to church with them, and
(35:53):
the next thing you know, the Denbo family becomes like
family because they treated her that way. Nakasha has her
baby and she's not alone, and her baby is not
going into foster care. Why because she's not alone. She
ends up getting married, gets into full time ministry with
(36:16):
her husband, serving kids aging out of foster care just
like her. This is the power of relationship which wouldn't
have happened without a crib care portal putting a need
for a crib and somebody who said I can see
(36:37):
and serve my neighbor change life changed, which.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Is exactly what you're talking about. It's not just about
the stuff, it's about the community that gets.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
So it's a meaningful connection, it's a transfer of hope.
And she is now in the ministry. She's now in
full time ministry serving kids just like her. Wow, isn't
that what you want? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, that's not only what you want, but that is
a beautiful illustration of exactly what all this does.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
An army of normal folks. Okay, is this thing in Memphis.
We had this talk this morning with the folks. But
it's not barely in Memphis. Oh, it needs to get
barely out of the way, Memphis. Give me.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Your sales guy, your development guy. All right, you tell
your great storyteller, you know how develop relationships. You are
so warm, But your sales guy, so I know you
know there's markets that are targeted.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Right now, what are your target markets? We're getting the
strategy now, right. So we learned a few years ago
we did some research. Fifty percent of the kids in
foster care are concentrated five percent of the counties. Whoa
say that.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Again, yes, sir, fifty percent of all So two hundred
thousand of these kids in fall square annually aren't only
five percent of the counties in the country.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
That's correct. So you know where you gotta go. We
know where you gotta go. Well, where aren't you that
you got to be? All right? So there's ninety six
unique markets that make up that the first five percent
is ninety six markets. Right. There are places you'd think Chicago, Detroit,
Los Angeles. I would also think Louisville, Memphis, Little Rock,
(38:34):
thinking about my footprints and Albuquerque, Denver, Albuquerque, Denver, absolutely
all those places are on the list. It's just amazing
that it's actually fifty percent. It's not amazing that there's
higher number, but half half in five percent of the counties.
So we are in sixty four of those markets, sixty
(38:55):
four of those how many those ninety six markets? We're
in sixty four of those ninety six markets. Memphis is
one of them. And in some markets things are going amazing.
Los Angeles amazing, killing it, Dallas amazing, then Colorado Springs amazing,
Kansas City amazing, many markets like that.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Memphis not so much. What are the thirty two that
you're not in? Give me a few of those, do
you know, I'm off the top of your head. Oh
that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
May I may be putting you in a bond there. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
But so you call yourself in Memphis because it's there,
but it's not being utilized.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
It is anemic in Memphis, and let me give you
some reasons why.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Right, And I'm only saying Memphis because we're sitting over here,
but we're also talking about there's got to be other
places like Memphis where it's there.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
But not being used.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And then there's thirty two not there of those ninety
six counties that is not even in Boston.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
So we got a lot. Boston's not in it, Portland
not in it. For sure. I'll come up with some
more as time grows.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, but okay, so the point is right, there's massive opportunity,
scale and opportunity here.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Still we're nine years in. We're not like the new
kids at the block, but we have so much room
to grow.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Okay, tell me what gets quote a namic? Okay, what's
the barriers that got to be overcome in these growth markets?
Speaker 2 (40:16):
So one of the barriers is how do we get requests?
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Right?
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Where do they come from? Child welfare is the number one,
Like ninety percent of requests that come in come from
child welfare. In Tennessee, we have yet to land the
plane with the state on the state really using care
portal in their child welfare department. So it's not just Memphis,
it's really a state thing. In Tennessee is a state thing,
(40:44):
and some other places it goes. The doors can open
in a particular market and not be statewide, but in
this state it hasn't opened yet at the state level.
And so therefore we're hindered in these major markets, Memphis
being one of them. But we're close. So how could
somebody Tennesseeans call your representative today? I could tell you
(41:06):
my friend's name, but I'm not going to say it
on the radio. Wow, all right, So that's very number one,
and we're close. I am confident you call me back
here in six months and we'll be there. Good. Right,
So that's number one. So we have a few vetting
organizations in Memphis who are submitting requests, but it's really
(41:28):
a small number of requests. And we've got fifteen or
so churches who have signed up to join the network,
and we have a couple of businesses who've signed up
to join the network. But it's just a mnemic. We
have not had the boost in this city that we
really need. Some of its awareness, some of it's awareness,
some of it's the gatekeeping of not having the volume
(41:50):
of requests, because if you don't have a high volume,
you can't go build a huge network because if you
have a bunch of people sitting and saying I thought
there was a problem, well that's about so supply and
demand is actually a very strategic thing that we have
to balance. But when this door gets opened at the
state level and now we have more demand, like we
(42:11):
got more requests coming in, then we need to figure
out how to service them. And that's what you do.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
You build out the requests, then you build out this, right,
And that's what you do in all of these everything
market and these thirty two that you aren't in and
the anemic of the sixty four that you are you
and so that's what you're just doing it.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
That's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
So you're building that on the development side while your
staff is doing the I don't know, programming work to
support all of that's right. And in the middle of
all of this, you're reuniting children with families who otherwise
would end up in foster care, who would lead to
(42:49):
the demographics of seventy five percent of our prison population
and all of the other things we've talked about. That's right,
that's right. There's freaking incredible, dude thing. Bro, it is
an amazing god thing. We'll be right back. So someone
(43:26):
is are you in Topeka? Yes, turn I always use
the word Topeka because I think it's fun. Oh you're
not in Portland. Now, Someone sitting in Portland right now
saying this is stupid. How do they reach out and
say I want to be I want this in my town?
Who do they how do they call? Who do they
(43:47):
reach what? What do they go to?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Yeah, so the best channel is careportal dot org, careportal
dot or or g Right, you go to the careport
dot org and you will find yourself either of someone
who wants to meet needs, someone who might want to
have their organizations submit needs. And there's pathways for you
to plug in exactly who you are, a business owner,
(44:11):
a church, an agency, an individual, it doesn't matter. You
plug in and then our team will be able to
be in contact with you to say we're going to
help you move forward. And if you're in a market
that we're not in yet, then there's a different path. Right.
We need influencers to bring about favor in a market
before we can actually really get off the ground. And
(44:32):
we need influencers to bring resources in a market. Okay,
use words that people like me understand. What do you
mean by influencers to bring resources? Yes, so plane talk
this morning, We're at a table with some folks you
put together, right. Some of them are business owners, some
of them have relationships with government leaders and with state
(44:54):
people and city people and so on and so on.
And if those people said, hey, I'm I'm going to
invest in getting this off the ground financially because it
cost seventy five percent of our expenses are market specific,
that's a lot of money. You bring in two, three
four people into a market, you got to pay those people.
