A nonprofit focused on helping youth heal from traumatic experiences is moving to a new location in Faulkner County.
Immerse Arkansas will now serve youth at a new site at 708 S. Baridon Street in Conway. This location will house programming for teens age 14-18 in foster care, adoption, or living in local group homes. The expansion comes after the nonprofit, which also has centers in Little Rock, first began offering services in Conway at a Caldwell Street center in fall 2023.
Layne Moss, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Immerse Arkansas, says the new space will help them continue their mission of helping youth in crisis.
“No day is the same, you can come in and you’ll see group activities in the backyard with our teens who are in foster and adoptive placements. You’ll see coaching, life skill development in one room, you’ll see a therapist active in a session one room over. You’ll see group classes, gatherings, and then you’ll also see our team planning out future events and working together to help our youth in the future.”
Immerse hopes to expand their Conway services to serve young adults from 18-24 in the near future. They’re also planning to launch a center in Northwest Arkansas while maintaining a presence in Little Rock.
Terria Diggins is the Chief Program Officer at Immerse. She says helping kids be “overcomers” is central to their mission.
“And what we mean by that is when they leave immerse we want them to be healthy, whole, resilient and have self sufficiency that they’re able to move forward, move past the crisis, the trauma that they’ve experienced and still be successful.”
Diggins says Immerse hopes to keep growing in Conway and add programs for young adults aged 18-24.
Jamie Middleton is the Community Engagement Manager at Immerse, which operates with full time staff and a community of volunteers. Middleton says the kids who come to Immerse notice how much the people at the center care.
“For the most part [the kids] are with people that may be getting paid to do the work, and of course we have staff members that are paid,” Middleton says, adding staff members at Immerse are doing “heart work,” not just hard work.
“And so they can feel that, they can see it. They can have fun, they can learn about different resources and not feel shame or embarrassed. And they’re able to get everything in one location.”
Middleton says she hopes this move will put Immerse on the radar for more Faulkner county community members. She says local churches, a number of which are right across the street on Donaghey Avenue, have plans or are already helping support the center.
More information about Immerse and volunteer opportunities can be found online at immersearkansas.org.
