The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network

ANNN is an independent, nonpartisan news project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

Before the pandemic, Evans said, ASN usually had about 100 job openings a month and ~120 applications.

As of April 2022, they had 182 open positions and just 90 apps.

About 40 families referred to ASN for services face delays in getting help due to the staffing shortage.

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[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

For years, thousands of Ark. families have been waiting for help for their developmentally disabled kids and loved ones.

The state has promised to clear that waitlist. But there's another problem: A huge worker shortage. 1/

From reporter @JSchulmanHall

https://t.co/wHBfbecrsn

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

Syard Evans, CEO at provider Arkansas Support Network, put it like this:

“Fast food can add 50 cents to every combo meal and generate additional revenue to raise their minimum wages to $15, $16, $17 an hour — we cannot. We're locked into state Medicaid reimbursements."

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[Juliet Schulman-Hall @JSchulmanHall]

New article for @ArkNewsOrg

Grateful to have learned more from caretakers and providers who have endured the brunt of staffing shortages and unpaid labor in Arkansas.

Written and reported alongside the great @unbenji

https://t.co/HNW8skSh97

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

The ASU System will gradually eliminate 25 degree programs at Henderson, including those in English, math, history, Spanish, geography, social science, early childhood development and theater arts. Others may be added for deletion later.

https://t.co/aeQivQgT86

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

“I hear rallying cries: ‘Henderson will survive. We’ll be stronger for it,'" the professor contiued. "But not for everybody."

https://t.co/DTM53G4OaD

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

New from reporter Debra Hale-Shelton (@nottalking): The story of a small south Arkansas university buried in debt.

Layoffs of tenured faculty are coming soon to Henderson State. Its academic programs could shrink by "30-40%."

https://t.co/DTM53G4OaD

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

Faculty with tenure may be laid off under a "financial exigency" process recently approved by the ASU board. A committee is now reviewing which academic programs to cut.

The mood on campus is “pretty depressed," one professor said. "Nobody feels like their job is secure.”

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

New from ANNN by @science_ari: A sad-but-hopeful story of suffocating trees, bad land/water management practices, and a new (and expensive) push to restore Arkansas's bottomland hardwoods for future generations.

https://t.co/oOSMmAMKJB

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

It's not clear when the crack became visible, but photos show it easily could be seen by 2016.

The state's annual visual inspections should have found it then, of course. But for some reason, the annual inspections kept missing it, year after year.

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

Remember the crack that shut down the I-40 Memphis bridge last summer?

Our new investigation suggests inspection missteps go back some 40 years.

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https://t.co/AshrowkjR8

[The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network @ArkNewsOrg]

The feds told states they needed to inspect tie girder welds on such bridges with ultrasonic methods.

But the I-40 bridge had already undergone an ultrasonic test, back in 1982. So Arkansas opted not to do another round of testing.

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https://t.co/AshrowkjR8