From Arkansas Roots to National Replication

When Restore Hope launched nearly ten years ago, the nonprofit was little more than a bold idea, a small grant, and a determination to help families in crisis by bringing communities together. Today, the Restore Hope model has been implemented in 19 Arkansas counties, served more than 10,500 Arkansans, and is now spreading to communities in Michigan, Iowa, Tennessee, Texas, and even Canada.

Restore Hope Executive Director Paul Chapman reflected on how the model took shape in Arkansas — and why states across the nation are now turning to it to strengthen family outcomes, reduce incarceration, and improve child welfare.

The Call to Action

Chapman traces Restore Hope’s beginnings to 2015, when Governor Asa Hutchinson took office at a time when Arkansas faced “twin crises”:

• the fastest-growing prison population in the nation, and

• rapidly rising foster care numbers.

“In Arkansas, historically, there are many faith-based nonprofits trying to help in both these ecosystems,” Chapman said. “And the Governor called them all to Little Rock for a summit called the Restore Hope Summit.”

The Governor’s message at the summit stayed with him:

“I have no desire to convene this Restore Hope summit and to leave here only with hope,” Hutchinson said. “We need to follow that with action, commitment, and measuring sticks.”

Chapman, then on staff at Fellowship Bible Church working in missions and deeply connected to families impacted by corrections and foster care, was invited to serve on the task force that planned the summit. He said those early conversations made one thing clear: Arkansas didn’t just need more programs — it needed a way for the government, private sector, and community partners to work together.

Designing a Collective Approach

Chapman and others proposed what would become the foundation of Restore Hope’s work: a collective impact model that organizes local partners into a unified alliance. But, there was a challenge. State agencies alone couldn’t mobilize that level of local coordination.

“There needed to be some kind of bridging agent. We needed to form a nonprofit that would be this bridge,” Chapman explained. 

Restore Hope was born to fill that role — supporting local alliances, connecting them with state agencies, and helping build capacity inside communities.

It was anything but simple. The funding was thin. He was told the idea was kumbaya-ish. It was like unicorns and rainbows. And that it would never happen.

But progress did happen — first in Sebastian County, one of the hardest hit communities in the state at that time with high incarceration rates and child welfare removals. 

The Turning Point: HopeHub

Families who are struggling often have complicated needs: housing, transportation, employment, healthcare, mental health services, addiction recovery, childcare, legal assistance, and more. Local providers didn’t always share information or collaborate around each family.

Then Restore Hope acquired the software that would later become HopeHub. “And that changed everything,” recalled Chapman. 

HopeHub, now the technology behind the model, allows communities to connect people to family advocates and track their progress through a network of coordinated service providers.

With software in place, Restore Hope launched the 100 Families Initiative in Arkansas, a strategy for helping parents move from crisis to stability and, ultimately, career. 

Expanding Beyond Arkansas

Over time, communities began seeking the model on their own.

“Texarkana Literacy Council and the Journey Church said, ‘We have collaboration going in our community, but we don’t have the toolset. Come to our communities,” Chapman explained.

Restore Hope didn’t have the funding to expand. But local leaders asked to be trained anyway, and Restore Hope began helping other communities replicate the work. 

That approach — known as “for the community, by the community” — became a guiding principle. 

In Arkansas, through the 10:33 Initiative announced by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders this year, the Restore Hope model is being scaled statewide — expanding beyond parents to “any Arkansan that needs help.”

Partnerships That Made It Possible

Chapman credits much of Restore Hope’s early momentum to partners willing to take risks. Harding University provided interns, workspace, and academic partnership. One of those interns, Sarah Littleton, helped uncover driver’s license barriers faced by people returning from incarceration — work that later influenced legislation. Today, Littleton is Restore Hope’s Chief Technology Officer and leads the HopeHub team. 

Chapman also recalled a pivotal meeting with a long-time parole and probation area manager. Initially skeptical, the official later admitted he’d been wrong about whether collaboration could work. He committed his remaining two years before retirement to supporting the effort. It was a turning point. That parole office still houses nonprofits today, rent-free, in support of families. 

Independent Evaluation and National Attention

To verify outcomes and strengthen replication, Restore Hope is now undergoing two third-party evaluations with the University of Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunity.

“It’s important to have an independent third party say that the things we’re doing are the cause of better outcomes,” Chapman noted. 

And in its national work, Chapman says Restore Hope has found support and alignment through strategic philanthropic partners, including For Others, whose investment has helped fuel multi-state implementation, refine software, and build the infrastructure needed for scaling.

Looking Ahead

Over the next three to five years, Restore Hope plans to help two or three new states every year install local alliances, launch HopeHub, and replicate the Restore Hope model. Those states, like in Arkansas, will build their own solutions with their own local leaders.

At nearly a decade in, Restore Hope has evolved from an Arkansas experiment into a growing national framework. What began as a summit and a shared belief that families deserved better has become a blueprint for community collaboration — designed in Arkansas but now carried far beyond it.

And in Chapman’s view, the key goal remains: Helping people move from crisis to stability and onto career — together.