Huddles: Inviting Trusted Care Providers into One Care Request

Last updated on Oct 25, 2026

A huddle roster shows who is helping on one care request, and each person has the Huddle Member role.

Some of the best care for a hurting family comes from the people closest to them: a neighbor, a small group leader, a chaplain, a relative who also attends. You want them in the loop. You do not want them browsing your whole care roster. A huddle solves that. It gives a trusted person a login of their own that shows one care request, or one person, and nothing else.

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Watch the Huddle explainer, which shows how the right people gather around one care request.

What a huddle is

A huddle is a shared, chronological view of the care happening around one situation. The people in it have the role Huddle Member. They sign in to their own Huddle panel, read the care story, and log their own updates. They cannot edit, close or reassign the care request, and they cannot change who else is in the huddle.

There are two kinds of huddle:

Care request huddle: members see one care request.
Profile huddle: members "shepherd" one person, and see that person's contact card and Care Story.

Huddles are part of CareNote Plus. If your Huddle tab shows an upsell instead of a roster, that feature needs to be added first.

1. Add a Huddle Member to a care request

Open the care request. The tab bar reads Care Story | Care Timeline | Tasks | Who can help? | Huddle. Click Huddle.
Click Add huddle member.
In the required Team member field, search for the person. Options read "Name (Volunteer)" or "Name (Huddle Member)" followed by their email. Staff Team Members are not listed.
Click Submit.

The Huddle tab on a care request with its roster and the Add huddle member and Staff notes buttons — Notice the roster columns: Name, Email, Role, Added and Added by.

The Add huddle member modal with the Team member field and its helper text — The helper text explains that a Volunteer is promoted to Huddle Member and emailed a login invitation.

If you pick a Volunteer, CareNote promotes them to Huddle Member and emails them a login invitation. If you pick someone who is already a Huddle Member on another case, they are simply added to this one and no new invitation goes out.

The Team member dropdown listing eligible Volunteers and Huddle Members — Each option shows the person's current role in parentheses, so you can see who is new to huddles.

By default, a Huddle Member sees only their own entries and the non-private entries other huddle members log. Your staff's internal interactions stay out of view.

To let the huddle see team and staff interactions on this one care request, click Staff notes: staff-only. The dialog asks "Share staff notes with this huddle?" and explains: "When enabled, huddle members on this care request can see team/staff interactions that are not private. Default is off." Click Turn on, and the button changes to Staff notes: shared. You can turn it off the same way at any time.

The Share staff notes with this huddle confirmation with Cancel and Turn on buttons — The setting is per care request, and private entries stay private either way.

3. Shepherd a person with a profile huddle

Sometimes the right group is built around a person, not a single request. A deacon couple given a family to follow up with is a good example. Open the person from People. The profile tabs now include Huddle, with the same Add huddle member and staff notes controls.

The Huddle tab sits between Care and Interactions on a profile.

The form is the same as on a care request, but the member shepherds the person.

The people you add here are shepherds. When they sign in, the person appears in their Shepherding list, and a care request that person has stays in its own, separate huddle.

4. What a Huddle Member sees

After setting a password, a Huddle Member signs in to the Huddle panel. The left menu has My People, Care Requests and Notifications.

My People has two tables, each with Person, Context, Status and Latest Activity. Care Requests lists the requests they were added to. Shepherding lists the people they shepherd. If they have not been added to anyone yet, it says "No one to shepherd yet."

My People in the Huddle panel with an empty Shepherding table — A member who is only on a care request huddle sees the Shepherding table empty.

Opening a care request shows Care Story | Care Timeline | Tasks | Huddle. They can use Add Interaction to log their own updates, so they are contributors, not just readers. Their Huddle tab shows who else is helping, but with no add, staff notes or remove controls.

A care request as a Huddle Member sees it, with four tabs and the Add Interaction button — There is no Who can help? tab here, since that belongs to your team.

The read-only Huddle tab for a member — Members can see the roster, but nothing here lets them change it.

A shepherded person opens as a simple page with a contact card and a Care Story, again with Add Interaction.

My People showing a Shepherding row for one person — Shepherded people appear in their own table, separate from care requests.

The card is titled The person you are shepherding.

5. Notifications for Huddle Members

Huddle Members control their own notifications. Under Notifications, a hub shows the Email, Web Push, In-App and SMS Text Messages channels, each with its status and a test button. The footer card, Choose which notifications, opens Manage notification settings.

The Notifications hub with Email, Web Push, In-App and SMS cards — Each channel shows whether it is on, and has a button to try it.

In Notification Settings, two switches matter to a huddle:

New Huddle Interaction (on the Interactions tab): "When a new interaction is added to a care request you huddle on." Members can switch it on or off per channel. Private entries never notify anyone, and staff entries only reach the huddle when staff notes are shared.
Added to a Care Huddle (on the Care Assignments tab): "When you are added to the care huddle for a person you shepherd." This one is Protected, so members always hear when they are given someone to shepherd.

Notification Settings on the Interactions tab with New Huddle Interaction — This is the setting that tells a member when someone else logs activity.

Notification Settings on the Care Assignments tab with Added to a Care Huddle — A Protected row cannot be switched off, so assignments are never missed.

6. Remove someone from a huddle

When a person's part in the situation ends, open the Huddle tab and click the red Remove from huddle on their row. The confirmation says "This immediately revokes their access to this care request through the huddle panel." It also offers a toggle, off by default: "Also demote to Volunteer (they lose huddle access everywhere)." Leave it off if they are still on other huddles. Only administrators see this action.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Huddle Member see other people's records? No. Their login shows only the care requests and people they have been added to.

Can a Huddle Member close or reassign a care request? No. They can read, and they can log their own interactions. Editing, closing and managing the huddle stay with your team.

What stays private? Anything marked private is visible only to its author, whatever the staff notes setting is.

Do we need CareNote Plus? Yes. Huddles are a CareNote Plus feature.