The Arkansas Family Alliance prepares to support families in need with holiday cheer

Oct. 24—The holidays are a wonderful time to spend with family and friends, sharing a meal and exchanging gifts.

Yet, for families in poverty, the bright joy of the season is often dimmed by worries about food, housing and finances.

"Roughly one in four people (in Fort Smith) live in poverty. In poverty, the margin for error is very small, and the ripple is large," said Matt Whitson, co-founder and executive director of the Arkansas Family Alliance.

The Arkansas Family Alliance, in rallying the community together, creates a network of support for these families in order to spread Christmas cheer.

With their annual Foster Care Christmas event, the organization will provide gifts for about 850 children from foster care families or those living with provisional families such as another family member or grandparent. The organization partners with the Salvation Army Fort Smith, Community Rescue Mission, and 100 Families.

Each child creates a wishlist, which is then disseminated through the organization's network, which will provide $100 worth of gifts per child.

"We have churches that will take some and use them for (an) angel tree," Whitson said. "We have businesses that will take some. We have individuals in this town that will take some."

Founded in 2017 by Matt and Becca Whitson, the Arkansas Family Alliance creates a circle of support around families in crisis through a network of fellow nonprofits, businesses and churches.

"We don't do things for people. We walk with them. That's how you support them and gain trust with them," Whitson said.

Through training classes, the organization encourages and equips foster families in Sebastian County, offering them an opportunity to fulfill their continuing education hours.

It also works with the Arkansas Department of Human Services by utilizing CarePortal, an online system where "the state, who is already working with these families, enters a need into this ... system, and then the churches and the organizations and the businesses ... they receive an email," Whitson said. "They get to respond back ... to deliver that need to that family in crisis."

The system not only serves foster families but also families with other emergencies, acting as support "at the point of impact ... so that they can keep their children in their homes, instead of those children going into foster care, as long as there's not abuse or neglect," Whitson said.

One of the first needs fulfilled through the portal helped a single mom receive a washing machine, so she no longer had to wash her children's clothes in the bathtub.

"The point of it is rallying the community to support that family, that single mom that was in crisis," Whitson said. "The amount of emotional space that's lifted from her because now she can do laundry in a washing machine rather than do it by hand. It just gives her that much more emotional resource to be able to do schoolwork or play or she's working full-time to try to support her family.

"The community holds us up while we're holding up these children and families ... we are impacting the community together," he said.

Individuals or organizations interested in Foster Care Christmas can contact the Arkansas Family Alliance at 479-769-4110 or email Matt Whitson at matt@arfamilyalliance.org to receive wish lists.

Participating organizations will drop off the gifts at Cornerstone Church, located at 2201 Dallas St. in Fort Smith, Dec. 6 through 10. The gifts will be distributed to families Dec. 15 through 17.

Monetary donations can be made online for Foster Care Christmas at arfamilyalliance.org. Whitson requests people write their name with "(Christmas)" so the organization knows how to designate those donations.

"These families that are in a tough time in their life, they're worth it," Whitson said. "... I really just want to make an impact in the community."

"I grew up here. This is my home, " he said. "... I just really feel that the Arkansas Family Alliance, if we can just act as a hub to support these other nonprofits and support these families, too, we're gonna all be better because of that."

Catherine Nolte is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. She can be reached at cnolte@swtimes.com. Southwest Times Record and Report for America are working to place a new generation of journalists in community news organizations across the country. Will you support this effort today?

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