Speaker 1: You literally have one church for every child, So whow
Speaker 1: do we still have kids without a foster or adoptive family.
Speaker 2: I'm how the heck is that a reality? In my state,
Speaker 2: where we have more churches.
Speaker 1: Than gas stations, America has a foster parent deficit. We
Speaker 1: meet around one hundred and forty thousand more foster homes
Speaker 1: than we have today, and because we don't have enough
Speaker 1: home for these innocent kids, there's devastating consequences.
Speaker 2: And I get handed to two day old baby with
Speaker 2: no place to go, and I didn't know we had
Speaker 2: a place that we stuck kids with no place to go.
Speaker 2: It's places that we take eighteen year olds and we
Speaker 2: move them from the kids shelter to the adult shelter
Speaker 2: because we don't have a better plan for them.
Speaker 3: And that reality to me was like this is unacceptable.
Speaker 1: Today's guest is Chris Hampbell, executive director of the One
Speaker 1: One to One Project in Oklahoma, which partners with churches
Speaker 1: to recruit one new foster family a year and help
Speaker 1: strengthen one vulnerable family a month so that they can
Speaker 1: avoid foster care. Care Portal now operates in all seventy
Speaker 1: seven counties and has served over fifty four thousand children
Speaker 1: twenty thousand just last year, holy smokes, dude.
Speaker 2: And every day gross right, like even since that sixty
Speaker 2: one thousand kids.
Speaker 1: As of today, you've reduced the foster system from eleven thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred to six thousand children in foster care.
Speaker 2: We created pathways for people to engage and partner and
Speaker 2: what do you know that that makes a difference.
Speaker 1: Their success in cutting foster care in half is incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's wild. I've never heard of a state
Speaker 1: achieving such a reduction until now, and you're about to
Speaker 1: learn how so that you can do this in your
Speaker 1: state too. You could do small things from me eating
Speaker 1: a need on care portal, which is the largest cair
Speaker 1: sharing technology in the country, or significant things like actually
Speaker 1: becoming a foster prayer. And if there's an army of
Speaker 1: us doing these things together, we can solve this problem.
Speaker 2: But I see four million people in the state of
Speaker 2: Oklahoma that if we can't figure it out.
Speaker 3: I don't know who can, but I believe we can't.
Speaker 1: This is the Army of Normal Folks podcast, where our
Speaker 1: mission is to make service easier for all of us
Speaker 1: and together change this country. All right, everybody, We have
Speaker 1: super exciting news coming at you. I mean, Alice is
Speaker 1: excited about it, but I'm not sure how excited I am.
Speaker 1: The podcast is now live on YouTube, which means now
Speaker 1: you get to see me in case you prefer watching
Speaker 1: it there, and we're switching up the audio form out
Speaker 1: of the podcast. You can now either listen to the
Speaker 1: full version of the podcast on the same episode, meaning
Speaker 1: you no longer have to go to part one and
Speaker 1: part two to hear a whole episode we got going,
Speaker 1: or you can listen to a thirty minute version of
Speaker 1: the podcast that will be labeled as highlights and we
Speaker 1: get it. Many listeners who aren't as into long form
Speaker 1: podcast or struggle to find the time to listen to
Speaker 1: the whole thing each week have requested something like this,
Speaker 1: and so Alex got off his button. We finally created it.
Speaker 1: We're really not perfect, nobody is, but we really do
Speaker 1: try to take in all of your feedback and advice.
Speaker 1: We hope to create a product that makes service easier
Speaker 1: for you and all of us. So check it out
Speaker 1: and keep it coming. You can email us anytime at
Speaker 1: Normalfolks dot org and we will respond. Now let's go
Speaker 1: to the episode you guys have helped cut foster care
Speaker 1: and PASK in your state in Oklahoma from eleven five
Speaker 1: hundred kids to six thousand.
Speaker 2: How yeah, So there's sixty two hundred churches in the
Speaker 2: state of Oklahoma. So the big idea was, Man, what
Speaker 2: if we got more people involved. There's enough churches, there's
Speaker 2: enough families, and there's enough people that want to help,
Speaker 2: they just don't know how to help. So how do
Speaker 2: we create those pathways for more people to help Because
Speaker 2: the government can't do it on their own. So we
Speaker 2: created pathways for people to engage and partner and what
Speaker 2: do you know that that makes a difference in the
Speaker 2: lives of kids and families. That can keep kids out
Speaker 2: of foster care, can help kids reunify faster, It can
Speaker 2: support those professionals that work day in and day out
Speaker 2: to take care of those families. So that play what
Speaker 2: we've gotten to see over the last ten years has
Speaker 2: actually led with a whole bunch of collaboration of work
Speaker 2: on our government side as well to changing our system
Speaker 2: making a difference in it.
