Agapé House celebrates Foster Care Awareness
EL DORADO — Shaneil “PJ” Yarbrough has such a passion for education, working in the field for nearly 20 years, but over the last year, she had a different profession tugging at her heart, foster care. She is now the Executive Director and Administrator for Agapé House Children’s Home, Inc. in El Dorado.
“I will always be passionate about education,” Yarbrough said. “I want to always be a teacher. Although I’m no longer in the classroom teaching children or adults on a regular basis, I’m still an educator.”
She is now an educator on foster care and her own experience growing up is what led her to this new profession and calling.
Yarbrough first went into temporary foster care herself at the age of two, which eventually became permanent. She and her three sisters were separately placed in different homes, but were miraculously all adopted together by one family when Yarbrough was six years old.
The family that adopted the four sisters was from Calion and Yarbrough attended the Norphlet school district.
“Realizing I have the opportunity to give children a different experience than mine means a lot to me,” she said. “It’s good to know that there is a loving homelike environment [like Agapé] with Christian values being taught and exhibited on a daily basis. Life has truly come full-circle and I’m literally back where I started with a chance to give back.”
Yarbrough has been the Executive Director and Administrator at Agapé for over two months.
May is National Foster Care Awareness Month. The organization kicked off the month by celebrating Foster Care Awareness Day, May 6, with Turn El Dorado Blue For Foster Care. The event took place outside of the Union County Courthouse, where the Agapé House, the Call, Arkansas Department of Human Services and CASA joined forces to announce the Foster Care Awareness Month and asked both businesses and the community to display any blue decorations they have ribbons, light bulbs, balloons, etc.
The culminating event taking place this month will be the Friends of Agapé House Children’s Home 1st Annual Blue Luncheon, which will
be held on May 23, at the El Dorado Golf and Country Club.
The one hour luncheon will be at Noon, and all proceeds will go towards the Agapé House.
“We will share about Agapé - who we are, what we do, and how the community can assist us in ministering to the needs of our children. We hope that the community, friends, and supporters will join us.” Yarbrough said.
Tickets are $50 and tables can also be purchased for the event. For questions or to buy a ticket, call (870) 4445000 or (870) 918-8709.
The 300 for Hope House Campaign is an on-going fundraiser that will eventually cover the cost needed to build a second home on the Agapé campus. The home will be called the Hope House and will be a transitional living home for foster children 18 to 21 years of age. This home will allow children to avoid “aging out” of the foster care system.
The 300 for Hope House Campaign is asking for 300 Sunday school classes, businesses, civic groups, clubs or individuals to donate $500 to Agapé. “With 300, $500 – donations, we will meet our goal.” Yarbrough said. “We plan to begin the building process soon; which means ministering to additional children. We would love to see the home built and fully functioning to provide much needed care to older children and youth.”
Throughout the summer, the Agapé House is seeking both summer interns dedicated to the human service field and educational tutors. Summers are filled with services such as mentoring, tutoring, and assisting with camps for the children of Agapé. Tutors can be high school, college level tutors as well as teachers in the teaching profession who have extra time to volunteer.
Agapé is looking to having tutoring sessions for their children two to three days a week. “We’re hoping to maintain what they’ve learned this current school year, and of course help them to make progress,” Yarbrough said. “When they come into care, several of our children are academically behind. Therefore, we have intentional educational plans to help them stay on track and motivated.”
If interested or for more information, email the Social Services Manager, Elcy Easter at eeaster@supportagape. org.
The Agapé House has a lot of help and support from the community. “We are a non-profit, organization, therefore, we thrive and survive off of the support of the community,” Yarbrough said.
There is always a list of needs on the Agapé’s website that is updated every two weeks. The list is also on their Facebook page as well.
The Agapé House had a drive at Brookshire’s a few weeks ago with the help from the Arkansas Student Leadership Initiative from El Dorado High School. Agapé walked away with food, non-perishables, toiletries and cleaning supplies for their home. They try to organize a drive like this every few months to replenish their pantry.
TJ Maxx has a program called “Neighbor of Choice”, which allows them to send three volunteers to the Agapé campus every other week to help with anything needed. Additionally, the Kozy Kitchen provides our children with breakfast at no cost, every Saturday morning. “Things like that may seem small but they are huge to our ministry,” Yarbrough said.
Very recently, other businesses and individuals in the community have pledged to donate small but important necessities including hair cuts, birthday cakes and professional photos as a service to the foster children of Agapé. “These are things that we don’t have to take out of our budget which means we can focus on our day-to-day operations,” she said. “We’re blessed to have great people around us and we want to encourage others to do what they feel like they can do to assist us in changing the lives of children.”
Agapé mostly needs food, toiletries, and household cleaning supplies. They also are willing to provide tours of the Agapé campus and encourage people to come out and see what they have to offer.
The Agapé office is open Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm. Donations can be received at their address, 1838 Morning Star Road. They accept donations either by them being dropped off or the office will arrange a pick up if necessary.
“After
volunteering
time, serving on Agapé’s Board of Directors and now being a full-time employee of Agapé for the last few months, I’m disheartened that people are not aware that we exist. We are a non-profit, Christian group home providing care to Union County (and the surrounding areas) foster children. We are a ministry. We focus on keeping siblings together as we provide longterm care. Above all, we are providing a variety of services in order to break cycles. With the great staff we have and a loving community supporting our efforts, we will be able to provide hope for children who are many times forgotten, ” Yarbrough said. “One of the biggest misconceptions is that we serve “bad” children. On the contrary, we serve amazing children who at no fault of their own are in an unfortunate circumstance. Once people experience the joy that comes with being a blessing to these children and they know what we’re doing is making a difference, they will automatically want to help. I’m a witness that this (foster care) is not their ending but instead their beginning!”