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We’re so grateful for your leadership as an Advocate at your church! As you continue to grow, encourage, and lead your church’s ministry, we want to keep you updated with what’s new. We’ll use this page to share app releases and changes to Airtable based on your feedback. We’ll update this page with information, tutorials, and more!
We’re really excited about this feature! After feedback from families who are fostering, learning what helps support friends stay proactive in meeting needs, and hearing from our Advocates about areas of insight they’d love to have, we’re happy to share about the Foster Family Profile and Placements update in the FTC App.
👨👩👧👦 Foster Families now have the ability to create a family profile where they can share:
⛪️ Advocates will have access to this profile:
🫂 Support Friends will:
We plan on improving our app and make updates to meet the FTC community’s needs within the app. In order to make sure you do not miss out on small updates, new features, improvements in designs, and more, please keep your automatic updates on. Encourage your Support Friends and Foster Parents to do the same!
You’ve all given so much feedback and we took the time to address many of them in this update:
“I’m Praying” replaces “hearting” a prayer request. FP’s will now see a list of who’s praying for them. See the screenshot below.
Outdated requests (more than a few hours old) no longer show up on the home screen carousel!
When a new advocate is onboarded, they’ll automatically be added to their church’s team group chat(s).
We’ve improved tap targets (how big and responsive buttons are) throughout the app to be bigger and better. Many of the back arrows and menu buttons needed to be pressed multiple times in order work, but not anymore!
Childcare and Ride requests now have a reminder at the top – these requests require 2 FTC-trained adults present. Ask your Advocate if you need more info!
“unread” messages badge will now disappear automatically when you open a chat with unread messages. No more manually closing out that button!
When someone completes their onramp, they’ll be greeted with a confetti blast to celebrate the milestone. Check out the video to see what that looks like!
Add to my calendar: as a Support Friend or Foster Parent you can now add accepted requests to your calendar! We know this will be helpful for our families with reminders and communication.
Advocates, Support Friends, and Foster Parents no longer need to watch the Sexual Abuse Awareness Training (SAAT) video all at once! Leave the app any time during the SAAT video and it will keep your spot when you return.
Pending match is the stage where Foster Parents and Support Friends are in before they are matched to a team by their Advocate(s). You all gave us feedback and we’ve implemented it! We’ve updated this stage to allow Support Friends and Foster Parents the ability to message with you, their Advocates! Important: For this feature, both the Advocate and the Support Friend or Foster Parent need to be on this newest version of the app. If the SF/FP is on an old version the Advocate can message them, but they won’t receive it.
This update will allow you to message your Support Friends while you’re waiting to raise up a Foster Family. While your Foster Parents are waiting to be matched, you can message and connect with them so you know their needs.
This stage was also refreshed to include more resources for those who are waiting. If you would like to view those resources you can visit: fosterthecity.org/pending-match
Here’s what this stage looks like for our Foster Parents and Support Friends:
When your Support Friends are on the screening stage, they will be alerted when there background check process is completed through a push notification. In the past, this was a manual step, but now our Support Friends will be promptly alerted when they can continue through and start serving their Foster Family
The FTC App now automatically updates your Airtable view to allow you to see when your Support Friends and Foster Parents download the app.
This is helpful for you as it will give you insight when anyone in your ministry successfully gets on! Or this will let you know when a prospective Foster Parent attends a Launch Meeting and downloads the app.
We have loved the feedback you’ve given us as Advocates! We’ve made some changes to Airtable and wanted to offer an updated training video you can use or reference while you’re leading your church’s ministry.
The app we built will give you insight into the next step anyone is taking after they’ve decided to become a Support Friend or Foster parent. This means anyone who has attended a Vision Cast, Interest meeting, or other way of engaging with FTC, but has not hopped on the app yet, will need to be cared for and guided to their next step. This is what Airtable does! You can view Airtable as a replacement to the church folders.
The app is where churches do the ministry – Foster Family and Support Friends go through their onboarding process, send/accept requests to help sustain Foster parents and more. And Airtable is where Advocates see the ministry – who is interested in getting involved, which Support Friends need to be trained, etc.
The first time logging in to Airtable will be through an invite email that will come directly from Airtable.
For continued logging in to Airtable, you’ll go directly to their website https://airtable.com/ This webpage is also linked on the Advocate Resources landing page which can be accessed through the app as well!
The good news is that while this is changing some of the processes and systems at FTC, it’s removing a lot of the steps that have caused confusion or uncertainty and will help create simplicity in taking each step. We’ll provide training and share exactly how at the Town Halls and your Advocate Coach will help you too.
This App is not replacing or shifting the FTC model, but is simply a tool. This tool will not replace the in-person or relational component of any church’s Foster the City ministry, but will be used to enhance it. Our app will provide greater visibility, clarity, and support to every role in the FTC community and will strengthen relationships and communication between Foster Families, Support Friends, and Advocates.
There are a few important steps for you to facilitate as the Advocate.
1. Creating Teams – You have the ability to create the Foster Family and Support Friend micro communities within the app. This will trigger the background check process for Support Friends automatically. Foster Families and Support Friend teams cannot be created without an Advocate. Your role and responsiveness here is vital!
2. You will be able to check in on the health and activity of the FF/SF teams within your church. As an Advocate you’ll be able to see all requests sent, accepted, and any that are outstanding. You’ll also be able to see any prayer requests 🙏 this information will help you as you connect with your Team Leads.
Currently this is not possible with the same login. We are hopeful to have role switching as a feature sometime in the near future! However, we can create a secondary login for you with either a Support Friend role or Foster Parent role. Just reach out to your Program Director or you can email support@fosterthecity.org
We know every team operates different when it comes to the Team Lead role and we wanted to provide some flexibility. While there isn’t a way to assign a Team Lead, we definitely want to see this role filled! When you create your team, you’ll want to introduce the Team Lead in the group chat.
You can see the entire onramp process for each role, Advocate, Support Friend, and Foster Family here
For existing Support Friends and Foster Families: Foster the City will email and update Support Friends and Foster Families about the app the end of January. If you want to start getting your SF and FF on now, you can reference this text and email template
For new Support Friends and Foster Families:
Support Friends will download the FTC App at a Support Friend Orientation. This will be how they commit to the role and begin the process of becoming a Support Friend.
Foster Families will download the FTC app at a Launch Meeting.
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