Speaker 1: So I love that you're not one of these guys
Speaker 1: is just saying government sucks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you worked with you got to work with government,
Speaker 2: you know, like in our state, you know, our state
Speaker 2: agencies is some of the largest. I mean, if you
Speaker 2: look at capital and investment and staff count, you know,
Speaker 2: they're they're doing good work because they care. But sometimes
Speaker 2: they have obstacles and red tape that prevents them from
Speaker 2: doing it as well as we would all like to
Speaker 2: see it done. And so we can either throw rocks
Speaker 2: at them and say just get better, or we can
Speaker 2: lean in and and try to help learn what needs
Speaker 2: to be changed and fill those holes, those gaps in
Speaker 2: the system where they can't they can't function.
Speaker 4: Just a number on it, it's a lot of people.
Speaker 4: From what you told me, it's like three thousand Child
Speaker 4: and Family Service So.
Speaker 2: Just in the child Welfare division there's about three thousand.
Speaker 3: Staff employees employees.
Speaker 2: So if you look at it from a corporation, you're right,
Speaker 2: it would be one of the largest employers in the state.
Speaker 3: Of Oklahoma, you know.
Speaker 2: So if you look at these different government enties, they're
Speaker 2: they're investing a lot in people.
Speaker 3: And we talk about all the time.
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of churches will know about their
Speaker 2: fire chief and their police chief, but they don't know
Speaker 2: nothing about child welfare or some of these other government agencies,
Speaker 2: But these are the people that are responsible when when
Speaker 2: it's the ceiling fan, it's it's the government child welfare
Speaker 2: folks that are in the middle of the hardest of
Speaker 2: the monk with families. And so I have deep respect
Speaker 2: for my government counterparts and the work that they do.
Speaker 1: I love. I actually love to hear that. I don't
Speaker 1: hear that all the time, and I love to hear that.
Speaker 1: What are the things we talk about often? Because it
Speaker 1: is such an effective idea and it's implemented. Implementation has
Speaker 1: now been incredibly effective across a broad array of uses.
Speaker 1: But you guys, we.
Speaker 2: Were the very first implementer of care Portal, were really
Speaker 2: Yeah we were. Yeah, we were Oklahoma, surprise, you know.
Speaker 2: So care Portal had done a couple of pilots and
Speaker 2: a couple of different locations, and one of those locations
Speaker 2: was Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: For those who haven't listened to the care Portal episode
Speaker 1: or even the care Portal, those that maybe listened to
Speaker 1: us for the first time briefly, yep, what is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have workers over here that are working with
Speaker 2: families that need help, and you've got people over here
Speaker 2: that want to help care Portal is the web based
Speaker 2: platform that connects the two and really simple to give
Speaker 2: opportunity without the red tape to directly serve families through
Speaker 2: that worker. And so that platform has now been around
Speaker 2: ten years, over five years cell phone, Yeah, on cell phones.
Speaker 2: It's a web app and a phone app. Now over
Speaker 2: five hundred thousand kids served through this. Hey, somebody who
Speaker 2: knows the family, advocates for the family.
Speaker 3: Somebody in the community that cares.
Speaker 2: Responds and says, hey, I can help with that, whether
Speaker 2: it's a dishwasher to a car seat, to a bed
Speaker 2: to utility bill, to advocate for the needs of the family,
Speaker 2: to know what the reality is that they that they have,
Speaker 2: but also recognizing that there's that worker, there's that government
Speaker 2: worker who's saying, hey, here's a family that we think
Speaker 2: can make it right. I mean, they could put on
Speaker 2: a request for any family, but most likely the families
Speaker 2: that they're putting on careport are the ones that they
Speaker 2: think have a chance because they're cheering for him too, right,
Speaker 2: They're cheering for that dad that's waking up at five
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning and walking twelve miles to get
Speaker 2: to work, but then trying to figure out how he's
Speaker 2: going to do his you know, addictive recovery case plan
Speaker 2: and his child welfare plans and his kid's visitation right,
Speaker 2: but he didn't have a car. But the worker sees
Speaker 2: the hard work that dad's doing to try to change
Speaker 2: his life, and she's like, yeah, I want dad to
Speaker 2: have a bus pass, you know, like I want dad
Speaker 2: to be able to have transportation. I want dad to
Speaker 2: have people cheering for him because he's an amazing dude,
Speaker 2: you know, but when he's on drugs or when he's
Speaker 2: under the influence of alcohol, he's struggled. But he's making
Speaker 2: this progress and we all need to be celebrating that.
Speaker 2: And we want his kids out of foster care, you know.
