About The C.A.L.L.

Who We Are:
An exciting Foster Care Church Initiative has rapidly emerged as churches are joining together with an unprecedented level of support from the top levels of leadership of the Arkansas DHHS’ Division of Children and Family Services. The initiative is named The C.A.L.L. -- Children of Arkansas Loved for a Lifetime -- because of God's call on the Church: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." James 1:27.

Why did we form?
There is a desperate need for more foster, adoptive and respite care homes for children in the Arkansas foster care system. For instance, there are about 1,100 children in foster care in Pulaski County in Arkansas within a year, and there are only 233 foster families available to care for those children! Those numbers alone are an indication that this situation is in crisis. We must find more loving homes for these hurting children.

Our Mission:
To educate, equip and encourage the Christian community to provide a future and a hope for the children in foster care.

Immediate Vision:
No waiting children in Pulaski County by November 2009.

Resulting Immediate Goal:
To recruit, certify, and retain 100 new foster families for teens and sibling groups and adoptive families for the approximately 150 waiting children from within Pulaski County Christian churches.

This is truly a God-sized goal. God is moving as things continue to fall into place quickly and barriers from the past have been overcome. It is nothing short of miraculous!! It is obvious that He wants these hurting children cared for…now. As Christian families respond to "The C.A.L.L" with the children here in Pulaski County, our prayer and ambition is to see this model applied statewide across Arkansas in the near future.

The C.A.L.L. is unique because it will provide the opportunity for prospective foster and adoptive parents to go through state-approved training WITHIN a church setting. They will have an automatic “support group” as they go through training with other Christians. Plus, The C.A.L.L. will walk them through every step in the process, easing the burden on these prospective foster and adoptive parents. We have a church liaison within the state agency who will help in making sure these homes are opened in a timely manner. Then, once they have invited a child into their home, The C.A.L.L. has a support team to help meet their needs, along with primary support that will be encouraged through their own church home.

Currently, we have a coalition of representatives from more than fifty Pulaski County Christian churches of varying denominations and it is constantly growing. The C.A.L.L. has been granted provisional 501(c)3 status as a non-profit organization, and is governed by a Board of Directors from various churches.

Your prayers are greatly needed for this initiative -- that God will move in the hearts of His people to step out in faith and care for foster children they have never met. It is clear from James 1:27 that He calls us, as His followers, to reach out to them in love.

Please click a link above to find out more about how you can get involved or contact us.

Contact Us:
The C.A.L.L. of Arkansas
P.O. Box 25524
Little Rock, Arkansas 72221
Phone: (501) 823-0607
mpederson@thecallinarkansas.org