So can people invest financially to help get this off
(45:16):
the ground in their market? That's one clear need? And
can people use their influence to either bring about other
investors or to bring about people who can remove barriers,
to create awareness, to get people excited about this is
coming to our city? Do you want to be part
of it? And when you can set a table like that,
now we have the ingredients that we need in order
(45:39):
to build a team and go hard.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
And you can get help to start down that path
at your website.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
So if you are a church, a business leader, an individual,
an agency, website does all those things. But if you're like,
I want to invest in bringing this to my city,
then you should email me. How do you do that?
It's Adrian dot Lewis at Careportal dot org A d
(46:09):
R I E N dot L e W I s
and you will respond, and I will respond. Are you
in Atlanta? Yes? Is it active there? Yeah, it's active. Yeah,
it's active. I would say it's medium. And Atlanta we've
got some markets crushing it. It's not at full bore.
There's work to do still, but it's it's medium in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
I just you know, the guy who grew up not
fitting and with all of the different stuff you had
going on to end up where you are now with
a sassy Cuban mother, treesa right and doing what you're doing.
(46:58):
It just is them and dream really. It's also it's
also a real testament to the power of faith in
a person's life. But if that wasn't enough, there's a movie.
(47:20):
There's a movie about care portal. How does that work? Yeah,
so in production or in development. I don't even know
where it is.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
It's not out. Yeah, it's coming to a theater soon. Oh,
tell me about it, all right. So, back in the
late nineties, there was this family pastor and his wife
who really felt like they were supposed to adopt kids
out of foster care. Didn't know much about the system,
(47:50):
but they just knew that it was clear in God's
word that we are to care for the most vulnerable,
and this was a way they could do it. They
inspired their little congregation in a place called Possum Trot Texas.
Awesome Possum Trot Texas, East Texas, all the way out
there in the woods, real small poor community, Possum Trot Texas.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
And they, of course it's a small congregation in a
place called It's like he all salute right.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Wow, awesome Trot tests Texas. Yeah. So, twenty two families
adopted seventy seven of the hardest to place kids in
the foster care system.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
How many people in the congregation that had to have
a massive percentage of the congregations most of them. Twenty
two families.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Families adopted seventy seven kids. Holy Crawley, that's right. And
it was beautiful and a blood bath. Really, it's so hard.
I mean, three of my six kids are adopted through
foster care. I can tell you some stories. Bro. It
is really really hard, and it's really really good. It's
(49:00):
both beautiful and blood bath at the same time. And
I personally think that's where the best things are born.
So this just community does this thing. This movie is
about that community. Josh and Rebecca Wigel are the writers
and producers of this film. We've been really connected to
(49:21):
them for five or six years now. We've been connected
to the Martin family. This is the pastor and his
wife in Possum Trot, Texas. Are they still there, kid, Yeah,
We've been with them, connected to them for at least
a decade. And so when Josh and Rebecca brought this
script to Joe, he read it and felt like, this
(49:41):
is not just a movie. This is about a movement.
This is something that we can do to end the
foster care crisis in our country. If we can show
the power of one little community, normal folks. What's possible
that they did? How crazy would that if the world
got to see and got inspired to do what they
(50:03):
can do where they are. And so we came alongside
of them, and it's taken a while. It's a one
hundred percent donor funded film. It's a pretty significant budget.
And when we say pretty significant, we're the millions. We're
not a one hundred stars. We're talking about a real
movie over ten million. Yeah, So produce the film and
(50:24):
then have to figure out what's the real purpose here?
Is it just make a movie? Nope? It's about a movement,
which means action, and so care Portal is not in
the movie, but care Portal is part of the back
end campaign for when somebody wants to take action, what
do they do. Care Portal is stewarding the back end
(50:45):
campaign to plug people into opportunities to be foster adoptive parents,
or to see and meet needs in their community through
their church or their business, or as an individual. We
want to say you're not just going to a movie
and you're done. You go to a movie and then
you take action, and we're helping him make that happen.
So Angel Studios picked this up as a distributor, which
(51:09):
is a big deal. They're not some fly by night group.
They are not. Sound of Freedom is a movie they
put out last July fourth. It's had over twenty million
people see the film. There was no real clear impact
campaign on the back end of that. They are super
excited that now we have another round of inspirational move
(51:30):
the needle kind of film coming out July fourth over
twelve hundred theaters, and on the back end of that,
there'll be a clear call to action for you to
take action, and care Portal is going to help make
that happen. It's pretty special. Did you ever have imagined?
I mean, really, yeah, Bro, There's so many things in
(51:51):
my life that if you listen, the guy was fifteen
years ago couldn't even be in this room. I couldn't
even be in this room. I the person I am
today is not who I used to be. And all
of that came from saying yes to opportunities to serve.
(52:15):
You want to go ahead and give everybody the recognition
of the payoff is you get a thousand more times
out of it than you ever put into it. People
know that you know that, you know that when you
serve and love somebody that it changes you. You actually become
a better version of you. Doesn't everybody want to be
(52:37):
a better version themselves? Seems pretty obvious, don't it, My brother?
I am you know when you start down this path
of this conversation, you're talking with a guy named Adrian
who started care Portal, which is an online thing to
help kids. But the depth of it is absolutely phenomenal.
(53:03):
And I am a big guy about being proactive rather
than reactive, because reactive is usually looks like a band aid,
and band aids eventually come off and scabs fester. That's
what reactionary stuff typically looks like. Proactive stuff, though, keeps
you from ever getting the cut on your arm in
the first place. And to me, that is so much
(53:25):
of what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
And you know the movie just just recently, we did
a podcast on farm Link and you need to go
listen to it. From this perspective, it has nothing to
do with fosh care. It's about linking food that gets
thrown away every day with food banks who don't have
(53:49):
enough food, and why we thrown away food when people
need food, Let's link them. And these college kids got
together and figured it out and they've moved over one
hundred and fifty million pounds of food in three years.
That's amazing, connecting farmers who were throwing food away with
food banks and people who don't have food. Phenomenal story.
(54:13):
The reason they went from zero to one hundred so
quickly is because one of the one of the four
kids that started in this thing, was a documentary filmmaker
and he filmed it, and through that filmmaking he was
able to do storytellings. And through the storytelling, the New
York Times printed an article on the paper and then
(54:35):
ABC World News Tonight picked up that story and they
called them three hours before going on air and saying, hey,
we'd love to cover this, but we need pictures. The
dude pulls over to Dairy Queen uploads pictures from all
the storytelling me doing was able to help them tell
a story, and by the next morning, boom, they had
(54:57):
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in account, a PayPal
a out that was linked to some softmores checkbook that
an hundred five thousand dollars and from that thirty days
it went nuts to now they are like the biggest
organization linking wasting food with people who need it. But
it all happened because they were doing the work. But
(55:20):
the work doesn't get scale without people knowing about it,
and people don't know about it without really professional good storytelling.
