GRAFTON, W.Va. — Taylor County is now the fifth CarePortal-connected county in the state.
The platform uses real-time technology to meet the needs of vulnerable children and families. It officially launched during a Wednesday afternoon ceremony in Grafton. Officials with the state Department of Human Services were on hand along with community leaders, local church representatives, foster care organizations, state lawmakers and others.
Chestnut Mountain Village Director Greg Clutter said Taylor County has more than 100 children in foster care. He said the CarePortal gives families the opportunity to post a need that will be seen by others in the immediate area that can help.
“By helping meet those we’re establishing relationships in the community,” Clutter said. “So the next time that family has a social, emotional, and spiritual structure where they don’t fall through the cracks and they have a support system that’s not the government.”
Belington Assembly of God Lead Pastor Sylvia Simon said the system could also be an important resource for families trying to keep their children in the home as well.”This is going to be a wonderful tool for us to be able to potentially help people keep the children in their home if there is a need,” Simon said. “It could be help that maybe would prevent them from going into foster care.”
The program operates in four north-central West Virginia counties and Taylor will be the fifth. CarePortal was launched as a pilot program in the spring of 2025 Monongalia and Preston counties where churches in the community immediately got involved.
“The churches are responding at a greater level,” Clutter said. “We have nine churches that have stepped up in Taylor County.”
The partnership with the DoHHS is a very important part of the link between the system and families in need. The regular contact state workers have allows them to inform families about available help or even make a request on behalf of a family.
“It takes a child-serving professional to put in the need,” Clutter said. “They’re the ones that see the needs in the community, so our folks at DoHHS are putting the needs in.”
The system has satisfied more than 400 requests from West Virginia children and families that have been valued at over $100,000 of goods, services, and financial assistance.
“We just don’t want to look at these numbers- the numbers of children in foster care and think it’s just a number,” Simon said. “Every number represents a person, represents a child, and represents a family.”