Speaker 2: So sometimes the best family for kids is not a
Speaker 2: new one, it's the one that they've always had that
Speaker 2: just needs that extra support and extra.
Speaker 3: Advocacy for that.
Speaker 1: And so she puts that on care portal. Somebody buys
Speaker 1: a bus pass and it's great, and that way it's
Speaker 1: not somebody that wants something asking is somebody advocating for
Speaker 1: someone who needs it. In twenty twenty five, the one
Speaker 1: to one one project, I guess it's called celebrated a
Speaker 1: landmark Milestone Care Portal now operates in all seventy seven
Speaker 1: counties and has served over fifty four thousand children, twenty
Speaker 1: thousand just last year, Holy smokes, dude.
Speaker 2: Yep, and every day gross, right like even since that,
Speaker 2: sixty one thousand kids as of today. And what's been
Speaker 2: really cool is, of course, strategically, I think we all
Speaker 2: look at and say, hey, where's the greatest amount of
Speaker 2: need go go there?
Speaker 1: So you've reduced the foster system from eleven thousand, five
Speaker 1: hundred to six thousand children in foster care, and Alex says,
Speaker 1: there's sixty two hundred churches in your State's right, you
Speaker 1: literally have one church for every child. So why do
Speaker 1: we still have kids without a falster or adoptive family?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question, And I think part of
Speaker 2: that is not by the.
Speaker 1: Way that question can be misconstrued, that is, by no
Speaker 1: means a criticism. Yeah, that's right, because you've cut in half, yep.
Speaker 1: But it still is an inconvenient fact that there's that many.
Speaker 1: So what I guess, I guess what next? Why do
Speaker 1: we still have this going on?
Speaker 2: I think we all recognize that sometimes we have simple
Speaker 2: goals for the sake of communication. But then when we
Speaker 2: get underneath, we realize the problem is a lot more
Speaker 2: complicated than than any of us want to make it out.
Speaker 1: Is that not universal, that's in business, families, anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we we want to make it the reality
Speaker 2: of it simple, but we would be ignorant to say
Speaker 2: it's that simple. And so on the church side, the
Speaker 2: reality is a lot of our churches are small, little
Speaker 2: family churches. A lot that you know are aging, right,
Speaker 2: that are that are of an age that they're like, hey,
Speaker 2: we can't, we can't raise kids anymore. But they have
Speaker 2: a lot to offer, but it may not be in
Speaker 2: opening up their home. We'd also recognize the challenges with
Speaker 2: a lot of our kids in the system. Not not
Speaker 2: every family is out of the gate equipped. You know,
Speaker 2: even even if you've had kids, you probably need some
Speaker 2: additional equipping and training and development to make you ready
Speaker 2: to parent kids that come from our places, kids that
Speaker 2: come from trauma, are kids that come from a different
Speaker 2: cultural context that you do.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 2: What we recognize is is that kids are coming out
Speaker 2: of places of need, sometimes of rural poverty and even
Speaker 2: sometimes of urban poverty.
Speaker 3: But kids in the foster care system come from all
Speaker 3: sorts of different scenarios.
Speaker 2: So even a blanket foster care is ignorant because it's
Speaker 2: as complicated as people are. Right, that's different as people are.
Speaker 2: But I think the simple idea is we've got more
Speaker 2: than enough people, you know. But it's a lack of
Speaker 2: development and it's a lack of connection that keeps people
Speaker 2: from saying yes, which ultimately, Bill, I think is fear.
Speaker 1: I think I think we have taught foster care a
Speaker 1: fair amount on there. I mean, it's not something that
Speaker 1: we just it's not a focus. It's just we'd come
Speaker 1: up right, right, I from all of those interviews and
Speaker 1: all of the different faces and all of the different
Speaker 1: work being done, I do think fear plays a huge
Speaker 1: role in it. And I don't think it's fear of
Speaker 1: opening your home. I think it's it's the fear of,
Speaker 1: you know, how how much work is this going to be?
Speaker 1: Which is hard to be. Is this child going to
Speaker 1: interrupt my already organic nuclear family, and what's that going
Speaker 1: to be on my own children? I mean, and I
Speaker 1: think those are legitimate.
Speaker 2: Fears, are all legitimate fears, and I think for all
Speaker 2: of us, experience and relationship over time is what gives
Speaker 2: us the context of the wisdom to say, Okay, I'm
Speaker 2: ready for that, right, or there's other ways that I
Speaker 2: can be involved, and.
Speaker 3: That is just as good, Right, that's just as helpful.
Speaker 2: And so all of us that are in the foster
Speaker 2: care space would say, our heart is not to grow
Speaker 2: foster care.
Speaker 3: Our heart is to keep kids out of foster care.