That's right, And to me, this movie is not about
making money off ticket sales. It's about spreading your brand
and letting others these thirty two counties that represent the
(55:44):
half of people that need to be served the most
found out about you, and so pairing the unbelievable you
work you do with fantastic storytelling in a metaphorical sense
is exactly what an army of normal folks tries to
do every Tuesday. And I just congratulate you on all
of it because it all makes sense. It's so much sense,
(56:05):
and it seems so comprehensive in terms of an.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
Effort I am. I'm grateful for the invitation to be here. No,
I have had a trying to fund talking with you
me too. You make it easy. I don't know about
all that. It's like, this is just natural for you. No,
just having a chat, bro, that's what we're doing. How
hard is it? Talks about it that J actually respect
and you grow toike thank you for coming to Memphis,
(56:32):
appreciate it. More importantly, thank you for the amazing work
you have done and continue to do and your whole
group does to serve the neediest among us.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
And I just I know, without a shadow of a doubt,
this thing is going to continue to grow. And those
of you listening out there, you have a chance to
change the world every day. And I'd get not having
the temerity to actually bring a foster kid into your house,
but how about doing something with a portal that allows
(57:04):
you to keep that foster kid from ever existing in
the first place.
Speaker 2 (57:07):
Can't we just do that.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
Adrian Lewis Care Portal Brother, thanks for the story, can't
wait to share it. Thank you, brother, and thank you
for joining us this week. If Adrian Lewis or other
guests have inspired you in general, or better yet, inspired
you to take action by signing up to join the
(57:32):
care Portal, by introducing care Portal to your church, bringing
the platform to your local community, donating to care Portal,
or something else entirely, please let me know I really
do want to hear about it. You can write me
anytime at Bill at normalfolks dot us and I will respond.
(57:53):
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with
friends on social, subscribe to the podcast and review it.
Become a premium member at normalfolks dot us. Do all
of these things that will help us grow an army
of normal folks. Remember everyone, The more people, the more impact.
(58:14):
I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week.
Hey, everybody, it's Billed Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue now a part two of our conversation
with Adrian Lewis. Right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And while we're going through that process, the leadership of
the Globe War From Project also really felt led for
us to stop flying over the kids in our own backyard.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I was going to say at some point, I didn't
know that part, but I was going to say, at
some point, it is wonderful war helping kids. It's Haiti
and Mexico and Guatemala and Uganda and everywhere else. But
I do struggle with the notion of us flying to
all of these countries all of the place, employing tons
(01:01):
of money and resources, when right here in the United
States we have hungry children.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Right, So your organization said, we're friends at home, orphans
at home.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
That's right, orphans at home. Who are the orphans at home?
Where are the orphans at home? Well, these these are
the kids in the foster system. These are the orphans
at home. And we set out as an organization to
try to encourage and support churches in Kansas City to
encourage their people, their congregants to become foster and adoptive parents.
(01:39):
At the time, there was seven hundred and seventy three
kids who were available to be adopted in Kansas and
the Greater Kansas City areas seven hundred seventy three at
the time. That's right. This is back in two thousand
and eleven twelve, and we got met with crickets, crickets
from the congregation, from the right, the churches. The leaders
(02:01):
that we approached agreed this would be a great thing
to do and didn't do it. And it earned at first,
it was very disappointing at first, like what the heck,
come on, man, this is it's very clear love your neighbor.
Oh and by the way, caring for the orphan in
the widow is actually true religion. So what's the problem. Well,
(02:26):
the problem is taking kids into your home is a
huge commitment, and if you, as a leader don't feel
that personal call yourself, it's very difficult to go to
your congregation and say we should do this. Right. It
takes someone who sees all the way around the corner
to say, you know what, I'm not personally called to
(02:49):
do this, I'm called to do these things. But we
collectively Big C Church are the ones who have the
responsibility and opportunity. Dare I say to show up and
bring these kids into our home? And don't you Devil's
advocate here? And I'm hearing you as if I'm a
(03:09):
congregat in your church.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I'm in my pew and I'm hearing your plea and
I'm hearing the demographics that just came out of my
own mouth, which makes me, from what I'm about to say,
an incredible hypocrite.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Man, I mean, I've got my own wife, I've got
my own kids, I've got my problems at work, I've
got my normal life problems. And I know if I
bring a foster kid or two, and if they're brothers
or sisters, you need to bring them together, that I'm
going to be bringing their baggage and their trauma and
(03:48):
poking my family in the eye with this. And that's
that's a hard commitment to make. I mean, I can
get the crickets, I guess, is what I'm saying. Me too,
(04:09):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It was hurtful, and I understand, just like my parents,
my grandparents, it was hurtful and I understand, But.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
You were training of being graceful and forgiveness and not
being a victim of the circumstance. Said to you, but
I ain't quit. I'm not done.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And dude, we have a team of people in organization
who are not done, who have such courage to take
risks and to keep on when we believe we're doing
something we're supposed to do. So would you do to
answer the crickets? Yeah, So we kept trying for two years.
We failed for two years. Years years, We failed for
(04:49):
two years. But we met people along the way who
had had some success, one of which is Bishop Aaron
Blake out of Brownwood, Texas. His wife. His wife started fostering.
Then they encouraged their congregation who stepped up huge hundreds
of kids were fostered. Then he started engaging churches in
his community to say we can do this, and because
(05:12):
he was and they were, there was tons of success.
Then he got the ear of the state and they
started getting excited. And so he now had a seat
at the table at the state level for child welfare
in Texas to say, what can we do with a
church partnership here? How can we go faster and stronger
and better? And so We went spent time with him,
(05:34):
and we got hooked at the hip. We learned about
child welfare things. We spent time with the agencies there,
we understood some things that were going on with them.
And one day, December of twenty thirteen, I'm reading a
summary document that our CEO, Joe Kennetick wrote, right I'm
reading this document and I'm sitting there reading this document.
(05:56):
I'm telling you, Bill in a flash, the vision for
care portal. Can you just spilled the beans care portal?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Which is the craziest thing that I'm gonna let you
run with, And I really am going to try to
shut up and let you go.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
But the craziest thing is your life.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
You graduate, first of all, you get these unique tenants
seared into your psyche and your soul of not being
a victim but always being forgiven and graceful, which sets
you up perfectly from a human standpoint. And then when
you graduate college, you're in care. It's healthcare, but it's
(06:42):
still care, and implementing software to make the effectiveness of
the education of that care and thusly the total care
system better. You're giving all these tools along away to
(07:02):
get to this point in life, which nobody would have
ever anticipated.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
So tell us about it. Well, what you need to know, Bill,
is these markers I've been telling about. I didn't ask
for the markers, and this vision was not mine. This
is God's idea. And it's not a new idea. To
empower neighbors to see and serve other neighbors, that's not
(07:29):
a new idea. Right, using technology to connect kids and
families in crisis with churches and people who care in
proximity that want to help, Like that, that was the thing.
And how can we take the six foot barrier of
taking a kid into your home and bring it down
to six inches where you might be able to help
(07:51):
a mom keep her kids if you could provide some
things she really needed for that to happen. Or you
might be able to help kids get out of foster
care if you could provide some things that they really
needed to make that happen. That's a six inch bar
And so if I ask you, Bill, would you be
willing to receive an email about a single mom who
just left an abusive relationship and she's got a new
(08:14):
place now, but she needs some beds so her kids
can get back with her. It's the last thing that
she needs before she can have them back, before Child
protect Services will reunite them. It's called reuniting, reunite them,
that's right, before they can get reunited. And I sent
would you be willing to see an email about that need?
