About Arkansas METRO

Arkansas METRO is the only non-profit organization in Arkansas created to become the central location for churches and other organizations to send working Arkansans who are reaching out for financial assistance. We are privately funded and do not receive any government funding for helping the working poor become financially independent citizens. We partner with churches, employers, civic organizations, and others to help make life better.

Mission Statement

Arkansas METRO strives to break the generational poverty cycle by helping working people with financial assistance, stopping their dependence on churches, civic organizations, businesses, and other agencies, and reinforcing principles of independence through mentoring, education, training and rehabilitation.

Vision Statement

Our vision is that all churches, businesses, and civic organizations partner with Arkansas METRO to achieve permanent financial solutions for working Arkansans.

Feel like you meet the criteria for assistance? Reach out to Arkansas METRO here.

Feel like joining in and helping Arkansas METRO with our mission? You can donate here.

Our Story

Jessica needed rent money to stave off eviction and keep three kids and an ill grandmother from living on the streets. Month after month, she came up short and her debt continued to snowball. In desperation, she sought temporary relief by asking a church for rent money. She just wanted to get through the next month.

But Pastor Donnie Copeland had different ideas for Jessica. And from those ideas, METRO was born.

In July 2011, Pastor Copeland decided it was time to offer long-term solutions to the never-ending cycle of financial dependence that the impoverished have on churches and civic organizations. A pastor of 30+ years, he saw some of the same people at the church’s doorstep on a monthly basis. He always gave them a few dollars, but knew that it only perpetuated their dependence and never addressed the underlying issues that drove them there.

So he established METRO (Mentoring, Educating, Training, Rehabilitating, and Overcoming) to break the cycle of poverty and to help those who are willing to help themselves. His aim was for METRO to become the central location where churches, businesses, civic organizations, and others send people who are reaching out for financial assistance. His idea was to employ tough love tempered with a little guidance in job training, budgeting classes, higher education, and more to help the underprivileged achieve independence.

Pastor Copeland and the METRO team began taking clients, assessing their finances and living situations, and creating “Path to Independence” recommendations for each one. METRO became a place where excuses were eliminated and future financial assistance was offered only to those who were serious about changing their lives.

Jessica, METRO’s first client, followed the plan that METRO devised for her and is now able to pay her rent every month. She graduated with an associate’s degree and is now pursuing her bachelor’s. 

With your help, we can continue to produce success stories just like Jessica's.