Arrow Child & Family Ministries

Our previous licensing company closed right after we were fully licensed, so we had to start over. Arrow reached out to us right away with a strong sales pitch, assuring us the process would be smooth since we were already licensed and most of our information would transfer. That was not the case. Arrow has no system for tracking documents—everything was sent and received through email—and the paperwork process was anything but smooth. They required additional steps but provided little to no guidance. When I asked for help, responses came late, if at all. For example, they instructed us to have our home certified by a fire marshal but offered no details on how to do this. Weeks later, they finally suggested trying a third-party company. That only worked because we had moved out of Harris County, since inspections there aren’t even allowed. After completing all of their requirements, submitting endless documents, and paying for inspections, they eventually came out to inspect our home. We were told a home study worker would contact us, but no one ever did. Instead, they informed us that one of our trainings was about to expire and had to be redone. The schedule was entirely on their terms, but we complied. Then they added CPR training to the list—something that could have been mentioned months earlier, considering we had already been working with them for six months. A week later, we received an email notifying us of a “denial conversation” and were dropped from the process entirely. Do not work with this company. They overpromise and underdeliver. Honestly, the way things are handled in Texas is a joke compared to our experience in other states. Families should not have to worry about agencies closing and voiding their licenses, or being dragged through months of requirements only for a company to abandon the process at the final step without a clear reason. Update to your response, you like to sound politically correct in your google response but all I received from you when you terminated licensing was a email attached. To make it worse your company wouldn’t even respond to our original social workers or licensing work from our original state we moved from. So don’t respond with your copy and paste response to all of your negative reviews when it’s all fake. It would have been better to be honest with us so we were prepared than, to just toss us out without any notice or reason.

My family chose Arrow because we believed they shared our commitment to keeping children safe, stable, and connected to their relatives whenever possible. Unfortunately, our experience has been far more discouraging than we ever expected. From the start, communication was inconsistent and unclear. Important questions often went unanswered for long periods of time, and the information we did receive was frequently contradictory or incomplete. This added a great deal of unnecessary stress to an already complicated process. One of the most troubling issues we experienced was a prolonged delay in moving forward with our verification, even though we are a kinship family already providing a stable, long-term home. Despite offering all requested documentation and pointing the agency toward the applicable state rules designed to support timely kinship certification, we were told we could not progress, without meaningful explanation, follow-through, or a willingness to re-examine the policies they were relying on. It became very clear that Arrow is extremely policy-focused but not particularly child-centered. Instead of approaching situations with flexibility, critical thinking, or urgency for the well-being of the children involved, we experienced a rigid, procedural approach that overlooked the bigger picture. We also found that the agency is not the advocating or problem-solving type. When challenges arose, there was no sense of partnership, advocacy, or willingness to push for solutions that aligned with what was best for the children or the family. We entered this process hopeful and committed to doing everything properly. We expected guidance, transparency, and support (the essential qualities any family should be able to rely on when working with an agency). Instead, we were left feeling dismissed, uninformed, and unsupported. I am sharing this review so other families can move forward with a clearer understanding of what to expect. I genuinely hope Arrow will take steps to improve their communication, increase their advocacy efforts, and operate with a more child-centered approach so kinship families receive the support they deserve.

where to begin.. We were originally foster parents with a different agency that ended up closing its doors, so Arrow reached out to all the parents of that agency and offered to absorb us into their system. And all was well and good except they don't know what documents are required within their own system for them to certify you. Over the course of 4 months (the entirety of which, we have children placed with us from the previous agency) their home developer continuously finds new forms for us to fill out and certify. Only for at the eleventh hour, on the morning the developer is to come to our home to conduct the home study to finalize the recertification. We instead get a call that they are not coming and in fact Arrow will not certify us and we need to start over with a new agency. So thank you Arrow for stepping up to the plate when our former agency closed its doors with your ability to completely waste our time.