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Not only would I see the email, I'd buy the
damn bed. You buy the damn bed. That's right, And
that idea from what all we learned, is actually super
important when you talk about prevention. What is the things
that are barriers that make it so that families are
not able to stay on course when you're in poverty
(08:55):
one hundred and fifty dollars two hundred dollars at bed,
it might as well be one thousand dollars. I'm trying
to figure out how to get food.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I can't get to that right. But Child Protection Services
is not going to reunite your kid with you when
you've got to lay them on the floor on some clothes.
How could they right? They would be a dereliction of
their duty to the child, even though they may want
to reunite the child with the parent, absolutely, and the
parent it's not in this situation because they're bad parent,
(09:22):
they were abused who are you going to blame? So
everybody's everybody's been institutionalized and put into a system, and
eventually these folks lead to the very demographics we're talking about.
But what you're saying is caring about the foster system
(09:44):
doesn't necessarily mean you have to adopt a kid. There's
lots of other stuff we can do if we can't
adopt a kid to remedy the foster care problem. Come on,
that's exactly what I'm saying. That's right.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
In fact, do you hear that everybody? Yeah, no, we're
we're sitting here imagining how everybody is thinking, well, dang,
I want to be part of that. Right, yes, you do,
because you are an at all of a sudden, it's
not so scary. That's not so scary. And when we
started casting this vision, not only did child Welfare say,
oh my goodness, this would be amazing if that actually existed,
(10:17):
but the churches started saying, dude, we would do that.
Of course we would do that. How can we do that?
How soon can we do that? And so we set
out to go build this Mickey Mouse, a little software
that we had no business building. I can't write code.
I'm a little geeky and so I can think through
some stuff, but I can't write code. But we just
duct tape and shoe string and made this product that
(10:41):
was ugly and clunky and it worked, and it is
called it's called care Portal. And tell me soup to
nuts what it actually does. So we build care sharing
networks in a given city. Right, we'll take it. And
this is the other beautiful thing. It's city to city.
(11:03):
It's city.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So you're not hearing in Topeko with somebody in Marleyborn needs.
You're hearing in Kansas City what a person in your community.
It's equal seeing areas of need in their community and
filling those gaps. And you've created a system to inform
the people who can about the people who can't and need.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That's right. We call it care sharing. That's what we
call it. So talk about how it works. Yes, So
we have a team of people who build a network,
a care sharing network. They bring child welfare agencies and
schools and homeless shelters and pregnancy centers, places where there
(11:50):
are case workers who see the needs and it's their
job to help people move along in their life. Right,
they have a caseworker and then we build churches and
businesses and people who care, and they're the responding side.
So you have the requesting side and you have the
responding side, right and in that given city, Now we
(12:12):
end up having these vetting organizations, these requesters. They're submitting
this need for the mom I just told you about
into care Portal, which then goes out to the network
who are in our network and our platform of churches
and businesses and people who care who can see a
need and say I want to help with that, or
they can ignore it.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
There's no obligation. How are the how are the how
are the givers notified?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So the givers are notified by signing up to join Careportal.
So if you went to careportal dot org right now,
you could sign up as a church, You can sign
up as a business, you could sign up as an individual,
and you could start to see and meet needs. Do
I log on or do I get an email? Both?
You get to push notification, you get an email, you
go to the website.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
So I may get an email that says, hey, Sally
X left an abusive deal. She is two steps away
from being able to have her six year old who
is now in child protective services being reunited with her.
They got to have a table with two chairs, they
got to have a bed with some blankets so they
(13:20):
stay warm. And oh, by the way, it wouldn't be
bad to fill up their pantry exactly, And you could
get an email that says that just like that, and
the sooner we act, the sooner this child and this
mother reunited. One of the biggest things I hear all
the time my brother is I want to help so much,
I just don't know how from the givers. And you
(13:44):
hear all the time from people who need Where do
I go to get help? You're answering both questions with it.
I mean, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
What I am saying is that there are all around us,
and care Portal helps remove those barriers because connections change everything.
That's what we do. We make those connections. We'll be
(14:19):
right back. How long has this thing been in operational?
We just hit nine years and in what cities? Oh gosh,
(14:40):
it's starting in Kansas City. Yeah, so we yes started
in Kansas City and in Texas pretty much simultaneously. At
the church guy, that's right. It was Austin, Texas Bishop
Aaron Blake and Austin is where we piloted. Then we
came to Kansas City right after, and we got officially
launched in a couple of markets at about the same time.
(15:00):
Thirty one states now I think thirty one state, thirty
one states. Yeah, we kind of roll out, counting by county,
and we're in the four hundreds an all exact number
of counties. Major metros like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago.
Do you have numbers on the amount of children you've
been able to read? So here's cool. Last Wednesday, we
(15:25):
met the one hundred thousandth request happened last Wednesday, which
represents two hundred and sixty something thousand children and over
three hundred thousand people when you include their parents. Well, well
say that again. You met the one hundred thousand, one
hundred thousandth requests, right, which represents about two hundred and
sixty five thousand children who have been served through churches
(15:49):
and communities connected by care Portal, and you add their
parents and we're in the three hundred thousands of number
of people, right, So we're over three hundred thousand people
served total, and oftentimes the givers don't even know who
they're giving the don't know on a personal level or
anything who they're given too. Yeah, but they're able to
just do it. They're able to do it because what
(16:11):
care portal brings is a currency of trust. Okay, let
me unpack. That's interesting. Yeah, it brings a currency of trust.
So the case workers are super important because they're the
ones bringing vetted needs. You are not bringing your own
need to care portal. You are not saying I have
a need for X, Y and Z, because if you
(16:32):
did that, then the responders wouldn't really know can I need?
They really need this well, and that also allows the
need person some level of dignity because they're not having
to ask initials doing it in their stead absolutely absolutely,
it's they have an advocate who is on their behalf,
(16:54):
which is the casework which is the caseworker. Right, So,
so vetted needs come in. That's pillar number one. Pillar
number two is that anybody can participate. So we have
businesses and sports teams, We've got rotary clubs and individual families.
It would be an awesome fil entry for rotary clubs.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Awesome every monthly meeting to say hey, here's the needs
on the care portal. Who wants to who do we
want to help this month? Absolutely? Absolutely, Everybody pull out
twenty bucks. If there's one hundred people in here, that's right,
everybody pull out twenty bucks and we're in. We can
we can help and even children in our community. You
could do it right through your app. You could do
it in your phone, your phone like you. The giving
(17:36):
process is super simple and you're giving to a specific need,
right so anyone can participate. We got synagogues and anybody
can participate in that part of the process. But pillar
number three at the point of care has to be
a local church. Really, and let me unpack why. Okay,
(17:58):
the last thing that you.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Want is for a single woman to have some person
with no accountability show up on her doorstep. Because what
we're really after here is not just here's your bed.