Speaker 1: And so you'd like to work yourself out of there.
Speaker 3: Joba, Absolutely right.
Speaker 2: And so I think every state, if they're doing the
Speaker 2: things that they should be doing, they're thinking more about
Speaker 2: going upstream and prevention and community work, and then secondarily
Speaker 2: they're thinking about kinship care because like kids should belong in,
Speaker 2: if not their immediate family, in this broader family if possible,
Speaker 2: And so that work is all work that we're trying
Speaker 2: to do. So to say, hey, more families is the
Speaker 2: easy answer. Yeah, but it's the right kind of families
Speaker 2: that really can provide those kids a thriving environment, whether
Speaker 2: it be their complex behavioral needs, whether it be the
Speaker 2: disability that they have, or whether it be just the room.
Speaker 3: You know, Hey, I've.
Speaker 2: Got siblings and we want those kids to all be
Speaker 2: placed in a home together. Well, for anybody to take
Speaker 2: on one extra child in their home, but to take
Speaker 2: on three, four or five, that's a significant jump, right,
Speaker 2: But we would believe there's more than enough families. It's
Speaker 2: finding them, it's equipping them, it's giving them pathways to
Speaker 2: have those experiences to get them to a yes, versus
Speaker 2: just trying to cherry pick them off and throwing them
Speaker 2: in because they saw a picture of a kid and
Speaker 2: we're like, oh, you know, I feel empathy, but they're
Speaker 2: not ready.
Speaker 3: And so I think the big work that even what.
Speaker 2: You're talking about on this podcast to do is how
Speaker 2: do we develop a community and a culture that gets
Speaker 2: the experiences so that they are ready for those yeses
Speaker 2: instead of coming in for the wrong reasons and the
Speaker 2: wrong ideas.
Speaker 1: And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,
Speaker 1: earlier this year something we're really proud of, Army members
Speaker 1: launched six A and F local service clubs around the country.
Speaker 1: Their design is to make service easier for your fellow
Speaker 1: community members by really having zero requirements of the club's members.
Speaker 1: All you gotta do is just sign up and join
Speaker 1: our service activities whenever you can, when it works for you,
Speaker 1: and welcome kids to join us for everything and they
Speaker 1: cultivate an in person family like tribe. For lack of
Speaker 1: a better term, that makes service even more rewarding. We
Speaker 1: are now, really, because of the success of these first six,
Speaker 1: looking at launching more local service clubs. And if you'd
Speaker 1: be interested in either leading or serving on the leadership
Speaker 1: team of a new one in your community, email Alex
Speaker 1: at Alex at Normalfolks dot org and he'd love to
Speaker 1: connect with you about this cool opportunity. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: Alex made a point, all fair, that's an interesting question,
Speaker 1: which is how many foster families do you still need
Speaker 1: to recruit? And maybe more important than not more importantly,
Speaker 1: but equally importantly, what's that gap and what happens to
Speaker 1: kids inside that gap?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great question.
Speaker 2: So in foster care, just like any entity, right, if
Speaker 2: you're not recruiting new you're dying.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, because there has to be attrition.
Speaker 2: There's always attrition, and a lot of it's fair attrition,
Speaker 2: right I, change of seasoned, life circumstances, whatever, moving moving.
Speaker 2: But in Oklahoma and every state we try to not
Speaker 2: talk about it too much, but the reality a lot
Speaker 2: of children are being adopted, and so every year in Oklahoma,
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred to twenty five hundred kids are being adopted
Speaker 2: out of the state of Oklahoma.
Speaker 3: Childwell FIRS system.
Speaker 2: About fifty percent of kids go home in the state
Speaker 2: of Oklahoma, but about fifty percent of the kids will
Speaker 2: never go home, And so those families adopt those kids
Speaker 2: that the foster families that love those kids, who knew
Speaker 2: those kids, who have fought for those kids, tried to
Speaker 2: get them reunified with their families. When that doesn't work out,
Speaker 2: ninety five percent of the time, it's the foster.
Speaker 3: Family that adopts that child.
Speaker 2: And we want to celebrate that, but the reality is
Speaker 2: that work is still not done at adoption. We want
Speaker 2: to say, hey, this moment, check gets done right and
Speaker 2: everything's great, and when in reality that we know some
Speaker 2: of the toughest work actually happens post adoption, right when
Speaker 2: a child goes through those teenage years and they're dealing
Speaker 2: with the realities of how can my mom and dad
Speaker 2: do these things right? Like when that weight begins to
Speaker 2: hit and the emotions and the feelings, even in the
Speaker 2: best of homes, that can really rock a young person
Speaker 2: and create some really tumultuous years, and that family doesn't
Speaker 2: need to be fostering more kids as they're walking through
Speaker 2: that with that child.
