How CarePortal Is Connecting Bath County Families with Real Help

When Community Steps In: How CarePortal Is Connecting Bath County Families with Real Help By Danny Cardwell

I sat down with Rhonda Sedovy and Rebekah Burns to talk about CarePortal and the work taking shape right here in Bath County.

CarePortal is a platform that connects children and families in crisis with local churches, organizations, and individuals who are ready to help. When a need is identified and verified, it doesn’t sit — it’s shared. And when it’s shared, people respond.

Here in Bath County, that response is growing.

As Rebekah Burns explained:

“What CarePortal is, is a care-sharing technology that drives action for local children and families in crisis. This basically means that we’re a technology platform, and that lets agencies who are working with vulnerable children and families in our community… put the needs into the system and the community can respond to those needs.”

That’s not abstract. That means a caseworker, a school counselor, or a social services professional identifies a family in need — and instead of that need going unmet, it goes out to a network of people ready to respond.

Rhonda Sedovy put the deeper calling into words:

“We’re called as the body of the church to come alongside our vulnerable neighbors… and it’s all about providing circles of care around those children, whether that’s their biological family or a kinship care placement.”

Kinship care is something we’re seeing more of locally — and it deserves to be named plainly.

“You’re talking about grandparents, aunts, uncles, maybe a trusted family friend that is stepping up to care for children when their biological family cannot do that.”

That’s happening here. In Bath County. And those families shouldn’t have to carry that weight alone.

CarePortal makes sure they don’t have to. It connects the people already working with vulnerable families to a broader community — churches, individuals, businesses — who want to help but haven’t always known how.

People want to help. They just don’t always know where the need is.

CarePortal closes that gap.

If you want to be part of this work — whether as an individual, a church, or a business — there’s a place for you.

🔗 Learn more or sign up: careportal.org 📞 Local contact for Bath County: Rebekah Burns — 540-620-8173 🎧 Listen to the full interview:

Because community isn’t just about recognizing need — it’s about stepping in and meeting it.