LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Roughly four thousand children in the state are in the Arkansas foster care system.
On Tuesday, Governor Sanders, the Department of Human Services, and other organizations launched a new initiative to recruit new foster parents and to get more kids in real homes.
"It's a powerful first step to reform our foster care system," Governor Sanders said.
Gov. Sanders signed an executive order to launch "Every Child Arkansas," which is a group collaboration to improve the state's foster care system overall.
Mischa Martin with DHS explained that recruiting foster parents and providing services to children and families are the main focuses— but there's still more to work on.
"Streamlining, opening foster homes, providing relatives support, focusing on our children who are aging out of care," Martin said.
Another big tool is a new website called Every Child Arkansas.org.
"It's a streamlined and unified approach so that you're not having to hide it in your area who's available, you can actually put your zip code in and see what organizations are available in your community, for foster or for volunteering," she explained.
Brandon Tittle with Sparrow's Promise in Searcy has also joined the Every Child Arkansas partnership.
It's a faith-based organization focused on opening and supporting foster homes.
"The network is meeting together regularly. We're sharing ideas and say, Hey, this works in Searcy Well, this works in northwest let's share ideas with each other and see how we can make each other stronger," Tittle said.
Robny Govens with the non-profit Foster Love said this partnership has been a step in the right direction
"We're all coming together for one specific goal, to make sure that we have more than enough homes in the foster care world so that we can service these children that need us. These are our kids. That's the bottom line. They're Arkansans and these are our kids and we got to take care of them," Govens said.