Arkansas Family Health Foundation’s Commitment to Education in Arkansas
Education and health go hand in hand. The better educated local families and individuals are, the more they will know about how to eat well, exercise, and recognize the early signs that they are getting sick. Higher levels of education also make it easier to get a good job, providing the insurance and financial security necessary to access quality care. Arkansas Family Health Foundation thus encourages education as part of our broader efforts to promote community health in Arkansas.
The Foundation’s educational efforts start with extending learning opportunities to as many people as possible. Only 21 percent of Arkansans have a bachelor’s degree or more. This is due in large part to the high cost of such degrees, a burden that falls particularly heavily on rural Arkansans, who tend to have lower incomes than those in urban and suburban areas.
To ease this financial burden, Arkansas Family Health Foundation has begun collecting education donations to use for scholarships. We recently began a partnership with Arkansas State University to offer a $25,000 scholarship for pre-med students. We hope to expand our scholarship offerings from here, so that as many Arkansans as possible can raise the money they need to go to school.
Besides money, Arkansans often struggle to find the time to get degrees. Parents in particular have trouble making time for learning when they also have to take care of their children. To free up this time, the Foundation provides funding for the ARCare Augusta Community Center. The Center offers child care for parents who otherwise could not afford it. The parents are thus free to go back to school and finish their diploma or degree, secure in the knowledge that their children will be taken care of while they pursue new opportunities.
Arkansas Family Health Foundation believes that everyone in Arkansas deserves a chance to get a good education. Through our scholarship programs, our childcare funding, and a range of other initiatives that we have taken, we extend the promise of higher learning far and wide.
