Immerse Arkansas Lifts Youth from Crisis

Linda Haymes
April 14, 2025

Last year, Tatiana Porter, 22, felt all her options had run out. Luckily, Immerse Arkansas was there for her.

She had moved to Little Rock from Dallas eight years earlier, but the teen’s home life was unstable. Evictions led to homelessness and job losses. When Tatiana’s mother became sick with cancer, the teen dropped out of high school to care for her.

Tatiana’s story is not unique. In Arkansas, 6,619 children were found to be victims of abuse or neglect in 2024, according to the Arkansas Department of Children and Family Services’ Annual Report. Immerse Arkansas helps Central Arkansas youth move from crisis to overcoming.

Executive director Eric Gilmore and his wife, Kara, opened Immerse Arkansas in 2010 to respond to the needs and obstacles of central Arkansas teens aging out of foster care. The program has expanded to work with all youth from crisis, including those who are pregnant or parents, are runaways or homeless and those who have experienced trafficking or other forms of abuse.

Immerse in the community

The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas supports Immerse through grants the organization has applied for and received.

At the Blue & You Foundation, our mission is to improve the health and well-being of all Arkansans – especially those most vulnerable among us. Immerse Arkansas plays a powerful and transformative role in our state by meeting youth who have experienced crisis, trauma and instability with compassion, consistency and hope. Immerse is not only changing individual lives – they are helping change the trajectory of our community for generations to come. Their holistic approach empowers young people, like Tatiana, to overcome barriers and build meaningful futures. We are honored to support the work at Immerse Arkansas and recognize the profound impact they are making every day.
- Rebecca Pittillo, Blue & You Foundation President

Eric Gilmore
Immerse Overcomer Center (exterior)
The Station emergency shelter at Immerse
The Station Shelter at Immerse (Interior)

Tatiana’s Immerse experience

Tatiana describes her year-long journey with Immerse as life-changing. She moved into The Station, Arkansas’ first homeless shelter for youth ages 18-24, to seek refuge from an abusive boyfriend, enrolled and graduated from Immerse’s CORE employment program and saved enough money from her jobs to rent an apartment.

One of her favorite memories is hiking for the first time at Pinnacle Mountain during a group outing. On her birthday, a group from Immerse surprised her with a cake and gifts, which brought her to tears.

“I’m thankful for everything I now have,” said Tatiana. She currently works two part-time jobs and is completing training to become a certified clinical medical assistant. Eventually, she hopes to work with children in pediatrics.

The staff at Immerse have helped her in all areas of her life, from providing food, shelter and safety to counseling and mentoring. They have guided her to complete her basic education, find employment and further her career goals.

“The greatest gift the people here have given me is love,” Tatiana said. “I’ve learned that letting other people love me is OK. And they’ve taught me it’s OK to ask for help.”

How it started, how it’s going

While serving as house parents at a local group home, Eric and his wife watched, shocked, as one of the young women they had cared for exited foster care the day after her 18^th birthday. She had lived in 50 different placements while in foster care since she was 12. Now 18, she was dropped off at the Greyhound bus station in North Little Rock with one bag of clothes and one night’s worth of her bipolar medications.

The couple saw a need and worked to help fill it.

Immerse currently has more than 50 paid employees and 60 volunteers and has served more than 1,000 youths. In 2024 alone, Immerse served 450 youths ages 14 to 24. They now have locations in Little Rock and Conway, and hope to establish a northwest Arkansas location next year.

Immediate needs and long-term help

Immerse opened its emergency shelter, The Station, in 2024. The Station offers immediate assistance to youth in crisis and protects vulnerable youth, integrating them into its proven youth programming. Immerse also provides a 24/7 crisis helpline.

The program’s Youth Center, OC (or Overcomer Central) is a safe, inspiring place where youth from crisis can receive healthy meals, showers, laundry, life skills training and a computer lab. Its long-term transitional program, LifeBASE, provides supportive, stable housing and personalized coaching and mentoring to help teens transition to adulthood. LifeBASE also supports the youth in furthering their education and finding employment.

Providing the tools for success

“No one should enter adulthood with nowhere to turn and no one to help,” said Gilmore. “Harsh realities like being homeless or aging out of foster care are big barriers, but they’re not the end of the youth’s story. We began this program to help them.”

“The biggest things we offer are a place to belong and the opportunity to be successful,” said Gilmore. “These young people have the desire, the talents and the intelligence for success. But they don’t have the tools, from basic needs to relationships with others, that are the foundations these youths need to succeed.”

Gilmore said Immerse Arkansas offers the youth relationships with people who genuinely care about them and want to invest in their lives.

Paying it forward

Graduates from the Immerse Arkansas programs help those who follow them through an alumni support program, giving back to the next generation in crisis as volunteers, assistants or mentors.

“I’m just so thankful for everything they do here at Immerse,” Tatiana said. She is candid about what her future might have looked like without the organization’s help.

“I’d be in jail, something worse, or possibly even dead,” she reflects. “I’ve been through so much already in life but also accomplished so much.”