Moore: Arkansas lawmakers discussed the progress of a nonprofit seeking to better connect people to public resources. Members of a subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council heard from leaders of Restore Hope Arkansas in a meeting Monday.
The nonprofit's executive director, Paul Chapman, says their online dashboard seeks to connect those in need to public assistance, whether from governments, nonprofits, or other sources.
Chapman: But really, what it’s doing is it’s finding all the resources that exist in a community. And so if there were a program or a class like that or a therapist, then they would be connected to that existing resource that could provide.
Moore: The nonprofit's dashboard was first tested in Sebastian County, which afterward saw an overall 20% reduction in incarceration over a five-year span. Republican state Rep. Cindy Crawford, who represents part of the county, says the program has been a success.
Cindy Crawford: The numbers that you see here are from different organizations because every entity was working as a silo. So when Restore Hope came into Sebastian County, they brought us together and actually showed us how we can work together without being afraid our funding would be cut in other areas.
Moore: Restore Hope saw more than 3,800 new users onboarded into its system in the last month. The program is available in 19 counties across Arkansas.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
