MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia County has been announced as the first location in West Virginia that will use the community assistance platform CarePortal. CarePortal is an app and also online that harnesses the power of local churches, organizations, businesses, and private individuals to meet the needs of families in crisis.

One of the key leaders to bring the program to Monongalia County was Greg Clutter from the Chestnut Mountain Village. On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Clutter said the search began in 2023, and they quickly found the CarePortal staff, who noted that was the first call from West Virginia ever.

“We have this belief here that almost every community in West Virginia has more than enough resources, more than enough willing people, and more than enough willing families to solve local foster care issues and local child welfare issues.”

CarePortal first launched in November of 2024, and Chestnut Mountain Village became the implementing partner. The CMA Church of Morgantown and Chestnut Ridge Church were the first two churches, along with four non-profit organizations, to sign on for the pilot program at that time.

“We already have 14 churches in Monongalia County that have stepped up, and we have four child-serving agencies that are part of this,” Clutter said. “So, it’s a way to fill the gap between the people that see the needs and the people that are out there and willing to meet the needs.”

The churches, organizations, and even companies or private individuals can respond when a need is placed online and transmitted to enrolled organizations. The organization that receives the email about the need can respond with an offer to help and provide the assistance, all without government involvement.

“They can sign up as a “community champion.” Other businesses and other individuals can sign up as “community champions” that can actually help meet these needs also,” Clutter said. “Carpenters, car mechanics—there are so many needs these families are facing.”

Clutter sees CarePortal as a way families and children in crisis can get the help they need without help from the government. The app and website were the key to making the connection between those willing to help and those suffering and in need.

“We are in a very dire foster care situation, and there are people in churches every Sunday that are actively engaged in the faith-based community that would love to help kids and families in crisis if they only knew what to do,” Clutter said.

CarePortal is currently active in 37 states, but when the call came from Monongalia County, they had no representatives in the area to help start the program. Claudia Fletcher, from Lynchburg, Virginia, then volunteered to do what was needed to stand the program up from scratch. Clutter said Fletcher was active in the foster care system, fluent in CarePortal, and the driving force to get the program started. However, after months of working with the group from Morgantown, she passed away just weeks before the official launch of the program.

“One Sunday afternoon she became unresponsive, and unfortunately Claudia passed on March 26, so she never got to see what she helped start here in the state of West Virginia,” Clutter said.

The program will launch in Preston County on May 13 in Kingwood.

The West Virginia Department of Human Services (DoHS) partnered with Chestnut Mountain Village and supports the program.