NONPROFIT
Staff Report | Photos courtesy of EverHope | Studio photos by Kelsey Comer Photography
Woven With Purpose: The Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter Becomes EverHope
When children arrive at the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter, they walk past a quilt unlike any other. Made of twenty-five individual fabric squares and marked with painted handprints, it reflects many stories — distinct, unfinished and deeply human — stitched together by care, time and intention.
That quilt reflects the way the organization has grown and developed — shaped by individual lives, strengthened through time, and bound together by care and community support.
Since opening in 1993, the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter has served more than 13,000 children from birth through age 17, offering safety during moments of crisis and the steady presence needed to begin healing. What began with five girls in residence has grown into a comprehensive system of care, carefully built over decades, one child at a time.
Today, the organization is naming that evolution.
To reflect the full scope of its work and its expanding statewide role, the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter has rebranded itself as EverHope.
“We’ve reached a point where our mission has grown beyond what the word ‘shelter’ alone can describe,” CEO Rebekah Mitchell said. “Safety is essential, but it’s only one piece of a much larger design. Children need stability, trusted relationships and support that continues long after crisis.”
The rebrand followed months of listening to children, caregivers, educators, social workers and partners across Arkansas. Across those conversations, leadership heard a consistent truth: lasting change doesn’t happen in isolation. Like a quilt, healing requires connection — layers of support working together over time.
EverHope leadership team
EverHope now represents a continuum of trauma-responsive care that surrounds children and families before, during and after crisis. While the shelter remains the heart of the organization, it is now one part of a broader framework designed to strengthen outcomes and prevent future harm.
Remaining at EverHope’s center is the flagship children’s shelter, founded by the late Judge Terry Crabtree, which serves up to 32 children at any given time. During an average stay of two weeks to six months, children receive wraparound care including counseling, case management, education, medical and dental treatment, life skills training and trauma-informed services. A warehouse stocked with clothing and essentials ensures each child arrives with dignity and leaves prepared for what comes next.
The shelter operates 24/7 on the 80-acre Donald W. Reynolds campus in Bentonville, which includes recreational spaces and Horizon Academy — an on-site school operated in partnership with Bentonville Public Schools. Teachers meet each student where they are, stitching consistency back into education disrupted by trauma.
Beyond the shelter, EverHope’s growing programs add new squares to the organization’s fabric of care
EverHope School Project, a trauma-responsive education pilot with Springdale School District, sends dedicated teams into classrooms and homes to strengthen learning environments and stabilize families. Designed to expand statewide, the program supports educators while helping children succeed where they are.
EverHope Foster Care works to recruit, license, train and support foster families, addressing a critical shortage across the region. By surrounding caregivers with ongoing guidance and connection, the program helps placements endure — reinforcing the idea that no family should shoulder this work alone.
The organization is also developing EverHope Paths to Adulthood, focused on young people transitioning out of foster care. By investing in life skills, stability and connection, the program aims to break cycles of trauma before they repeat.
Together, these efforts are guided by four strategic pillars, called Threads of Hope — Strengthen, Support, Shelter and Stabilize. These are the key threads that bind EverHope’s comprehensive work into a cohesive whole.
“Hope isn’t something you give once and walk away,” said Scott Caldwell, vice president of communications and engagement. “It’s something you commit to, again and again, as long as a child needs it.”
The new EverHope brand honors the organization’s legacy while clearly signaling its future. Its updated logo echoes a quilt square — a nod to the handmade quilt that has welcomed children since the shelter’s earliest days and the growing display of handprints that line its halls. A new quilt, created by the Pieces & Patches Quilt Club, will soon join the space, reflecting EverHope’s refreshed color palette and renewed vision.
“The shelter holds a very special place in this community’s heart,” Mitchell said. “And EverHope is about honoring every child that came before while continuing to build something stronger — a promise that we will walk with children and families through trauma and toward possibility.”
Woven together, EverHope’s programs form a purposeful design: one rooted in safety, strengthened by connection and built to last — ensuring that hope is not temporary but ever-present.
