Ragged Old Flag Fans… Congrats. You’ve made it to the last month of classes!!!!
To start out our last month strong on Ragged Old Flag, I did another on-air interview. This time however, it took place right at home in our booth rather than over the phone. I enjoyed this more than a phone call interview due to the fact the interaction was much more personal. Not that my Cov’s Kid Interview with Tommy Covington wasn’t, I just would’ve enjoyed having him in booth much more!
Needless to say though – having these non-profit interviews on the show has been SO much fun for me. I think I’ve found a new passion with interviewing specifically channeled towards non-profit. (Food for thought for sure).
ANYWAYS…
I had Paul Chapman, Executive Director of Restore Hope, come on the air and talk to us for a segment on exactly what Restore Hope aims to do every day in the state of Arkansas (woo pig). In short, this organization was born from the issue that Arkansas had the fastest growing prison population IN THE NATION from 2012-2016, and a similar growth curve was seen in Arkansas’ foster care system. Something had to be done, and fast.
See, Restore Hope is a “backbone” organization in attempts to solve this massive problem. The problem being that YEARLY 10,000-11,000 people are released from Arkansas prisons. On top of that, those released are 56% more likely to end up in prison AGAIN within the next 3 years after release. Now, lets say that personally, you don’t care. You think everyone deserves to serve their time, WITHOUT THE PROGRAMS AND PROCESSES OFFERED BY RESTORE HOPE. That’s fine. You’re wrong, but you’re entitled to your opinion. Let me tell you why. The average stay in an Arkansas prison by an individual is 4.5 years. That comes out to $23,000.00 a year PER INMATE. Do yourself some quick math and you find that that 4 year stay equates to $100,000.00 PER EACH INDIVIDUAL TAX PAYER. I don’t know about you, but I think there are much better uses for my tax dollars… Especially when the incarcerated individual more than likely is in the middle of a DHS case or already has a child in foster care. Why not rehabilitate that individual and prepare them to come back into society and help us pay taxes AND CARE FOR THESE KIDS?
To get this problem addressed and fixed, Restore Hope holds many ideologies close to heart when operating in these incarcerated cases… My personal favorite of these is “Arkansas can take care of its own”. As an Arkansan, no truer words have been spoken. See, Restore Hope is a “backbone” organization to this massive problem. This massive issue however, literally takes an army. Restore Hope calls out to the community to help in aiding their neighbors, often teaming up with other like minded organizations like “The Call” or its very own “100 Families” project.
The issue itself is quite astounding, even after talking about it for our whole 3 hour show. That being said – it makes me THAT much more excited to have Mr. Chapman (and maybe others in Restore Hope) back onto the show to discuss more again. And if you missed out, check out Restore Hope on Facebook or online! Of course, I’ll tag their links down at the bottom of this post…BUT be on the lookout for a Round 2 interview with Paul Chapman and Restore Hope!
AGAIN! A HUGE thank you to Mr. Paul Chapman for making the drive out to Conway for the show. I appreciate your time and conversation immensely!
Rest easy you guys and I’ll catch you next week. Stay Classy.
- Restore Hope Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/restorehopearkansas/photos/?ref=page_internal
- Restore Hope Website: http://restorehopearkansas.org/what-we-do/service-coordination/
