Arkansas Law Enforcement Assistance Program (ARLEAP)
Finding the New Normal Together
What is ARLEAP?
The Arkansas Law Enforcement Assistance Program (ARLEAP) was founded in 2018 to serve Arkansas’s First Responders and their families. ARLEAP was established by retired Conway Police Department officer Paul Burnett following the line-of-duty death of Officer Will McGary, who was struck and killed by an impaired driver while working a vehicle accident scene. From that tragedy came a mission to ensure that no responder faces trauma alone.
ARLEAP provides support to dispatchers, law enforcement officers, EMS personnel, firefighters, corrections staff, and their significant others. Our services extend to state, federal, local, private, volunteer, and retired responders throughout Arkansas. We also work alongside LEAP partners across the nation to “pay it forward” to those who serve others in their most difficult moments.
ARLEAP offers three primary avenues of support:
- Training
- Critical Incident Debriefs
- Post Critical Incident Seminars (PCIS)
Our peer team members are trained through the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF), the only critical incident stress management training recognized by FEMA and NATO. In addition, ARLEAP peers have received training through the National FOP’s Power in Peers program.
What makes ARLEAP unique is that our peers and clinicians truly understand responder culture because they have lived it. Many of our clinicians are first responders themselves or are spouses and children of responders. Along with specialized training, they bring personal experience, compassion, and cultural understanding to every interaction, helping responders navigate trauma and find their “new normal.”