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OrganizationsThe C.A.L.L. (Children of Arkansas Loved for a Lifetime) is a non-profit organization that represents a collaboration between Arkansas Christian churches and the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. Its mission is to educate, equip, and encourage the Christian community to provide a future and a hope to children in foster care. Because of the crisis shortage of foster and adoptive parents, the primary focus is to recruit enough foster and adoptive families from the Christian community for the children in state custody, county by county. To do this, The CALL coordinates recruitments during Sunday morning church services, provides the required Foster/Adopt PRIDE training class in a two-weekend format, and utilizes volunteers to make the certification process more user-friendly. The CALL also works on equipping local churches in how best to support the foster and adoptive families in their congregations. |
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The Arkansas State CASA Association promotes and supports local programs providing qualified trained court-appointed volunteer advocates to help abused and neglected children in juvenile dependency-neglect proceedings reach safe, permanent homes. A CASA volunteer acts as a fact finder of the child's best interest, providing a judge with valuable information on the child to help the court make a sound decision about the child's future. There is also CASA of Northwest Arkansas. Their mission is to speak for the best interest of abused and neglected children in court, and to promote and support quality volunteer representation for children to provide each child a safe nurturing home.
The Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families mission is to ensure that all children and their families have the resources and opportunities they need to lead healthy and productive lives and to realize their full potential. Their web site also includes weekly Legislative Summary reports on bills of interest to foster parents and other child-related bills.
The mission of the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence is to enhance the investigation, prosecution, treatment, support and prevention of cases of child abuse, rape and domestic violence.
The Children's Protection Center of Little Rock is a child advocacy and safety center that works with members of the Pulaski County Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Team (MDT for short) which includes child protection personnel, law enforcement professionals, child forensic interviewers, medical and mental health professionals, social workers, and victim assistance professionals, serving Pulaski County and surrounding communities. Other branches in Arkansas are listed at http://www.accardv.uams.edu/CACs-AR-website-609.pdf, and are part of the Children's Advocacy Centers of Arkansas.
The Arkansas Federation of Families advocates for improving services to families and friends of special-needs foster children. The AFFCMH has created or supported support groups in a number of Arkansas counties. The AFFCMH has created a respite voucher program and is working to expand the availability of respite to families across the state of Arkansas. The AFFCMH continues to be engaged in a leadership role in the development and implementation of System of Care within the state of Arkansas.
The Child Welfare Information Gateway at http://www.childwelfare.gov provides quick access to publications, websites, a workforce community of practice, and online databases covering a wide range of topics, including child welfare, child abuse and neglect, foster care, and adoption.
Foster parents are "mandated reporters", along with teachers, day care and nursery staff, medical staff, local and state employees, and other professionals and child workers in the state. This means that they are required to report (by calling the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-482-5964) if they have a reasonable cause to suspect that a child has been harmed or is at risk of being harmed, as defined as maltreatment by Arkansas law, which is what you and any other caring parent or adult would want them to do if your child or a child that you knew and loved was at risk or had been harmed. The web sites listed below are good resources to help you recognize child abuse, versus normal every-day bumps and bruises that children are prone to get.
Seminar on Child Sexual Abuse - A 1995 academic study that contains interviewing techniques and abuse indicators. Of particular interest is section IV on General Principles for Conducting an Unbiased Interview; however, we and other social workers we've talked to disagree with their suggestion that the child and the interviewer sit in chairs in a formal office setting. This is from an Oklahoma web site.
Investigative Interviews of Children, by Debra Poole and Michael Lamb (1998). (This is a book found on Amazon.com.)
Forensic Interviewing Protocol, by the State of Michigan. Drafted by Debra Poole and currently under revision.
Portable Guides to Investigating Child Abuse - U.S. Department of Justice (OJJDP - Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention) Child Protection publications (most available on-line), including:
Defining Child Abuse and Neglect - Recognizing Red Flags - Migrant Head Start child abuse and neglect prevention training, including the following handouts:
Family Factors Associated With Increased Risk for Child Abuse and Neglect
Behaviors Related to Sex and Sexuality in Young School Age Children (Note: A longer, combined list created from handouts from MidSOUTH is here)
Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Title 42 U.S.C., Chapter 67, Subchapter 1, Sections 5101 - 5107. (Not too interesting, but, I've included it here, anyway.)
The Kid Safe Page - Information on protecting children from predators. Includes links to other kid safety sites.
Below are some of the DCFS publications which explain various aspects of the foster care system in Arkansas. If a link to a publication doesn't work, that probably means that DCFS has revised it and renamed it. If that is the case, just click on "Local Copy" for the latest copy of that publication that we have downloaded to our web site. (Also, let us know that the publication is no longer available at the web address that we have for it.)
Below are some of the DCFS forms (about 170 of them!) that are available through the CHRIS database. If the CHRIS database is down, this site serves as a backup site for those forms for DCFS case workers and other DCFS personnel to download and fill out. If a link to a form doesn't work, that probably means that DCFS has revised it and renamed it. If that is the case, just click on "Local Copy" for the latest copy of that form that we have downloaded to our web site. (Also, let us know that the form is no longer available at the web address that we have for it.)
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One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had, nor what my clothes were like, but that the world may be a little better because I was important in the life of a child. |
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The beautiful pictures on cakid.org are graciously used by permission and copyrighted by Darrel Tank at www.darreltank.com. These and more may be seen at http://www.cakid.org/Darrel_Tank/thumb.html. Thank you, Darrel, for your contribution to the foster parents of Arkansas. We thank you, and our kids thank you! |
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This Page Was Last Updated on 08/07/09 |
All information, forms, manuals, and other material on this web site are freely
available to all
foster parents (in any role), potential adoptive parents, DCFS staff, CASA
workers, guardian ad litem's,
county judges, legislators, and any other state officials or state employees
that may need it.
The webmaster who maintains this web
site (Stephen Rea, a foster parent) can be
reached at
srea@maristream.org.
Please let me know if you have any other resources or information for foster
parents that we can post here.
Your contributions would be greatly appreciated by us and the other foster
parents across the state!
Dedicated to Olivia
