Good jobs have a massive part to play in family preservation. Just in case you are new to this conversation, when we talk about “family preservation” — we are talking about families staying together. While it is a complex conversation, we are all about families staying together whenever and wherever it is possible and we seek to be those who are addressing anything that would prevent this — one of the largest factors we have seen in Haiti and in much of the world is the lack of fair employment, offering living wages which then allows a parent the means to raise their children.
According to our friends over at The Archibald Project, upwards of 80% of the children living in children’s homes or orphanages have a living parent. While there are absolutely real and valid reasons that a child needs to be removed from their home, poverty shouldn’t be one of them. Fair employment disrupts the narrative for many families, where a children’s home seemed to be the only option. We exist to disrupt poor employment that leaves moms and dads unsupported and unable to raise their children.
Over the next two months, we are going to lean into conversations about all of this: family preservation, motherhood, fatherhood, foster care, adoption, children’s homes, and more. We will share accounts of people we love and follow in the family preservation space and will offer a few opportunities for us to meaningfully lean in and live in a way that helps to keep families together.
Our non-profit partner for the next two months is a local organization out to remove the need for foster care by wrapping around families with all the support needed. We will be sharing more about them but go ahead and get familiar with We Are The Echo. We are huge fans.
Open and available, let’s lean in and grow together, because the story matters.