Fair Start Movement

Category: Adoption, Kinship & Foster Care

  • Should Louisiana adopt a “Fair Start” policy like the proposed Colorado Amendment?

    Should Louisiana adopt a “Fair Start” policy like the proposed Colorado Amendment?

    By Timothy David Ray

    Last year, Having Kids proposed an amendment to the Colorado Constitution that would have enshrined into law, policies that reduced inequality of resources and opportunities for all children born in the state, as well as enhanced natural environmental protections to ensure Colorado’s children had access to the rich natural resources of the state’s ecosystem.

    Louisiana policymakers have expressed support for similar policies, or at least the importance of addressing [through the laws] the inequities of children.  Louisiana policymakers have also fought and won major victories to pass laws protecting the state’s vast natural resources; especially along its coasts.

    It is important to note, in Louisiana, political ideologies amongst the two major political parties rarely align when it comes to family planning matters, and the state is deeply religious.  However, support for children’s equity policies have been supported by lawmakers and policymakers across the political and religious spectrums. 

    The Colorado fair start approach would enshrine “ . . . freedom and equality from the moment of birth . . . ” into the Constitution.  The proposed constitutional amendment also places the state’s natural resources in a trust – held by the State – with the goal of protecting them for the “ . . . benefit of present and future generations . . . “

    A comparison chart of Current Family Planning and Fair Start Family Planning. The left side lists negatives: no minimum welfare, no equal opportunity, no environmental protection. The right side lists corresponding positives.

    Perhaps, Louisiana would support a “fair start” plan as a legislative policy if supporters of the policy could unite a coalition of parents, educators, environmentalists, and lawmakers – convincing them of the need to dedicate new laws that would cause a reduction in inequity among children and provide for the protection and use of public lands.

    Louisiana currently ranks last in the U.S. among the best states for children to live, according to a 2020 report from Save the Children.  Among the organization’s recommendations to provide better opportunities for children, they call for governmental investment in the future [lives] of all children:

    “We therefore call on policymakers at all levels of government to  . . . craft strong policies, provide sufficient resources, and create an appropriate regulatory environment for relevant childhood programs and interventions to flourish.”

    As the Colorado Fair Start proposal gains traction, Louisiana must begin rethinking its approach to providing for the fair, holistic, and equitable development of and investment in children. 

  • National Adoption Awareness Month: Time For Celebs to Step Up and Do the Right Thing?

    National Adoption Awareness Month: Time For Celebs to Step Up and Do the Right Thing?

    November is National Adoption Awareness month, and an opportunity to change the world. How? Public figures play a large role in many peoples’ family planning decisions – including timing, size, and whether we adopt or have biological children. We follow their lead.

    The world is at a crossroads, and whether the average woman in the world has one child more or one child fewer will decide a lot about the future, and whether all the social and ecological crises we face today are exacerbated, or largely ameliorated.

    What celebrities do, in terms of family planning decisions, will help define our and our kids’ future. This month Having Kids will be urging celebrities to model responsible family planning, and adopt, over choosing a large family. While good hearted everyday people are going out of their way to save children in need, many celebs are modeling totally irresponsible behavior. Shouldn’t we be helping kids in need, and building an ecologically sustainable world?

    TAKE ACTION: Politely urge Joanna Gaines to choose adoption @joannagaines

  • The Philippines Has 1.8 Million Abandoned Children

    The Philippines Has 1.8 Million Abandoned Children

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    Kudos to Jonathan Kaiman and Sunshine de Leon for covering the horror of the the Philippines’ 1.8 million abandoned children. Many of these kids live in squalid and unsafe conditions, hoping to find the family they deserve. Kaiman and de Leon are right to focus on the country’s dismal adoption policies and a system that locks children away from the families who want them. But it’s not enough to shake our heads at the symptoms of a larger problem. Instead, we need to find the cause. We have to look further back, at the Philippines’ notorious failure to provide access to contraceptives and reproductive health services. How many women were forced to have children when they didn’t want them? Preventing abandoned children starts with providing access to family planning services. That’s part of the Having Kids model.

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  • Finding a Home for Our Children

    Finding a Home for Our Children

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    Yanerie is looking for a home. Her parents were unable to care for her, so she lives in group housing now. But a recent event where 26 adoptable children and 29 prospective parents tried to “match” with each other has given her hope. 

    “They’ll be able to tell me they love me,” she says of her potential future family, “and I’ll have my own home.”

    It’s a heartbreaking process, and the chances of a teenager being adopted are extremely low, despite Yanerie’s hopefulness. Is there a solution? What if we thought about parenting differently, and instead of everyone isolating themselves to choose whether to have children, we worked together to plan for and invest more in each child. That would mean more parenting resources available for each child, like Yanerie. Maybe then, children like her would have a chance at finding a home.

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  • What Do Madonna, Charlize Theron, and Sandra Bullock Have in Common?

    What Do Madonna, Charlize Theron, and Sandra Bullock Have in Common?

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    All three stars are parenting adopted children.

    In some ways, raising a child is a selfless act, especially when that child isn’t a biological extension of the parent. And while some parents might not see an adopted child as really their “own,” many celebrities and non-celebrities alike would strongly disagree. Adoption: It’s one example of the Having Kids model in action. Smaller families are working together to invest more in each child and provide as much care for the children in this world as we can — for their benefit and for ours.

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  • Adoption: A First Choice for First Kids

    Adoption: A First Choice for First Kids

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    Currently 100,000 children in foster care across the country sit in limbo waiting to join forever families. The adoption group Families in Mississippi for Kids says that many of these children have special needs, come to foster care at a very young age, and often remain in the system until they are teens and age out. While foster care can be very difficult for children, adoptees have a much greater chance of success and often thrive when they find a permanent home. Take Destini Stanford of Hendersonville, NC for instance. Destini spent many years in foster care until she was adopted at age 16. Now, she has overcome habitual shyness to become a public spokesperson for foster children and the benefits of adoption.

    Choosing to adopt allows parents to do a lot of good, both for the child who need a home and for themselves. Rather than having a first, second, or third biological child, prospective parents should consider adoption not as an alternative, but rather as an authentic way to experience parenting and share mutual love with a child who already exists and desperately needs to be loved. The Having Kids model encourages adoption, whether for one or all of a family’s children.

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  • Redefining Kinship With the Responsible Parenting Model

    Redefining Kinship With the Responsible Parenting Model

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    CNN recently cited the need to rethink parenthood, criticizing our cultural fixation on biological connection rather than true kinship and nurturing. The Responsible Parenting model is one way to start to break that fixation, as smaller families work together to invest more in all of their children.

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