The foster grandparent program in eastern arkansas is a long standing tradition rooted in strengthening our communities and fostering civic engagement through a commitment to community service

Its mission is two fold: first, to provide opportunities for older persons to serve schools and head start programs in their local communities while addressing critical needs in the areas of education, mentoring and health. Secondly, the program aims to provide one-on-one assistance to special and exceptional needs children helping them to improve in their specific needed areas of development. With this new grant cycle, the program hopes to centralize this dynamic commitment in a way that will have an even greater impact on the communities where we live, work and play. The sponsoring organization, east arkansas area agency on aging (eaaaa) is in full commitment to improving its foster grandparent program for maximum impact on its community. The agency was founded in 1978 with a mission to provide leadership relative to aging issues on behalf of older persons in east arkansas, and to carry out a wide range of functions in planning, coordination, and service delivery such that older persons are assisted in leading independent, meaningful and dignified lives in their own homes and communities as long as possible. The eaaaa is a private, non-profit corporation. As such, IT is governed by a 13-member board of directors, in conjunction with an advisory council. The advisory council is made up of a majority of elderly east arkansans. The eaaaa's foster grandparent program staff is conscious of the adaptations that could be made to our program to strengthen its community ownership and participation. Valuable relationships with appropriate stakeholders have begun to prosper in recent months under new leadership and a successful future for the program is on the horizon. The eaaaa foster grandparent program is one of seven programs in the state of arkansas. Our forty one volunteers hold valued positions in collaboration with twelve community partners who operate and oversee volunteer work at nineteen volunteer stations. Our program currently has 30 active volunteers, with our FSY quota of thirty-four. These volunteers serve at nineteen volunteer stations in eight arkansas counties. One hundred and sixty one students benefit directly each academic year from one-on-one individualized attention from a foster grandparent volunteer. Furthermore, countless others benefit from a smile or an encouraging word spoken from a grandparent in their school. These valued volunteers completed 34,882 service hours in 2012 meeting the critical needs of the organizations they serve, saving non-profits upwards of $1 million dollars in resources. Under current leadership, the program is now fully staffed, with a waiting list for seniors to become part of the program in certain regions of our service area. The program now has the privilege of selecting the best candidates for the volunteer stations and the flexibility to find the best possible niche for our volunteers. Through the recently administered national association of foster grandparent director's survey, IT was determined that 75% of our volunteers feel that their participation in the program prevents isolation while 100% reported increased self-esteem and improved sense of well-being as well as the benefits of increased health, socialization, purpose and fulfillment.