The Call’s mission is to educate, equip, and encourage the local Christian community to provide a future and hope for children and youth in foster care. Do South reached out to Emily Treadaway, County Director, to learn more.
DS: How did your organization come to be?
The CALL was founded almost twenty years ago in Little Rock when one woman asked what she could do to help the foster care crisis. She began recruiting foster parents in her local church, which spread the mission throughout the state. We are now in all seventy-five counties in Arkansas, with The CALL in Crawford & Sebastian Counties celebrating their fifteenth anniversary!
DS: Who does The Call serve, and in what way?
We serve local children and youth in foster care by recruiting and training foster and adoptive homes to help care for them. Once these families have children in their homes, we support them in a variety of ways, including monthly support groups, fun family events, and tangible goods like diapers, car seats, and cleaning supplies. We are renovating our new office to provide family visitation space so children can visit their biological parents while in foster care.
DS: How does The Call impact our community?
We are the number-one recruiter of traditional foster homes in Arkansas. This is especially important in an area like Fort Smith, where almost one in fifty children and youth are in foster care. Without The CALL and other faith-based organizations, local children would be in a far worse situation without foster families to care for them.
DS: How can our community get involved and show support?
The CALL is completely funded by donations, whether monetary or tangible. We always need diapers and pull-ups, household cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and gift cards to Walmart or fast-food restaurants.
DS: With so many great organizations to support, why should others choose to help you?
Foster care is a cycle that usually begins with poverty, and there could be other factors, such as addiction, mental illness, or lack of education. Still, it’s ultimately the children who pay the price when they are removed from their homes. Whether you support The CALL or other local organizations, we are all trying to stop the cycle from continuing. To me, it’s less about which organization you support and more about the fact that everyone should be involved somehow, whatever that looks like for you.
DS: What message would you like to convey to readers interested in learning more about your mission?
Our message is simple: there are over four hundred forty children and youth in foster care in Crawford and Sebastian Counties, and there are only enough beds available for seventy percent of them. Whether you can open your home to foster care for five years or one year, we need you. We need more families to step into the gap and provide a loving and safe environment until their parents get back on their feet. Remember that one is enough; one family and one choice can make all the difference.
The CALL in Crawford & Sebastian Counties
479.353.0767
401 N. Greenwood Ave., Fort Smith, Arkansas
thecallinarkansas.org
Next month, we’ll showcase another local nonprofit free of charge. Requests for this fee feature will be accepted beginning October 2025. Email Catherine@DoSouthMagazine.com for details or call 479.782.1500.
