COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Football is partnering with Angel Armies and CarePortal to help meet critical, real-time needs of children and families in crisis throughout Missouri and beyond, while building a culture of care, generosity, and courage in the process. There are more than 4,000,000 children on the brink of foster care, more than 400,000 kids in foster care, and more children coming into foster care than exiting every year. Mizzou’s mission with CarePortal is to help keep children out of the foster system, support youth aging out of foster care, and strengthen foster and adoptive families. Mizzou’s involvement in CarePortal is part of the #Mizzou4Change movement, which promotes coming together as a team for the betterment of our local and national communities through action.
CarePortal connects those in need with resources from around the country. Donations have been made to create a fund for the football team to give away in order to meet the needs of children in crisis. On a weekly basis, Mizzou football student-athletes meet to see emergency needs of children and families in crisis delivered to them through CarePortal, and make group decisions on needs to fund. CarePortal allows the football student-athletes to help without knowing specific information about the children or family. There are caring people on the ground who then provide wrap-around support to the families. CarePortal facilitates the care connections.
First-year head coach Eliah Drinkwitz has divided his Tigers into groups based on class. Once weekly, each group meets and discusses CarePortal needs in an appointed city and decides as a group which needs they should meet based on their weekly budget. When the huddle has decided, they notify CarePortal of the connections they made.
“Our goal is to provide hope and make an immediate impact for kids,” Coach Drinkwitz said. “CarePortal has allowed our team to join in making real change in real time.”
Over the last seven weeks, Mizzou has fulfilled 46 requests through CarePortal, serving more than 155 children and 70 adults. The total economic impact of Mizzou’s contributions so far is $35,180. The team’s economic impact is expected to double by the time case workers close all of the cases.
In addition, as part of the #Mizzou4Change movement, Mizzou Football has also been delivering #Mizzou4Change backpacks full of school supplies to local elementary schools and shipping them to schools in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas.
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