Comprehensive Juvenile Services, Inc. (CJS) has been blessed with the award of a Challenge Grant by the Windgate Foundation in the amount of $544,426 for the purpose of constructing the Clay Roper Western Arkansas Youth Shelter in Mulberry, Arkansas. The challenge is for CJS to raise matching funds up to the amount of the grant, within a two-year period. Once matched, this grant would complete the total funding of the shelter.
The Western Arkansas Youth Shelter has been serving at-risk youth since 1984. During that time over 5,000 youth have received food, shelter, transportation, and the caring support of trained shelter staff who offer a welcoming environment for youth who are in need of a “home away from home” while they work out the problems at home that brought them into the shelter. Youth who are at risk of court involvement, runaway youth, foster youth, as well as youth who are victims of human trafficking, have been served by the shelter from all over the nation.
CJS is a private, non-profit youth service provider serving youth and families in a six-county area of western Arkansas since 1977. In addition to emergency shelter, CJS provides a wide variety of services for youth and families who are struggling to make it through those turbulent teen years.
CJS has had a goal of moving the Western Arkansas Youth Shelter from its current leased location in rural Cecil, Arkansas for many years. The move to Mulberry would make serving the youth much more cost-effective as well as more convenient to youth and families of the six-county area due to being closer to their own homes, schools, therapists and doctors. In addition, the Mulberry location will be more accessible to those runaway or homeless youth traveling from across the country.
Shelter Manager Clay Roper lost his 5-year battle with cancer on June 1, 2022, at which time the CJS Board of Directors made the decision to name the new shelter, once it is relocated to Mulberry, the Clay Roper Western Arkansas Youth Shelter in honor of Clay’s selfless service to the youth of the shelter.
The fundraising goal of $2.1 million is now within reach, thanks to the challenge grant issued by the Windgate Foundation along with the kindness of local donors matching the challenge with their generous donations. Your donations are needed to make this dream a reality for the youth and families who are in need. For more information, visit the CJS webpage, www.cjsinc.org, or call 479-785-4031.