What we're really after is a meaningful connection. What we're
(18:20):
trying to do is to empower neighbors to see and
serve other neighbors. And so the showing up at the
doorstep with the bed coming two by two, with the
authority of your church who you are part of, and
they have let you into their care portal account, they
know who you are. You have said yes on behalf
(18:40):
of your local church that I am going to do this.
When you show up two by two to go serve
that family, there is accountability and there is an opportunity
for you to make a meaningful connection. Because that mom,
she doesn't just need a bed. She is isolated. She
needs people to come alongside of her as neighbors. She
(19:02):
needs community, stable community, people who care about her, who
are motivated by love, who can help her see a
different way forward, who might be there in three months
after they build a relationship when she actually needs a
babysitter every Thursday afternoon so she can go to whatever
class she's supposed to go to that she has to
go to because the state says she has to go.
(19:24):
Who's going to do that? Well, you're going to do
that because you've just been hanging out with her for
the last three months and now she's a friend. That
is what transforms people. That's the secret sauce.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
It also first of all, wow. Second of all, one
of the things I hear a lot about trying to
help people that are existing in poverty is accessibility. Is
a lot of people don't have it. Things are not accessible,
(20:01):
and it's so simple to think of somebody to watch
my kid for an hour while I have to go
to this class. But if that help isn't inaccessible, you
start down the vacuum of misery all over again because
you miss your class. Now you risk losing your kids,
and the whole thing goes and it's all because you
don't have accessible to somebody to help you with your kids,
solid childcare. And so this is not only giving people
(20:24):
what they need to get reunited, but it makes friendship
and community accessible to people who need it the most.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
That's right, That's exactly what we're talking about. And that
doesn't happen every single time, right, but it's there. But
it's there, and there's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
stories of that actually happening, of those things leading to
significant life transformation. And even when that doesn't happen, Dude,
mom has a bed now. She didn't have that bed
(20:52):
for her six year old before, and now she does,
and that freaking matters. It matters a lot, and you
may have just transferred some hope from you to her
in a really hard moment where now she feels like
I can actually take this next hill.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
We keep talking about beds, but it could be an
operable refrigerator or stove, or that's right. Pick something that
a child needs or a woman and whatever that's right.
And it's not all single moms. It's it's dads, it's parents,
it's grandparents, it's all kinds of people who are in there.
It's foster parents who have taken kids in and they
(21:29):
they need some things in order to keep going. It
could be a kinship placement, a grandma who took in
some kids. She wasn't expecting these kids. She's not ready
for these kids. Grandma and grandpa don't have all the
things that they need for a four year old and
a five year old all of a sudden, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
But you know what happens in my house when I
have an immediate need, either I can afford to buy it,
or I got ten people I can call right right,
these folks don't. These folks don't.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
So care portal has no thing to do with placing
foster kids. It has everything to do with reuniting people
and stopping kids from being falster kids in the first place.
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Upstream prevention is what helps us stop those downstream statistics
about homelessness and sex trafficking and an incarceration that you
talk about. You're being proactive instead of reactive best we
possibly can. And our theory of change is that neighbors
seeing and serving neighbors is what actually makes the difference
(22:32):
in somebody's life. Government has a role to play to protect,
for sure, But on my doorstep, I don't want a professional.
That's not what I want. Yeah, we're here from the government,
We're here to help. Is really not what you want
to hear on my doorstep. That's not what I want, right,
But if you are a neighbor motivated by love and
(22:54):
you show up on my doorstep, I can't help but
wonder what the heck, dude, what are you doing this for?
How was this not in every single city and county
in the in the country. Because we hadn't met on
this podcast yet, we haven't met the army of normal thoughts.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
So it's about me now, huh. So the success rate
is everywhere it is? I guess.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah. So here's here's the and how big is the
organization now? So we have one hundred and thirty staff
across the country.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You're kidding me? And this started with you going to
Haiti and winning your job about fifteen twelve years ago,
fourteen years ago, fourteen years ago, and you have one
hundred and thirty staff, dred and thirty staff. Now, where's
the money come from?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Bro? That's a great question. So two things. One, what
do we use the money for? You asked a question,
why is this not everywhere? It's really expensive and time
consuming to build the care sharing network in a city
I would expect. Yeah, you're connecting lots of lots of people.
(24:07):
You've got to have humans who wake up every day,
rallying the troops, galvanizing, making relationships, building this network and
sustaining it. There's all kinds of distractions that can happen, right,
So the technology is a component, but that technology is
only twenty five percent of our expenses. Seventy five percent
(24:27):
is the boots on the ground, which is why we
have so many staff across the country. They're the ones
who build the network city by city, and so that's
what the money is used for. Twenty five percent platform,
seventy five percent implementation. Where's the money come from? About
half of it comes from government relationships where they're paying
for access and use and implementation in their cities or counties.
(24:50):
Or state. Right, So we've got statewide arrangements with eight
or ten different states across the country. Some are just
county based in this place or that place. Have you
got crap because they're so closely related with churches. So
have there been barriers to make that hard? Yes, there's
been barriers, but far less than you would expect. Good. Right,
(25:12):
we have some very clear tenants. I told you where
the three are vetted needs coming in from case workers.
Anybody can help church of opponent care non negotiables. They
have to be there, and if the church and state
says no, then you're out. Ah, that's right, Like if
you're going to tell.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Us, but if a state's stupid enough, I have to
say no, yeah, you're out.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We just don't play. And that slows down our process,
right because it is a process to work with the
government about any particular thing. But it's slow and hard,
and so we move, we don't move super fast. And
then the other fifty percent is mostly through major donors
who say I want this in my city. What's your budget? Annually?
(25:56):
Last year we were just under ten million. This year
will probably be around fourteen.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I'll be honest with you, fourteen million that's a big
number for anybody. Yeah, fourteen millions a lot of money.
But the impact you're happened for fourteen million dollars versus
the hundreds of millions our government blows on this crap
and doesn't get anything done to drop in the bucket.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, the ROI if we want to talk business, I
was a business guy. The RO is multiple factors, Right.
We have cost avoidance numbers, we have economic impact numbers.
We know based on the type of request that was met,
the value of that to the ecosystem that's around us,
and in some markets it's a ten x of value.
Some markets it's a three x of value. It depends
(26:43):
on what's going on there. But there's no question that
what we're doing is not only more effective in ways
we can measure, it's more effective in ways we can't
even measure.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
It's also effective in reducing taxpayer expense on caring for
the needy, because when you take it out of the
system and put them with their parent, the taxpayer is
no longer caring for the kid. It's there's a return
on that investment, a legitimate financial return on that investment.