Speaker 1: Right, that makes so much sense. So as they adopt
Speaker 1: and as they move on the number of foster kids,
Speaker 1: if we haven't gone up stream far enough and stopped it,
Speaker 1: they keep coming. So if you're not constantly developing families,
Speaker 1: you're losing.
Speaker 2: You're always your numbers are ratio wise, are going down.
Speaker 2: So if you look at the math, you know, I
Speaker 2: didn't love algebra, but you know you got numerator denominator,
Speaker 2: that kind of thing, right, you can you can impact
Speaker 2: one of the two sides. You get more foster families
Speaker 2: and your ratio looks better, or you help prevent less
Speaker 2: kids going into the system.
Speaker 3: You know, and so both both are worthy causes.
Speaker 2: Both you don't have a whole lot of control of
Speaker 2: if you're doing the work right, other than how can
Speaker 2: we provide more supports for these kids and families from
Speaker 2: different communities to make sure kids don't go in care?
Speaker 2: So so in Oklahoma, you know, we have zero point
Speaker 2: five five families for every child in the system. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so one family for every two kids, pragmatically right.
Speaker 1: You know what's interesting, Also, as you said, there were
Speaker 1: three thousand people working for the government and there's about
Speaker 1: six thousand. That also means you have one worker for
Speaker 1: every two kids. You would think with one worker for
Speaker 1: every two kids and one family for every two kids,
Speaker 1: that y'all would have this thing under wraps.
Speaker 2: Right, And from the outside looking in the data makes
Speaker 2: it seem like, well, there's a lot of waste there, right,
Speaker 2: or a lot.
Speaker 1: Of Fluff's what it feels like.
Speaker 2: What it feels like, So let me unpack that even
Speaker 2: a little bit, because I think this is really important,
Speaker 2: and I would say every day I learned something new.
Speaker 2: I've been doing this now ten years, and I could
Speaker 2: share part of my story. I had a friend invite
Speaker 2: me to a local shelter. I was a church leader
Speaker 2: of a really large church.
Speaker 1: What's a church leader a minister?
Speaker 3: I was a minister.
Speaker 2: I was a paid vocational pastor, and my job at
Speaker 2: this big church was to help people serve in the
Speaker 2: community and be connected in community outreach. I was the
Speaker 2: outreach small group's pastor. I was in charge of all
Speaker 2: things adults for a church of about six to ten
Speaker 2: thousand at the time. It was a big church, lots
Speaker 2: of people, and I had a friend that said, hey,
Speaker 2: I love God was doing some really cool stuff with
Speaker 2: adoption in our church. A lot of families were adopting.
Speaker 2: People were saying, hey, man, our kids ministry looks like
Speaker 2: the un right that because these kids were coming in
Speaker 2: from all over the world, and it was really cool.
Speaker 1: That's just Chris.
Speaker 3: It was beautiful.
Speaker 2: But one of my good friends comes knocking on my
Speaker 2: door one day and she's got an idea. And as
Speaker 2: a leader, you know, ideas are a diamond dozen, right,
Speaker 2: everybody's got an idea, right. But this is a really
Speaker 2: good friend, a really smart friend, a friend that I
Speaker 2: deeply respect. And she's like, hey, I want to take
Speaker 2: you some place. And I'm like, absolutely, Rachel, where do
Speaker 2: you want to go? And she's like, I want to
Speaker 2: take you to our local kids shelter. But I didn't
Speaker 2: know we had a kids shelter. I'm a you know,
Speaker 2: not old old man, but thirty year old man, right,
Speaker 2: that's been highly involved. My head has not been in
Speaker 2: the sand, and it's my job to get people connected
Speaker 2: in the community. And I didn't know we had a
Speaker 2: place that we stuck kids with no place to go.
Speaker 2: And so she takes me to the shelter and I
Speaker 2: get handed to two day old baby with no place
Speaker 2: to go in the state of Oklahoma, and this is
Speaker 2: pre one, one one, this is like two thousand and nine,
Speaker 2: and literally she's like, yeah.
Speaker 3: This baby came from the hospital. Why the heck is
Speaker 3: this baby here?
Speaker 2: Well, there's no foster family available anywhere in the state
Speaker 2: of Oklahoma that at this moment can take this to
Speaker 2: dale baby. And I'm like, how the heck is that
Speaker 2: a reality in my state where we have more churches
Speaker 2: than gas stations.
Speaker 1: How is that a reality in.
Speaker 3: The United States of America?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: And I'm taking families around the.
Speaker 2: World to do these trips to work in orphanages and
Speaker 2: that kind of thing, and pragmatically, in our backyard, we
Speaker 2: have this thing.
