By Steve Brawner
© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Eric and Kara Gilmore’s lives changed when they watched Meagan ride off in a Greyhound bus the day after her 18th birthday. She was exiting the foster care system with one bag of clothes, one night’s worth of bipolar meds, and a one-way bus ticket to Fort Smith where some biological family members she hadn’t seen in a while lived.

“That was her transition into adulthood,” he said.

The Gilmores had met Meagan when they were house parents in a group home when she was 14. They’d separated and then reconnected shortly before she turned 18. Watching that bus drive off, they believed someone needed to do something. So the Gimores formed Immerse Arkansas in 2010.

For foster children removed from their homes but never adopted, the stage where they age out of the system can be perilous. After lacking a stable home life during childhood, they sometimes face the complexities of early adulthood alone. And then they can get into real trouble.

State programs do help. Foster children ages 14 and older are eligible for transitional youth services to help them plan their adult lives. Teens can stay in extended foster care until their 21st birthday. Funds are available for education, job training and basic necessities during those years.

But as with any government program serving a challenging population, there are gaps, which Immerse Arkansas can help fill. And since its founding, it has broadened its mission to serve all young people in crisis, not just foster kids, including victims of abuse and sex trafficking. Continue reading Helping kids in crisis immerse into adulthood →

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

June 6, 2019

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” So said President Abraham Lincoln while commemorating the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

Likewise, no words on an editorial page can do justice to the sacrifices made during the D-Day invasion 75 years ago this week, or to the sacrifices made during the rest of the war, abroad and at home.

World War II involved great men like Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and evil men like Adolf Hitler. But mostly it involved common people of uncommon valor. Those are the ones we rightly remember at times like these.

One of those was Wallace Eldridge, who crossed the English Channel three days after the initial D-Day invasion, if my memory is correct. Mr. Eldridge was my friend. He built a tennis court in my hometown of Wynne where my brother and I and some friends often played, often with him.

We played a lot, and we talked some – mostly about tennis, but we also talked a couple of times about his World War II experiences. My memories unfortunately are sketchy, but I believe he was the only original member of his unit who wasn’t killed or wounded. He once mentioned advancing hedgerow to hedgerow across the French landscape. And I remember him saying that he had wondered back then why he and his fellow combatants were out there killing each other. Continue reading The least we can do: Remember →

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

The number of Arkansas foster children waiting to be adopted has fallen to 343 as of Saturday, and Donald and Jennifer White are the reason it’s not 347.

The Little Rock couple finalized their second two-sibling adoption April 26 by welcoming brothers Keelan, 4, and Aiden, 3, into their family.

Like their new older siblings, Michael, 10, and Lilly, 6, the two brothers first came into the home as foster children. When parental rights were terminated, the Whites adopted them.

“They felt like they were a part of us,” Jennifer said. “We felt like they were a part of us, so it just made sense.”

The Whites became foster parents about a decade ago after a friend underwent the preparation process and alerted them to the need. At the time they had two sons, 12 and 10, and hadn’t really thought about fostering. But their interest was sparked by that friend and by Bible passages like Matthew 25, where Jesus speaks of “the least of these.”

“I know what our Creator wants us to do,” Donald said, “and that’s what I’m designed to try to do with His ability.” Continue reading One family’s calling to serve the least of these →