ARTICLE TAG

Arkansas

4/28/2021

Dependency Court Programs Focus On Babies’ Health

While families in dependency court typically wait months between hearings and may have infrequent contact with social workers, courts supported by the national nonprofit Zero to Three provide intensive services for the youngest children, offering monthly hearings with the same judge, as well as medical and mental health care.

Youth Services Insider

2/14/2020

Arkansas Has Been Approved for Family First Act Funding

The U.S. Children’s Bureau has approved Arkansas’s plan under the Family First Prevention Services Act, which will enable the state to draw down federal funds for services aimed at preventing the use of foster care in certain child welfare cases.

4/9/2019

Litigator Bill Grimm Used Class-Action Lawsuits to Transform Troubled Child Welfare Agencies

Bill Grimm, a long-time attorney with the Oakland-based National Center for Youth Law (NCYL), passed away on April 2 after a year-long battle with brain cancer. He was 69. Over a 40-year career, Grimm helped forge change for many troubled child welfare systems across the country through trailblazing litigation and legislative advocacy, including in Maryland, Arkansas, Utah, Washington, Nevada and California, among others.

Youth Services Insider

4/1/2019

Hard to Argue a Need for Faith-Based Protection Bill in Arkansas

A central argument used by proponents of faith-based child welfare protection bills, which allow religious providers to selectively serve some foster and adoptive parents and not others, is its impact on supply.

3/6/2019

Aging Out in Arkansas: Two Girls Struggle to Move on After Foster Care

  Kendra Owens doesn’t remember a lot about the five months she spent in foster care before her 18th birthday. Her therapist says that it’s her brain trying to protect her, hiding away horrible memories that might trigger her depression or her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

4/12/2018

Kansas Dials Up The CALL for Help with Faith-Based Foster Recruitment

The Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) is putting its faith in an Arkansas-based recruitment organization to help bring in more foster families. DCF is working with The CALL, a Christian organization that takes no state money but is credited with supplying nearly half of foster homes in Arkansas, to establish a comparable initiative in the Sunflower State.

    12/19/2017

    Trump Will Appoint Caren Harp to Lead Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

    President Trump announced his intention to appoint former Arkansas prosecutor Caren Harp to serve as administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the division of the Justice Department that oversees federal funding and standards related to juvenile justice.

    Lauri Currier, CEO of The CALL

    11/28/2017

    In Arkansas, One Faith-Based Group Recruits Almost Half of Foster Homes

    When Ashley and John Herring of Heber Springs, Ark., decided to become foster parents in 2009, they were told there were just four foster homes in Cleburne County. Children taken into state custody in this rural county in the Ozark foothills were often sent to homes or short-term placements in other communities, sometimes hours away.

    6/16/2017

    Casting Calm: Nonprofit Uses Fly Fishing to Connect Foster Youth to Outdoors, Inner Peace

    Jess Westbrook’s panic attacks began with the birth of his son three years ago. He felt overwhelmed by a lack of sleep and worried about his son’s future. His anxiety relief came in an unlikely place.