Speaker 1: We call shelter ten minutes.
Speaker 3: It's supposed to be temporary.
Speaker 2: But yet, as Ashley crossed, that same place that Ashley
Speaker 2: talked about on this podcast is that we take eighteen
Speaker 2: year olds and we move them from the kids shelter
Speaker 2: to the adult shelter because we don't have a better
Speaker 2: plan for them.
Speaker 3: And that reality to me was like by Wattership, Oba,
Speaker 3: this is unacceptable, right, How can we tolerate that?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: And I think in the science of the stuff that
Speaker 2: we're talking about, right, Like the pain of the current
Speaker 2: situation has to outweigh the effort that's going to be
Speaker 2: required for change. Right, And so for me, that was
Speaker 2: my moment where like the pain is too great, we
Speaker 2: got to change things, We got to fix things.
Speaker 3: So our church begin to lean in.
Speaker 2: We begin to send folks to that shelter to meet
Speaker 2: those kids and to play basketball and do hair and
Speaker 2: have pizza parties and do financial classes.
Speaker 1: Right, this is a temporary shelter.
Speaker 3: This is supposed to be a temporary shelters.
Speaker 1: That's about that. If there's no home, it becomes permanent.
Speaker 3: It becomes permanent.
Speaker 1: But it was never designed or set up to be
Speaker 1: permanent for children, right, that's right.
Speaker 2: And we know institutions aren't good for kids if you
Speaker 2: don't have a mom and a dad. And then we say, hey,
Speaker 2: go bless you go be an adult, figure it out.
Speaker 2: And you've never had an example of what a functioning
Speaker 2: household looks like. Right, You've never done your laundry, you've
Speaker 2: never done your dishes. You can't cook meals because of
Speaker 2: the liability associated with you know, food handler permits and
Speaker 2: all that. Right, Like the complications of institution make things
Speaker 2: not healthy for kids, and so it sets them monitor
Speaker 2: jectory and spiritually for the church. Would i'd echo to
Speaker 2: this church is how can a kid ever fall in
Speaker 2: love with this heavenly Father if they've never had to
Speaker 2: go to earthly one? Right, Like, we could talk all
Speaker 2: we want about God loves you. When they've never seen
Speaker 2: it with skin on, it's going to be a big
Speaker 2: jump for them, right.
Speaker 3: So foster care.
Speaker 2: The thing I didn't know is state of Oklahoma, just
Speaker 2: state of Oklahoma, eighty thousand phone calls every year to
Speaker 2: our hotline.
Speaker 3: That's how I mean eighty thousand.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that's a coat, that's a teacher, that's a neighbor,
Speaker 2: that's somebody who cares, one or two on of calls
Speaker 2: a day. Somebody who cares says something's wrong here, right,
Speaker 2: And I think it's a scary thing. As a youth
Speaker 2: in Oklahoma were mandatory reporters. So if you're the youth
Speaker 2: pastor and you see a kid come come to camp
Speaker 2: and he's got bruises or scart like, you're required to call, right,
Speaker 2: We're supposed to report. But the reality, that's a lot
Speaker 2: of things to investigate, and so our three thousand staff
Speaker 2: their primary responsibility is if that seems like a legitimate call,
Speaker 2: because some of them are silly, right, like there's a
Speaker 2: marital spat that's happening and husband or wife because they're
Speaker 2: mad at their spouse, or making calls just to create
Speaker 2: some drama because they're mad, they're angry, and that's their
Speaker 2: only thing that they can do. But in the midst
Speaker 2: of all that chaos and sometimes even deception, there's a
Speaker 2: reality that kids are being harmed, they're unsafe, and so
Speaker 2: our frontline child investigation staff it's their job to figure
Speaker 2: out what's true or not.
Speaker 1: And they're handling twenty two hundred calls a day.
Speaker 2: And then not only do they just deal with the child,
Speaker 2: they're dealing with the mom and the dad, but maybe
Speaker 2: the aunt and the uncle, maybe the neighbor, maybe the teacher.
Speaker 2: Right now, grandparents and foster parents, everybody's got an opinion,
Speaker 2: everybody's got a perspective, right, they've got a supervisor, they've.
Speaker 3: Got a judge.
Speaker 2: So one situation involving three or four kids now becomes
Speaker 2: this inner web of complication. Here's the part I would
Speaker 2: I would celebrate our agency and once again, the outside
Speaker 2: is much simpler than the inside of this. But in Oklahoma,
Speaker 2: seventy five percent of the kids, even in situations of
Speaker 2: abuse and neglect, stay home or stay with a family member.
Speaker 3: That cares because what they recognize.