It is almost can you qualify that or do you
guys qualify that, Yes, we do.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah. So thirty eight thousand dollars is what the average
number is for one year of a child being in
foster care. Thirty eight grand a year is what it
costs the taxpayer.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Taxpayer, not the foster parent, no what the foster parents
getting in, just the tax tax payer, faseworkers. This legal
sits Sact times four hundred thousand. That's a big number.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
That's a big number. Thirty billion is the foster is
the child welfare number annually, it's thirty billion. So when
we have a request that's met and the caseworker says
the purpose of this is to help prevent a child
from going to foster care, then we apply an allocation
of one month of cost avoid that's it. That's it.
(28:01):
That's not even one month. You're slow playing your own numbers.
And why am I doing that because the last thing
I want to do. You don't want to add. You
want to be above reproach, above approach. That's right. So
one month, one month, that's all you categorize. That's what
we count, one month.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
And then that's where you get your three or five
or ten times return on the investment. Where if you
did it three months, which is probably more accurate, your
numbers are even exponentially better than what you're selling.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
That's right, that's right, and we're okay with that for
right now. There may be a day where we do
some more extensive research and we get to a place
where we can say, these folks over there did their thing,
and this is the conclusion they came up with, and
now we're going to use that number. Right, we have
our own ways of doing data, but we've not yet
had that thing done, and so we're not going to
stretch it because we don't need to stretch it. It's it's
(28:50):
still super it's actually it'd be wrong for us to
stretch it, and it isn't necessary. Right, Both of those
things are true. And we haven't even talked about what
we're doing for the child. Yeah, I mean when you
say what can we measure, there's a little bit we
can measure. But what happens when that child is now
(29:12):
home instead of somewhere else and being loved by their
parents as their parent, and what happens when that parent
is now in relationship with someone who cares for them
and they're not desperate, they don't feel hopeless. The transfer
of hope is actually the thing. And when your army
(29:35):
of normal folks can transfer hope, they change the world.
It's phenomenal to We will be right back.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Do you take stock of where you are versu where
you started and how this thing has happened? I mean,
do you allow yourself that I'm driving to work last
week and I am not confused at all, Bill that
this is my assignment. I know that I know that
(30:25):
I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
But what I couldn't quite figure out what overwhelmed me
was why?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Why is? Why did you choose me? Why is this
my assignment? And I don't know the answer. There's nothing
that I've done to deserve to be in the spot
that I'm in. I have said yes to opportunities that
have been put before me that I believe were divine,
(30:55):
and I keep slugging it out day after day after day.
But I'm grateful that I was asked, invited to change
the world in my unique way, and so if I
can inspire and empower thousands of other people to see
and serve their neighbor, well done, my goodn't sir? You know?
(31:24):
I asked you do you take stock? You know?
Speaker 1 (31:28):
And I ask a lot of people that because frankly,
it's a personal thing because I have I take stock
of me and know one, I mean, my background and
where I came from, and mine in my own business,
and then the movie and the Academy Award and the
book and the speeches and all. I really, honest goodness,
(31:49):
never look for it, but it gave me this platform,
and and I do. Sometimes I wake up and I
look at the mirror, and when I look in the mirror,
I know what I'm looking at. I'm looking at a
broken guy who had did daddy issues until he was
in his forties, who dealt with a lot of insecurity,
(32:12):
who was blessed with Lisa and then my children and
now all of this. And I do often ask myself,
you know, how come this?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
You know?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But anyway, that's why I ask people all the time
if they take stock, because I don't even know if
people really listening to us even understand it. It's probably
just my own personal interest in people's stories. But when
you take stock, you have to reminisce about near and
(32:50):
dear stories that really reinforced you how awesome the work
that you found yourself doing. Is do you have like
a do you have like a favorite story that the
portal has actually provided for someone that you want to
share with us? You know there are many stories. It's
(33:12):
probably not fair to say a, but share one one
of your favorite ones. So will let our listeners understand
just how profoundly important this work is.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, I can give you one. So there's a young
girl named Mikeaisha and seventeen. She is pregnant, and she's
about to age out of foster care. Oh gosh, a
pregnant seventeen year old in foster care in foster care?
(33:44):
Does it get worse? About to age out? Right? She's
about to be on her own. And when age out happens,
there is no safety net, right, there is no family. Right.
There are some things that you could tap into resource,
but they're part of a system, and that's very more
systematic under your stuff. But family, right, the family that
(34:06):
she was with, they weren't going to be with her anymore.
She was terrified, right, She's seventeen, pregnant, about to be alone.
She does not want the same life for her baby
that she had. But she's got nothing. And when I
say nothing, I don't just mean financially, like she's got
where do I even go? What do I do? Who
(34:27):
are my people? No family? What she did have was
a caseworker and that caseworker had care portal, And so
the caseworker goes to care portal and says, I have
a seventeen year old, pregnant young lady who's aging on
of foster care and she needs a crib to keep
her baby safe. Any help you can provide to be
(34:51):
appreciated submit.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I cannot imagine that fifty cribs didn't show me or
fifty responsors to that. Yeah, So how does this work? Well,
it goes to the closest churches in the.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Area, so it's even used this proximity proximity all the time.
That is amazing. So the Denbo family at People's Church
get this request and they're like, we can help out
with the crib. So they respond. So the caseworker and
the Denbo family get connected. Makasha gives permission for the
Denbos to show up at our house. And the Denbos
(35:30):
show up and they're at Macasha's house and they start
a conversation and they see the beauty and the brokenness
and the fear and this little girl, and they think
we can do something else, and so they do. They
throw her a baby shower, they start taking her to
driver's head, they invite her to church with them, and
(35:53):
the next thing you know, the Denbo family becomes like
family because they treated her that way. Nakasha has her
baby and she's not alone, and her baby is not
going into foster care. Why because she's not alone. She
ends up getting married, gets into full time ministry with
(36:16):
her husband, serving kids aging out of foster care just
like her. This is the power of relationship which wouldn't
have happened without a crib care portal putting a need
for a crib and somebody who said I can see
(36:37):
and serve my neighbor change life changed, which.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Is exactly what you're talking about. It's not just about
the stuff, it's about the community that gets.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
So it's a meaningful connection, it's a transfer of hope.
And she is now in the ministry. She's now in
full time ministry serving kids just like her. Wow, isn't
that what you want? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, that's not only what you want, but that is
a beautiful illustration of exactly what all this does.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
An army of normal folks. Okay, is this thing in Memphis.
We had this talk this morning with the folks. But
it's not barely in Memphis. Oh, it needs to get
barely out of the way, Memphis. Give me.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Your sales guy, your development guy. All right, you tell
your great storyteller, you know how develop relationships. You are
so warm, But your sales guy, so I know you
know there's markets that are targeted.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Right now, what are your target markets? We're getting the
strategy now, right. So we learned a few years ago
we did some research. Fifty percent of the kids in
foster care are concentrated five percent of the counties. Whoa
say that.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Again, yes, sir, fifty percent of all So two hundred
thousand of these kids in fall square annually aren't only
five percent of the counties in the country.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
That's correct. So you know where you gotta go. We
know where you gotta go. Well, where aren't you that
you got to be? All right? So there's ninety six
unique markets that make up that the first five percent
is ninety six markets. Right. There are places you'd think Chicago, Detroit,
Los Angeles. I would also think Louisville, Memphis, Little Rock,
(38:34):
thinking about my footprints and Albuquerque, Denver, Albuquerque, Denver, absolutely
all those places are on the list. It's just amazing
that it's actually fifty percent. It's not amazing that there's
higher number, but half half in five percent of the counties.
