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DHS Staff Comes Together to Help Single Parents

08/12/2019

On a sunny Saturday morning, Selena Corter was stationed behind a table at the Cherokee Village Golf Course working to support the Kevin King Memorial Golf Tournament. With each donation Corter collected or t-shirt order she helped someone to fill out, she knew the money could make a difference.

Volunteering at the event, which raised money for the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund (ASPSF), is a task that’s different from Corter’s normal duties as administrator of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) Sharp County office.         

But Corter wasn’t the only DHS representative to volunteer. In northeast Arkansas, Division of County Operations staff and Division of Children and Family Services staff from different counties work together to support the fund.          

“It means a lot to us because there are employees in our agency who got money from the single parent fund when they were in college,” Corter said. “Also, helping the fund is important to DHS staff in our area because several of the local scholarship recipients are also our clients.”

For years staff has worked with the program.      

 “Helping people enjoy a good life is what we as DHS strive for. It all fits within the agency’s mission of caring and changing lives,” Corter said. “A good education leads to improved employment which paves the way to a better life. Why wouldn’t we help out?”                          

Under the umbrella of ASPSF, the brand-new Kevin King Scholarship will award $800 in the fall and spring semesters to a full-time, single parent student who lives in Fulton, Jackson, Lawrence, Randolph, or Sharp counties. Money raised during the golf tournament helped to create the scholarship.  

 “I was a single parent myself. It was hard to attend school, go to work, and raise children all at the same time,” Corter said. “It’s important that if a single parent wants to go to college, there’s a way to help them out. My coworkers and I know how the scholarship fund can be the difference in a person finishing school or dropping out.”    

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