Speaker 2: Is, man, it's much better to support that family than
Speaker 2: to remove that kid, because once we remove that kid,
Speaker 2: the trauma to the kid is not worth it. Right, Like,
Speaker 2: just removing a child from their family creates enough chaos.
Speaker 2: But even for dad, what happens psychologically to a dad
Speaker 2: when you remove his kids from even a dad this
Speaker 2: struggling with addiction, might that dad, when there's a kid
Speaker 2: in his home have some checks even as faint, you know,
Speaker 2: as that that voice is still in his head, Like
Speaker 2: maybe I should party this hard tonight because that's interesting, Right,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have I'm gonna have my six year old
Speaker 2: that's gonna be knocking at my door tomorrow morning. I
Speaker 2: might throw some things at that six year old, you know,
Speaker 2: because I have a hangover. But is we would all
Speaker 2: recognize that there would be some accountability for having a
Speaker 2: child and most healthy situations or family situations, But when
Speaker 2: you remove that kid, what motivation is there for death? Anymore, right,
Speaker 2: the one thing that he might be proud of, the
Speaker 2: one main thing that he might be hopeful for, the
Speaker 2: one thing that I mean, what parent doesn't want good
Speaker 2: parent wants their kids to thrive, or wants to brag
Speaker 2: on their kids, and so when you remove the child
Speaker 2: from their home, it really hurts. Actually the success of
Speaker 2: progress you can actually have with a family, whereas if
Speaker 2: you can leave that kid.
Speaker 3: In there, wrap around supports.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So that's the work of the agency that people do
Speaker 2: not appreciate.
Speaker 1: So we need to talk about three thousand people. It's
Speaker 1: really not that many. It's not that many for that kind.
Speaker 2: Of yeah, and recognizing also because we don't have enough
Speaker 2: foster families in the state of Oklahoma.
Speaker 3: That child may be placed three hours.
Speaker 2: Away from where that worker originated that case, so guess
Speaker 2: what they're actually really doing. They're driving to pick up
Speaker 2: this kid in this part of the state to this
Speaker 2: part of it just to do a family visit for
Speaker 2: an hour with mom, and mom because she doesn't have transportation,
Speaker 2: might be there late, might not right, like she's struggling
Speaker 2: her elf and.
Speaker 3: We're blaming mom.
Speaker 2: Well, mom, Mom may be walking five miles to so
Speaker 2: the whole system. Once you get inside of it, you
Speaker 2: realize how how really complicated and hard it is. Or
Speaker 2: somebody and so the ones that are making it, and
Speaker 2: it's a forty five dollars bus pass to help them
Speaker 2: be successful.
Speaker 3: It's like, why wouldn't I want to fix that?
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. I want to ask two things
Speaker 1: before we move on.
Speaker 4: You have set goals for churches yearly and monthly.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about that?
Speaker 4: And goals maybe that may be saying a little too crass,
Speaker 4: but like targets that ideally, in the idealized the world,
Speaker 4: that all each church should be doing.
Speaker 1: And then how are you guys doing against that right now?
Speaker 3: Absolutely so?
Speaker 2: Simply, you know, there's about fifteen thousand kids that come
Speaker 2: in and out of the Oklahoma foster care system every year.
Speaker 2: Right the math would say they're in tubes on average,
Speaker 2: you know, like people were caring for them and doubles.
Speaker 3: So if you have six thousand.
Speaker 2: Churches that served one family every month, that's twelve thousand
Speaker 2: families that are served every year.
Speaker 3: That touches every case in the state of Bookloon.
Speaker 2: So the simple challenge to an army of good is
Speaker 2: are you willing to serve a family a month, a
Speaker 2: whole church, one whole church.
Speaker 1: It's not much to ask.
Speaker 3: It's not much to ask, right, Like that simple goal.
Speaker 2: Now, it would be ignorant of me to say that
Speaker 2: that takes care of all the problems.
Speaker 3: But dang it sure with help?
Speaker 1: Oh why that makes it do? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because a caseworker is saying, Dad could make it
Speaker 2: if he had a little extra help. If that, if
Speaker 2: Dad had a rent deposit that he can't currently afford,
Speaker 2: we could speed up his pathway to housing. Because he's
Speaker 2: got a job, he's on a pathway for being clean,
Speaker 2: but he needs a dang rent deposit. So he's either
Speaker 2: going to wait three four months before he gets his
Speaker 2: kid back or we could do it today.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: The scripture alludes to this idea of where our treasure
Speaker 2: is there are hearts follow?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: So the simple concept is, if I want to care
Speaker 2: about the stock market, what do I do? I put
Speaker 2: a little money into it, and now what I follow
Speaker 2: a stock because I've got some investment there.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. Right, And you're saying, if you put a
Speaker 1: little money in a human being, now you're interested and
Speaker 1: you follow and then relations.