So we are in sixty four of those markets, sixty
(38:55):
four of those how many those ninety six markets? We're
in sixty four of those ninety six markets. Memphis is
one of them. And in some markets things are going amazing.
Los Angeles amazing, killing it, Dallas amazing, then Colorado Springs amazing,
Kansas City amazing, many markets like that.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Memphis not so much. What are the thirty two that
you're not in? Give me a few of those, do
you know, I'm off the top of your head. Oh
that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
May I may be putting you in a bond there. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
But so you call yourself in Memphis because it's there,
but it's not being utilized.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
It is anemic in Memphis, and let me give you
some reasons why.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Right, And I'm only saying Memphis because we're sitting over here,
but we're also talking about there's got to be other
places like Memphis where it's there.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
But not being used.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And then there's thirty two not there of those ninety
six counties that is not even in Boston.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
So we got a lot. Boston's not in it, Portland
not in it. For sure. I'll come up with some
more as time grows.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, but okay, so the point is right, there's massive opportunity,
scale and opportunity here.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Still we're nine years in. We're not like the new
kids at the block, but we have so much room
to grow.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Okay, tell me what gets quote a namic? Okay, what's
the barriers that got to be overcome in these growth markets?
Speaker 2 (40:16):
So one of the barriers is how do we get requests?
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Right?
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Where do they come from? Child welfare is the number one,
Like ninety percent of requests that come in come from
child welfare. In Tennessee, we have yet to land the
plane with the state on the state really using care
portal in their child welfare department. So it's not just Memphis,
it's really a state thing. In Tennessee is a state thing,
(40:44):
and some other places it goes. The doors can open
in a particular market and not be statewide, but in
this state it hasn't opened yet at the state level.
And so therefore we're hindered in these major markets, Memphis
being one of them. But we're close. So how could
somebody Tennesseeans call your representative today? I could tell you
(41:06):
my friend's name, but I'm not going to say it
on the radio. Wow, all right, So that's very number one,
and we're close. I am confident you call me back
here in six months and we'll be there. Good. Right,
So that's number one. So we have a few vetting
organizations in Memphis who are submitting requests, but it's really
(41:28):
a small number of requests. And we've got fifteen or
so churches who have signed up to join the network,
and we have a couple of businesses who've signed up
to join the network. But it's just a mnemic. We
have not had the boost in this city that we
really need. Some of its awareness, some of it's awareness,
some of it's the gatekeeping of not having the volume
(41:50):
of requests, because if you don't have a high volume,
you can't go build a huge network because if you
have a bunch of people sitting and saying I thought
there was a problem, well that's about so supply and
demand is actually a very strategic thing that we have
to balance. But when this door gets opened at the
state level and now we have more demand, like we
(42:11):
got more requests coming in, then we need to figure
out how to service them. And that's what you do.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
You build out the requests, then you build out this, right,
And that's what you do in all of these everything
market and these thirty two that you aren't in and
the anemic of the sixty four that you are you
and so that's what you're just doing it.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
That's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
So you're building that on the development side while your
staff is doing the I don't know, programming work to
support all of that's right. And in the middle of
all of this, you're reuniting children with families who otherwise
would end up in foster care, who would lead to
(42:49):
the demographics of seventy five percent of our prison population
and all of the other things we've talked about. That's right,
that's right. There's freaking incredible, dude thing. Bro, it is
an amazing god thing. We'll be right back. So someone
(43:26):
is are you in Topeka? Yes, turn I always use
the word Topeka because I think it's fun. Oh you're
not in Portland. Now, Someone sitting in Portland right now
saying this is stupid. How do they reach out and
say I want to be I want this in my town?
Who do they how do they call? Who do they
(43:47):
reach what? What do they go to?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Yeah, so the best channel is careportal dot org, careportal
dot or or g Right, you go to the careport
dot org and you will find yourself either of someone
who wants to meet needs, someone who might want to
have their organizations submit needs. And there's pathways for you
to plug in exactly who you are, a business owner,
(44:11):
a church, an agency, an individual, it doesn't matter. You
plug in and then our team will be able to
be in contact with you to say we're going to
help you move forward. And if you're in a market
that we're not in yet, then there's a different path. Right.
We need influencers to bring about favor in a market
before we can actually really get off the ground. And
(44:32):
we need influencers to bring resources in a market. Okay,
use words that people like me understand. What do you
mean by influencers to bring resources? Yes, so plane talk
this morning, We're at a table with some folks you
put together, right. Some of them are business owners, some
of them have relationships with government leaders and with state
(44:54):
people and city people and so on and so on.
And if those people said, hey, I'm I'm going to
invest in getting this off the ground financially because it
cost seventy five percent of our expenses are market specific,
that's a lot of money. You bring in two, three
four people into a market, you got to pay those people.
So can people invest financially to help get this off
(45:16):
the ground in their market? That's one clear need? And
can people use their influence to either bring about other
investors or to bring about people who can remove barriers,
to create awareness, to get people excited about this is
coming to our city? Do you want to be part
of it? And when you can set a table like that,
now we have the ingredients that we need in order
(45:39):
to build a team and go hard.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
And you can get help to start down that path
at your website.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
So if you are a church, a business leader, an individual,
an agency, website does all those things. But if you're like,
I want to invest in bringing this to my city,
then you should email me. How do you do that?
It's Adrian dot Lewis at Careportal dot org A d
(46:09):
R I E N dot L e W I s
and you will respond, and I will respond. Are you
in Atlanta? Yes? Is it active there? Yeah, it's active. Yeah,
it's active. I would say it's medium. And Atlanta we've
got some markets crushing it. It's not at full bore.
There's work to do still, but it's it's medium in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
I just you know, the guy who grew up not
fitting and with all of the different stuff you had
going on to end up where you are now with
a sassy Cuban mother, treesa right and doing what you're doing.
(46:58):
It just is them and dream really. It's also it's
also a real testament to the power of faith in
a person's life. But if that wasn't enough, there's a movie.
(47:20):
There's a movie about care portal. How does that work? Yeah,
so in production or in development. I don't even know
where it is.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
It's not out. Yeah, it's coming to a theater soon. Oh,
tell me about it, all right. So, back in the
late nineties, there was this family pastor and his wife
who really felt like they were supposed to adopt kids
out of foster care. Didn't know much about the system,
(47:50):
but they just knew that it was clear in God's
word that we are to care for the most vulnerable,
and this was a way they could do it. They
inspired their little congregation in a place called Possum Trot Texas.
