SEBASTIAN COUNTY, Ark. — Restore Hope, Sebastian County, and public officials celebrated five years of helping reduce the county’s incarceration and homeless rate at a luncheon today in Fort Smith.
Five years ago, Sebastian County became the first county to take part in the initiative.
“A bunch of community leaders came together and said, 'Could we just try this collaborative way of working together to help one hundred families move from crisis to career,'” Paul Chapman, Executive Director of Restore Hope said. “It'll work or it won't, but we need technology, and we need to be able to follow people through their journey and help them as things occur.”
Within the five years of the initiative, the county has seen a 50% decrease in the need for foster care and a 20% reduction in crime.
The 100 Families Initiative uses software to allow service providers to effectively communicate with each other while helping out an individual in need.
“It was an easy yes to partner and get involved with 100 families just because we believe in community, supporting families and keeping children in their communities,” Tiffany Wright, Director of the Division of Children and Family Services for the Arkansas Department of Human Services said. “We know that when children can stay in their communities when they have to enter foster care, they do better and there are better outcomes.
19-year-old Phylis Savoy, a program assistant manager for the county’s 100 Families Initiative, was a member of the foster care system when she was 13.
In a speech at the luncheon, Savoy talked about her own journey through the foster care system, and how that has fueled her drive to help the community.
"And so, seeing families and parents who have the drive to do better and be better, and parents who really want to get reunified with their children, drives me every single day,” Savoy said. “I want to help those kids have an opportunity that I unfortunately never got to have."
With aspirations to attend law school and become ad litem for foster children, Savoy says she wants to be a role model to her daughter and her community.
"I'm very grateful to get to be a part of something like this,” Savoy said. “I'm very grateful to be in a position to help others and to be someone that my daughter can be proud of."
The 100 Families initiative has helped 1,390 parents and over 3,000 children. The initiative has also expanded in sixteen counties in Arkansas.
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