[title subtitle=”WORDS Dwain Hebda
IMAGE courtesy Bost, Inc.”][/title]
Everywhere around you right now, and all across the state, miracles are happening.
Right here in Fort Smith, a young child lights up for having read his first words. Even though the accomplishment comes years after other children his age, it fills him with pride.
In the grocery store, a senior woman carefully chooses her items with the help of a mentor, while across town, a middle-aged man reports to his bench in a workshop. Both revel in a job well done and the independence that it brings.
A family attends an exhibit and sees their youngest child’s artwork on the wall. Speech is hard for the young artist, so she lets her painting do the talking. Her parents weep at the sight.
These and thousands of other moments are brought to fruition every day thanks to the efforts of Bost, a community-based, not-for-profit agency in Fort Smith, which provides services for individuals who have mental and developmental disabilities and related conditions.
The organization was founded by Dr. Roger Bost, a Fort Smith pediatrician, in 1959. The original group was launched out of a church basement with the simple goal of assisting children with special needs and their families.
“Sixty years ago, there weren’t services within the schools,” Executive Director Katie Raines says. “There were not places that could appropriately take care of or give education to children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”
Originally Bost School for Limited Children, the name isn’t all that’s changed over the years; the breadth and scope of services has as well. Today, Bost offers a wide range of assistance to individuals in all phases of life and spectrum of abilities, serving thousands of Arkansans every year, Katie says.
“We are a statewide provider. We’re focused in about twenty-eight counties, but we are able to provide services across the state,” she says. “We have children’s services with therapy. We have adult day treatment services that also teach life skills, that also prepare people for work through some supportive employment. We also have intermediate care facilities which are group-type settings that offer a little bit more medical assistance.”
Bost is one of the state’s largest providers of Medicaid waiver programs, which are set up to allow individuals to live in the least restrictive setting their condition allows, thereby avoiding institutionalization.
Individuals who utilize waiver services can take advantage of supported living service, non-medical transportation, supplemental supports and other resources designed to help them live in community while enjoying the fullest life possible.
“That’s our largest program and the one most people know about,” Katie says. “It’s a home- and community-based program that serves individuals from the child living at home to somebody that lives independently on their own and needs anywhere from an hour a day of support to twenty-four hours a day support.”
At the same time, Bost has remained responsive to the changing needs of people with developmental and mental disabilities. One of the newest programs, Bost Cares, addresses the emerging issue of mental health particularly as a co-diagnosis with other conditions.
“Primarily, (Bost Cares) starts to meet the needs of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities but who also have concurring mental health issues,” Katie says. “That program has done some outreach to people with mental health issues, while still taking care of the dual diagnosis individuals with disabilities and mental health conditions.”
Another critical area where Bost makes a positive impact for the populations it serves is in housing.
“Here in Fort Smith, we own two apartment complexes, three group homes and two of the intermediate care facilities where the facilities offer a little bit more nursing and medical oversight,” Katie says. “We have an apartment complex in Northwest Arkansas that we are about to expand because there’s a housing shortage up there. And then we have an intermediate care facility in Boonville.
“Those facilities range from twenty-four-hour care to just a few hours of care that a client may need. All of that is individualized, based on the person, in areas that they need assistance.”
The evolution of Bost’s services has come in part as a response to people with disabilities living longer than in previous generations. This fact complicates the care model as different services are needed over a longer period of time.
“When we sit around and talk about where are we at, where are we going and what do we need to do, one thing we talk about is the fact that we have a population that’s aging,” Katie says. “In our day programs, most of our (clients) go to a program or go to work during a day. But when you get ready to retire do you want to go to a day program or go to work every day? No.”
“It’s not only that; when we age without a disability, we need more help, right? Well the same thing applies for people with disabilities. So now you’re trying to meet two needs.”
One thing that has remained a constant from the earliest days of the organization has been to act as a resource for families to navigate the complicated web of agencies and services. Many families don’t know where to start looking for services once a child is born or diagnosed with a disability and reaching them is a marketing challenge. Even though Bost has been around for six decades, it’s difficult to reach families in need in all outlying communities or even right here at home.
“It’s very hard for people to understand it all,” Katie says. “Schools don’t understand it all. By the time a family ends up on our doorstep, a lot of times they’ve been through the wringer.”
“We don’t put a big old sign that says, ‘This is Bost and we serve people with disabilities,’” says Jeanne Hill, director of marketing and fundraising and the executive director of Bost Foundation. “But yet the flip side is people say we had no idea you were there. We didn’t know what you do. So, it’s a challenge.”
“For waiver services especially, it’s all about your relationship with the state, which I think we do very well. We provide a quality service, so a lot of referrals come through state agencies.”
Delivering excellent services to families comes down to having the right people. Katie says finding and maintaining the one thousand employees Bost needs to deliver services – people who also have the right skillset and a heart for the clientele – is a constant challenge. Generating the funds to keep the nonprofit moving forward is also of paramount importance, such as through Bost’s primary annual fundraising event, Grape Escapes.
“Grape Escapes is in its eighteenth year; it’s like the biggest cocktail party you’ve ever been to,” Jeanne says. “We typically have twelve or so wine vendors and distributors that come in and we’ve had up to three hundred fifty or so different kinds of wines from around the country. Last year we raised around $95,000 and we’d like to raise $150,000 this year.”
Serving as many people in as many settings as they do, it’s sometimes difficult to imagine Bost as the same organization that was born in that church basement so many years ago. But, Katie says, that spirit is still alive and well in everything the organization does in Arkansas, thanks to one foundational philosophy.
“We’re part of the community,” she says, simply. “We preach it every day.”
Grape Escapes 2020
Friday, March 6 – 6 p.m.
DoubleTree by Hilton®
700 Rogers Avenue, Fort Smith
grapeescapes.org
Bost, Inc.
5812 Remington Circle
479.478.5579
Fort Smith
bost.org