Awesome Possum Trot Texas, East Texas, all the way out
there in the woods, real small poor community, Possum Trot Texas.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
And they, of course it's a small congregation in a
place called It's like he all salute right.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Wow, awesome Trot tests Texas. Yeah. So, twenty two families
adopted seventy seven of the hardest to place kids in
the foster care system.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
How many people in the congregation that had to have
a massive percentage of the congregations most of them. Twenty
two families.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Families adopted seventy seven kids. Holy Crawley, that's right. And
it was beautiful and a blood bath. Really, it's so hard.
I mean, three of my six kids are adopted through
foster care. I can tell you some stories. Bro. It
is really really hard, and it's really really good. It's
(49:00):
both beautiful and blood bath at the same time. And
I personally think that's where the best things are born.
So this just community does this thing. This movie is
about that community. Josh and Rebecca Wigel are the writers
and producers of this film. We've been really connected to
(49:21):
them for five or six years now. We've been connected
to the Martin family. This is the pastor and his
wife in Possum Trot, Texas. Are they still there, kid, Yeah,
We've been with them, connected to them for at least
a decade. And so when Josh and Rebecca brought this
script to Joe, he read it and felt like, this
(49:41):
is not just a movie. This is about a movement.
This is something that we can do to end the
foster care crisis in our country. If we can show
the power of one little community, normal folks. What's possible
that they did? How crazy would that if the world
got to see and got inspired to do what they
(50:03):
can do where they are. And so we came alongside
of them, and it's taken a while. It's a one
hundred percent donor funded film. It's a pretty significant budget.
And when we say pretty significant, we're the millions. We're
not a one hundred stars. We're talking about a real
movie over ten million. Yeah, So produce the film and
(50:24):
then have to figure out what's the real purpose here?
Is it just make a movie? Nope? It's about a movement,
which means action, and so care Portal is not in
the movie, but care Portal is part of the back
end campaign for when somebody wants to take action, what
do they do. Care Portal is stewarding the back end
(50:45):
campaign to plug people into opportunities to be foster adoptive parents,
or to see and meet needs in their community through
their church or their business, or as an individual. We
want to say you're not just going to a movie
and you're done. You go to a movie and then
you take action, and we're helping him make that happen.
So Angel Studios picked this up as a distributor, which
(51:09):
is a big deal. They're not some fly by night group.
They are not. Sound of Freedom is a movie they
put out last July fourth. It's had over twenty million
people see the film. There was no real clear impact
campaign on the back end of that. They are super
excited that now we have another round of inspirational move
(51:30):
the needle kind of film coming out July fourth over
twelve hundred theaters, and on the back end of that,
there'll be a clear call to action for you to
take action, and care Portal is going to help make
that happen. It's pretty special. Did you ever have imagined?
I mean, really, yeah, Bro, There's so many things in
(51:51):
my life that if you listen, the guy was fifteen
years ago couldn't even be in this room. I couldn't
even be in this room. I the person I am
today is not who I used to be. And all
of that came from saying yes to opportunities to serve.
(52:15):
You want to go ahead and give everybody the recognition
of the payoff is you get a thousand more times
out of it than you ever put into it. People
know that you know that, you know that when you
serve and love somebody that it changes you. You actually become
a better version of you. Doesn't everybody want to be
(52:37):
a better version themselves? Seems pretty obvious, don't it, My brother?
I am you know when you start down this path
of this conversation, you're talking with a guy named Adrian
who started care Portal, which is an online thing to
help kids. But the depth of it is absolutely phenomenal.
(53:03):
And I am a big guy about being proactive rather
than reactive, because reactive is usually looks like a band aid,
and band aids eventually come off and scabs fester. That's
what reactionary stuff typically looks like. Proactive stuff, though, keeps
you from ever getting the cut on your arm in
the first place. And to me, that is so much
(53:25):
of what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
And you know the movie just just recently, we did
a podcast on farm Link and you need to go
listen to it. From this perspective, it has nothing to
do with fosh care. It's about linking food that gets
thrown away every day with food banks who don't have
(53:49):
enough food, and why we thrown away food when people
need food, Let's link them. And these college kids got
together and figured it out and they've moved over one
hundred and fifty million pounds of food in three years.
That's amazing, connecting farmers who were throwing food away with
food banks and people who don't have food. Phenomenal story.
(54:13):
The reason they went from zero to one hundred so
quickly is because one of the one of the four
kids that started in this thing, was a documentary filmmaker
and he filmed it, and through that filmmaking he was
able to do storytellings. And through the storytelling, the New
York Times printed an article on the paper and then
(54:35):
ABC World News Tonight picked up that story and they
called them three hours before going on air and saying, hey,
we'd love to cover this, but we need pictures. The
dude pulls over to Dairy Queen uploads pictures from all
the storytelling me doing was able to help them tell
a story, and by the next morning, boom, they had
(54:57):
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in account, a PayPal
a out that was linked to some softmores checkbook that
an hundred five thousand dollars and from that thirty days
it went nuts to now they are like the biggest
organization linking wasting food with people who need it. But
it all happened because they were doing the work. But
(55:20):
the work doesn't get scale without people knowing about it,
and people don't know about it without really professional good storytelling.
That's right, And to me, this movie is not about
making money off ticket sales. It's about spreading your brand
and letting others these thirty two counties that represent the
(55:44):
half of people that need to be served the most
found out about you, and so pairing the unbelievable you
work you do with fantastic storytelling in a metaphorical sense
is exactly what an army of normal folks tries to
do every Tuesday. And I just congratulate you on all
of it because it all makes sense. It's so much sense,
(56:05):
and it seems so comprehensive in terms of an.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
Effort I am. I'm grateful for the invitation to be here. No,
I have had a trying to fund talking with you
me too. You make it easy. I don't know about
all that. It's like, this is just natural for you. No,
just having a chat, bro, that's what we're doing. How
hard is it? Talks about it that J actually respect
and you grow toike thank you for coming to Memphis,
(56:32):
appreciate it. More importantly, thank you for the amazing work
you have done and continue to do and your whole
group does to serve the neediest among us.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
And I just I know, without a shadow of a doubt,
this thing is going to continue to grow. And those
of you listening out there, you have a chance to
change the world every day. And I'd get not having
the temerity to actually bring a foster kid into your house,
but how about doing something with a portal that allows
(57:04):
you to keep that foster kid from ever existing in
the first place.
Speaker 2 (57:07):
Can't we just do that.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
Adrian Lewis Care Portal Brother, thanks for the story, can't
wait to share it. Thank you, brother, and thank you
for joining us this week. If Adrian Lewis or other
guests have inspired you in general, or better yet, inspired
you to take action by signing up to join the
(57:32):
care Portal, by introducing care Portal to your church, bringing
the platform to your local community, donating to care Portal,
or something else entirely, please let me know I really
do want to hear about it. You can write me
anytime at Bill at normalfolks dot us and I will respond.
(57:53):
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with
friends on social, subscribe to the podcast and review it.
Become a premium member at normalfolks dot us. Do all
of these things that will help us grow an army
of normal folks. Remember everyone, The more people, the more impact.
(58:14):
I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week.
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