The Fort Report

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PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID FORT SMITH, AR PERMIT NO. 95
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Residential Customer Fort Smith, AR 72901
The Fort Report
Look for Yeagers' Pull Out Insert Inside
Fort Smith’s “Good News” Newspaper
Volume 1, Issue 19 December 2, 2020
Changing Needs Lead To
UAFS Extends Border State Tuition
3
Change In Services
Children’s Shelter Transitions To Longer Term,
More In-Depth Care And Treatment
By John Speck
From its opening in 1997 through 2019, the Fort Smith Children’s Emergency Shelter (CES) was a place where 6 to 17 year old children in the custody of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) could be placed with short notice and for a short period of time - no more than 45 days in a 6-month period. In other words, in case of an immediate “emergency” need. This arrangement ensured beds would be available whenever DHS needed them for children and youth who had nowhere else to go when they were removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect.
However, in February of 2018 Congress passed the Families First Prevention Services Act, which was intended to reduce the number of children placed in similar shelters and place them in foster homes, affecting funding for shelters like the CES.
“We knew that funding for shelter services like ours would be going away, so we had to determine relatively quickly what we could do to meet the needs of children in the Fort Smith area,” said CES Executive Director, Jack Moffett. “A new program, called
Randall Ford Wheel Talk
5
Arvest Foundation Provides $60k in Grants
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See Shelter on Page 9
Photo by Macy Hamon Photogaphy