The City Wire Special Report: C.A.L.L. support

Editor’s note: The following is part of a series of stories The City Wire will post in 2011 about foster care issues and organizations in the Fort Smith region. At least one story a month will attempt to provide some insight into a state and regional foster care system with realities that range from deeply troubling to wonderfully successful.

story by Aric Mitchell
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Eva McCollough knew what it was like to take a small child home from the hospital just days after its birth. She’d done it six times before with her daughter and five sons. In fact, it had only been three years since her last child made the trek from hospital nursery to the warmth of her and husband Jeff’s home.

She knew what to expect: the constant care that infants require, waking up to feed and nurture during the middle of the night, and the seemingly endless changing of diapers and drying of tears. However, the one thing she didn’t know how to do was say goodbye.

Recounting her story at a Fort Smith coffee shop, the mother of six is reluctant to open up about the three weeks she spent with her seventh child.

“That (three weeks) is long enough to develop a bond with an infant, and it’s not something that is easy to let go of,” Eva said.

When the child’s birth mother came back to reclaim the boy, Eva had to learn to let go in a way she’d never experienced before.

“It was really hard, but luckily we were able to meet with the mother. She had an appreciation for us, and we saw the situation she was in, and that she had a love for this child.”

The McColloughs said they keep in frequent contact with the child’s biological mother, and that she has invited them to remain a part of her son’s life. While visits are difficult to arrange due to proximity — that particular child was from outside of Crawford and Sebastian counties — they exchange emails and phone calls “on a regular basis,” says Jeff.

“At first you do have concerns about what the child is going back to, but the approach for foster children is different than with your own kids,” Jeff claimed. “You just never know. But the one important thing is that you have a chance to be a lasting positive influence on that child’s life, and that alone makes it worthwhile.”

THE C.A.L.L. CONNECTION
For their first foster parenting experience, the McColloughs are relieved the young infant they cared for is returning to a more stable environment, where he’ll get the love and care he needs, they said. They also credit an organization known as C.A.L.L., or Children of Arkansas Loved for a Lifetime, as their reason for taking the step from traditional parenthood to foster parenting.

The McColloughs confessed their initial reluctance at getting involved. C.A.L.L., a non-profit organization which originated in Little Rock, has been in existence for three years, spreading to 20 counties including Sebastian (in February 2010).

“I had a lot of preset notions before we started working with DHS,” Jeff admitted. “But when you stop looking at it as this big organization and start seeing it for what it is — a group made up of individuals who legitimately love and care for children and want what’s best for them, it’s easier to feel like partners. The C.A.L.L. helped us to view DHS and families in need in another light. The ultimate goal for us is doing whatever is necessary to provide quality care for a child until the biological family is in a better position to take care of them.”

Last December, the McColloughs recall sitting at an informational meeting for C.A.L.L. and feeling the need to get involved. At first, they admit, nerves got the best of them and they put off the decision. Then, an encounter with a friend in Little Rock, who told them about her three foster children at home, rekindled the conversation.

FOSTER NEEDS
Learning more about the foster care deficiencies in Sebastian County alone, the McColloughs said they felt convicted to do something. As early as November, DHS reported 587 foster children in the system with only 53 open homes to fill the need. Of those homes, 10 were provisional, or open only to family.

Megan Tran, the C.A.L.L. program coordinator for Sebastian County, said 13 of the remaining 43 available homes were recruited and trained by the group.

“It’s something we’re very excited about. Recruiting church families to fulfill James 1:27 presents an opportunity to help a lot of children and families, and fulfill our purpose. But we’ve still got work to do.” C.A.L.L. takes its mission statement from the Bible verse that Tran mentions, which lays out a plan “to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

Jeff McCollough notes that while the organization is Christian-based, there are parameters on how much the foster parent can involve the child in his or her faith.

“You have to meet them where they are, not just from a discipline standpoint, but also with your faith,” he explained.

The McColloughs credit C.A.L.L. for helping them understand the legalities and for steering them through other technical requirements involved with foster parenting.

“One major way that C.A.L.L. has helped us, particularly Megan (Tran), is in understanding what DHS requires of us, and why they need the things they do. You have to fill out pages and pages of questions about what you would do with a child in a given situation, and that can be tough since each child is different and we don’t even handle all of our own children the same way,” Jeff said.

DHS LIAISON
In addition to being a source of information for potential and existing foster parents, C.A.L.L. keeps track of paperwork and acts as a liaison between homes and DHS to help dull the effects of government staff shortages and speed up the placement process.

“We’re seeing enthusiasm for the program, not just from foster parents, but from church families rallying around the foster parents and the children, and from DHS itself,” Tran said. “That can mean helping with food, clothing, or driving the child to a doctor’s appointment for families that can’t afford to miss work. It can also mean providing backup copies of application documents should they get lost in the mix. We just really want to offer support wherever we can.”

Tran is one of the sole coordinators for this area and works entirely as a volunteer while holding down a part-time job and being a wife and mother to two children. Her journey to C.A.L.L. began in January 2005 when another wife and mother, Christina Springs, was murdered at the intersection of Rogers and North Greenwood Avenues by her estranged husband.

Springs left behind six children, one of whom came to live next door to Tran following the tragedy.

“He and our son became close friends, and what that family was going through really moved me to the point where I felt I had to do something. At that time, my husband wasn’t quite ready and we were not in a situation financially where we could think about adoption or foster parenting, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what those kids were going through, and how it affected me,” Tran said.

Tran has already received support from a number of area churches and plans to involve more in the coming months. To become involved, she invites anyone interested to call her at (479) 719-9298.