Speaker 2: Time energy capital right time treasure, talents, whatever those things are.
Speaker 2: But when you make that investment, you're in. You're in
Speaker 2: for sometimes a life you didn't realize where this thing
Speaker 2: was going to go. And the challenge with institutions and
Speaker 2: even with government is they control for liability and protection
Speaker 2: and they do this and nobody's ever able to get
Speaker 2: connected or invest. But when we open up some doors,
Speaker 2: some pathways, some on rance for people to they get involved.
Speaker 3: They begin to care.
Speaker 2: They begin to realize that child welfare worker is just
Speaker 2: like their college kid that they have that just graduated,
Speaker 2: that it's pursuing a dream and their dream was helping people.
Speaker 2: And so they got into social work because they felt
Speaker 2: called to social work. But yet the daily opportunity that
Speaker 2: they have kicks their butt every day and they want
Speaker 2: to quit, and so they don't last long, right, And
Speaker 2: so like you begin to meet people and make friends
Speaker 2: and see opportunities. But here's what's also beautiful is as
Speaker 2: you get involved, you begin to see the gaps. And
Speaker 2: what caring people do is they fill gaps. They solve problems.
Speaker 2: And there's so many problems that are so different in
Speaker 2: every community that if you don't invite the community in,
Speaker 2: they'll never solve it because they.
Speaker 3: Don't have any ownership in it.
Speaker 2: They don't have any buy in that's there, right, but
Speaker 2: when you invite them in to be part of it.
Speaker 2: You've got churches that are starting bunk bed ministries because
Speaker 2: there's not enough beds for kids, sleep and Heavenly Peace.
Speaker 2: Right Or Judy Sharon from New Hope Baptist in small town, Oklahoma. Right,
Speaker 2: she didn't even have a Sleep and Heavenly Peace.
Speaker 1: She just make it beds.
Speaker 2: You've got churches that are creating small, little medical clinics
Speaker 2: because they're hearing in their community people are not getting
Speaker 2: their medical needs addressed and they can't drive, and there's
Speaker 2: not a close clinic, and so some of their clinicians
Speaker 2: are giving extra time and they're using a Sunday school
Speaker 2: class to serve two or three families a week.
Speaker 1: On the surface, sounds simple, you connect churches with kids
Speaker 1: who need families.
Speaker 4: Hold on, I think we missed one of the goals,
Speaker 4: though I didn't answer your question very well. The other
Speaker 4: one was so church is trying to recruit one family year,
Speaker 4: recruit and support one family year. So in the state
Speaker 4: of Oklahoma, we have thirty five hundred families that are
Speaker 4: in the We have sixty two hundred kids. If we
Speaker 4: had a net three thousand families, we would have a
Speaker 4: one to one ratio, which the federal government says is
Speaker 4: like unreal. Yeah right, But if we had every church
Speaker 4: recruit and support one new family every year, it would
Speaker 4: overwhelm the system. The problem would be we would have excess,
Speaker 4: and we would say that it's waste, right, Like how
Speaker 4: do we license homes that we're not even going to use?
Speaker 4: It creates a whole other set of problems that we
Speaker 4: would have to solve. But there would be really good
Speaker 4: problems like, oh, we have options, we have five families
Speaker 4: to choose from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would think that that would be what you
Speaker 1: would want. Chris Campbell, everybody's a could director of one
Speaker 1: one one project Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, which is basically Tulsa. Dude,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming to spending afternoon with me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for your advocacy, your voice, and let's raise
Speaker 2: up some more people to get in the game.
Speaker 1: I love it. Let's get a club going in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City or Tulsa somewhere. Hiry buddy, thank you and thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us this week. If Chris Campbell has
Speaker 1: inspired you in general, or better yet, to take action
Speaker 1: by getting involved with care Portal, the one one one Project,
Speaker 1: starting something like it in your community, or something else entirely.
Speaker 1: Let me know I really do want to hear about it.
Speaker 1: You can write me anytime at Bill at normal Folks
Speaker 1: dot us and I'm telling you guys, I'll respond. If
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends, share it
Speaker 1: on social, subscribe to the podcast wherever you're watching or
Speaker 1: listening to it from Rate it, review it, and give
Speaker 1: us five stars. Join the Army at Normalfolks dot org.
Speaker 1: Join or start one of our local service clubs, take
Speaker 1: the ten level challenge by our birch Any, and all
Speaker 1: of these things that will help us grow an army
Speaker 1: of normal folks. I'm Bill Corney. Until next time, do
Speaker 1: what you can