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This year is especially exciting as Butler celebrates 100 years of serving students, families, and communities across Kansas. And the Scholarship Application is now open for 2027-2028 with nearly $1.5 million in scholarships available including Academic, Foundation, Technical, Activity, Athletics and more!

Learn more at butlercc.edu. Apply today and experience why Butler is MORE THAN A PLACE.

What if Wichita cared more?

How a simple platform and a united church-business community can keep families together — one twin bed, one utility bill, one ride at a time.

(If you want to learn more about anything in today’s email please visit careforeveryfamily.com or email Sadie Williams directly.)

Last year, I had a friend of mine, Sadie Williams, on our podcast to talk about CarePortal. If you’d like the full episode, listen here:

💡By the Numbers

Before we get too far, there are a few numbers we need to look at.

• 1,500+ kids in out-of-home placements (up 50% in the last decade)

• 1 in 4 Kansas foster-care removals happen here

• 60–70% of foster-care entries are linked to neglect + poverty, not abuse

That means that a lot of these parents who lose their kids to foster care are not necessarily bad parents, they just don’t have the means to care for their kids as much as they’d like. Some are even working multiple jobs to try to make things work and it still isn’t enough.

🛏 The Twin Bed Test

A mom does everything right to reunify with her son. The last box to check? A twin bed. No bed means three more months apart.

That’s the kind of solvable problem Wichita can crush in an afternoon.

💬 Care for Every Family

Born and raised in Wichita, Sadie Williams helps lead Care for Every Family, a faith-driven, citywide “air game” uniting prevention, intervention, and support for youth aging out (a kid “ages" out” of foster care at age 18).

The goal: lay down egos and logos so Wichita works together on one shared problem.

🚸 Foster Care 101 (and the Hard Truth)

I don’t personally have a ton of experience with foster care outside of knowing a lot of people who help out. For those individuals who are also not super in tune with what it means:

Foster care means out-of-home placement — often triggered by addiction, incarceration, untreated mental health, or poverty-driven neglect. In other words, a kid is with his family and is taken out of the home with the goal of a better or safer environment for them to live.

Here in Sedgwick County, foster care rates have climbed sharply. While the system was built to intervene in abuse, most removals today stem from preventable challenges like unpaid bills, unsafe housing, or a lack of basic items like a bed or car seat.

Sedgwick County makes up roughly 25% of Kansas removals which accounts for the highest share in the state.

About 1 out of every 4 youth in foster care will become homeless within 4 years of aging out and about 50% of the homeless population nationwide spent time in foster care.

If we care about homelessness, trafficking, and incarceration, we have to start here — upstream.

💻 What Is CarePortal?

CarePortal is a “care-sharing” platform that connects vetted needs from caseworkers, teachers, and community agencies to local responders — churches, businesses, and individuals — within the same ZIP code.

Think of it as ride-sharing for care.

Here’s how it works:

1. Uncover – A teacher or caseworker identifies a vetted need (such as a bed, bike for work transportation, diapers, or sometimes payments for rent or utilities)

2. Post – They enter it on CarePortal (takes ~5 minutes).

3. Match – The platform routes it to nearby responders.

4. Deliver – A local church fulfills the need, often with donated funds or items, creating a direct connection with the family.

Every dollar is tracked through a CarePortal debit card for transparency and accountability.

So far, Wichita partners have met roughly 88% of posted needs — from cribs to utility bills — and each one represents a family staying together.

🏙 Why This Is Winnable

Wichita has 400+ churches and around 1,500 kids in care. If each church helped even a handful of families a year, providing small, practical support before things spiral, the math changes fast.

That’s what CarePortal fixes: the connection gap.

🧭 How to Get Involved

• Churches – Sign up on CareForEveryFamily.com, choose a category (beds, car seats, utilities), and start with one family.

• Businesses – Sponsor a category, match donations, or build team serve days. (not sure how, please email Sadie or myself)

• Individuals – Even without a church home, you can fund a live need at CarePortal.org. Give anonymously or stay connected for follow-up.

🌱 Why It Matters

After age 10, adoption rates drop. Many teens “age out” of care without steady adults, and within six months, too many face homelessness. Sometimes they just need a mentor, or a church that “pseudo-adopts” them with meals, rides, or encouragement.

And upstream, the same logic applies: small acts of care — a bed, a bus pass, a bill paid — can prevent removal in the first place.

That’s the heart of Care for Every Family’s mission: connection changes everything.

So, What if Wichita Cared More?

If one twin bed can reunite a family, what could 1,000 Wichitans do this week (or the 47,000 Wichita Life Update readers who will see this)?

The need is real — but so is the opportunity. And when every neighbor, church, and business plays a part, Wichita becomes the city that cared more.

→ Explore & Activate at Care for Every Family ▸

What do you want to see us go deep on in a future deep dive?

Let us know!

Together with the Phoenix

In partnership with Downtown Wichita and Harvester Arts, The Phoenix invites you to an inspiring evening of storytelling. Five Phoenix storytellers will share personal stories of resilience, belonging, the power of connection, and the hope that helps us rise.

Please note, The Phoenix strives to always create and maintain safe, supportive, and inclusive environments for our programs. Due to the nature of this event being a live storytelling event, there is a potential for triggering language.

While it is free to attend, please register in advance to save your seat. Complimentary mocktails and hors d' oeuvres will be served between 6:30 and 7 pm