Restore Hope Training Academy: "We've Figured It Out"

Collaboration fuels everything we do. Innovation keeps us moving forward. And grit sustains us when the work is hard.

Those core values framed a one-day Restore Hope Training Academy that brimmed with success stories, practical tools, and the kind of cross-sector networking that turns momentum into measurable outcomes.

Leaders came from every corner of the ecosystem: law enforcement, school districts and counselors, social services, court personnel, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Health, CASA, substance-use treatment providers, ARcare, mentors and therapists, churches, Arkansas Family Alliance, and CarePortal. Attendees included out-of-state guests from Tennessee, Michigan, and even Canada—evidence that what’s working in Arkansas is now drawing national attention.

More than 4,300 families have been served through Restore Hope’s network, with 943 families moving from crisis to career. When families are served collaboratively, reunification rates and employment retention climb significantly. On average, each participant is surrounded by eight care-team members, ensuring no one has to navigate the journey alone.

Executive Director Paul Chapman elaborated on the shared mission and goals of those partnering with Restore Hope and challenged attendees to keep building the systems that make progress possible.

“What we are trying to do with the network and the tech is to stop the scavenger hunt for services.” Chapman underscored the aim of minimizing barriers so the “hard work” is not finding help, but channeling a participant’s will and capacity. That means stripping out administrative red tape and engaging immediately—so care teams can focus on the next right step.

“We’ve figured it out—how to actually partner in community together by building alliances and using technology…It comes from the leaders of this state—they actually know that Arkansans can partner together. They’ve seen it work.”

The Academy’s breakout sessions translated values into practice. Teams learned how to create action plans that make progress visible, turning goals into doable, week-by-week steps. Practitioners swapped strategies on partnering with courts, child welfare, and survivors of domestic violence, and on staying grounded in high-stress roles without burning out. Data leaders demonstrated how to use dashboards not just for numbers, but to make better decisions, tightening feedback loops between what we learn and how we act.

Jared Brown of For Others was the special guest speaker and he delivered a clear charge: the child welfare crisis is real—but it is solvable when local communities align around a shared, disciplined model. He highlighted the Restore Hope/100 Families approach as a community-led, data-driven blueprint that prioritizes prevention, preservation, and reunification, and treats the number of children in foster care as an indicator of crisis, not the crisis itself. Read more on his presentation: Smart Justice

The movement is growing. New sites are set to launch soon—three in Tennessee, up to seven in Iowa, and four in Arkansas—alongside a reentry pilot in Arkansas. With shoulder-to-shoulder determination and practical optimism, Chapman affirmed, “You are proving that this work is not theory. It’s real.”