Arrow is proud to announce we’ve expanded our presence in California!

As of last week, Arrow is officially licensed in Riverside. Arrow team members have been working hard over a six-month period to get the new office up and running.

Pam Tarango, a family home developer in Riverside, said a need for foster agencies in the area drove Arrow to open the new office. Riverside County is home to more than 4,000 foster care children, she said.

Team members in California have hit the ground running. The Riverside office already has one certified foster family, one waiting for approval and several more being studied.

“We’re all very excited,” Pam said. “It’s been a long, hard process, but we’re excited to serve this county where there’s such a great need.”

Arrow recently earned national accreditation, making it part of an elite group of foster care providers and opening doors for future opportunities to help kids and strengthen families all over the country.

Arrow became accredited through the Council on Accreditation, an independent, non-profit assessor of community-based behavioral health care and social service organizations. COA has accredited more than 2,000 organizations, and is considered the standard of accrediting excellence. COA partners with human service organizations worldwide to improve outcomes for individuals, families and communities.

The accreditation process took two years and countless hours of work by dedicated Arrow employees, but the payoff is well worth the effort.

Because of COA accreditation, Arrow now meets criteria to provide foster care in many more states, enabling expansion in the future.

Arrow’s accreditation also means Arrow’s Freedom Place is now the only nationally accredited domestic sex trafficking recovery program in the entire country. COA assessed Freedom Place’s treatment process for victims of sex trafficking as well as its residential services before accrediting the program.

“Achieving accreditation shows Arrow is committed to providing excellent care for children who have come from some of the worst circumstances imaginable,” said Arrow CEO Scott Lundy. “These children deserve the best treatment and services possible so they can begin the healing process, and accreditation shows Arrow is prepared to deliver that.”

COA provides an objective, independent and reliable validation of an agency’s performance. Based on their findings, COA’s Accreditation Committee voted Arrow met all criteria to become accredited.

Before accrediting the program, COA reviewed Arrow’s services to ensure we are well-coordinated, culturally competent, evidence-based, outcomes-oriented and provided by a skilled and supported workforce.

Since Arrow operates more than a dozen offices across five different states, a major part of earning accreditation was standardizing policies and procedures to ensure each office is providing the absolute best care for the over 4,000 children and families Arrow serves each year.

Additionally, Arrow increased its accountability to meet COA standards by centralizing and standardizing its continuous quality improvement process. The process allows Arrow to monitor outcomes and measure them against national statistics.

“We’re excited about achieving this significant mile stone, but we’re more excited that it allows us to bring a higher standard of programs and services to even more kids and families in need,” Scott said.