By Janie Carter
I was so very glad that Arnetta Pugh told us about the Phoenix Stakeholders’ Forum held yesterday (Nov 13, 2025) at UAM. It was excellent. We had a very good mix of attendees, and I got to meet some awesome people. One was actually a young woman I knew/remembered from the Practical Nursing Program at UAM-CTC — DaiBrina Anders. She and Arnetta both gave their “Impact Stories” about being successful completers of the Phoenix Youth Program (youth who were justice-involved). Dai has two daughters, lives in Maumelle, and is an LPN. We all pretty much cried with her during her touching story. Arnetta (as you know) is the Regional Prevention Representative now for Phoenix and was light-hearted in her story. I couldn’t hear, but I could tell she was engaging. 😉
So, I wanted you to read Christie Lindsey’s follow-up below from the meeting yesterday (Nov 13, 2025). I appreciate that they are working hard for the five counties in our region. At my table yesterday were Crossett Mayor Crystal Marshall, Hamburg Police Chief Johnny Oliver, former McGehee Police Chief Scott Williams who is now the Commander of the three Arkansas Police Academies. Also with us was Officer “Shack” Thompson from Crossett PD and our own Daniel Shelton. I also got to meet Circuit Judge Quincey Ross, 4th Division of the Tenth Judicial District. He was very interested in our Coalition work and wants to connect us to some folks in Desha County.
Commander Williams was interested in the training we talked about in January that is from Strategies for Youth, a Boston-based group. You may remember that a representative from there zoomed in on our January meeting when SRO Brandon and Chief Johnny made a great presentation. The training that Ms. Lisa Thurau was talking to us about is for officers to understand better the teenage brain and mental health concerns for our youth – the ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences). Chief Bradberry was interested in that as well, so I sent both he and Williams the info from SFY. If you want to know more, let me know. I get real excited about learning and sharing information and helping people understand each other better. Being a human is such a challenge. Even being a Christian human is tough; imagine for non-believers. Urg. If you have never seen the movie The Forge, it is so good about Christian mentorship. We saw it at our church last Sunday night. It is one of those “Kendrick Brothers” videos…. Faith-based, very inspiring.
Christie Lindsey’s follow-up below from the meeting: Link