Find Nonprofits

Building Families for Children

For nearly a century, we have been giving a new start to at-risk children and families through our continuum of services. As a nonprofit, faith-based organization headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, we work with the state, churches, and other organizations. We operate in Central Maryland, as well as in Baltimore City. Over the years, we have helped about 20,000 children and parents – regardless of their background or beliefs. We serve kids in families and communities, versus institutional settings, believing this best encourages their healthy growth and development. Whenever possible, we try to keep children with their biological parents. We offer families therapeutic services and material support, and we work with communities to create a place where families can thrive. If for whatever reason a child must move, we temporarily place them with another family – a secure, screened and monitored one. This placement may be with a volunteer “host family” for a matter of days, weeks or months to give their parents a chance to get back on their feet. Other volunteers provided additional support. Or placement may be with a “therapeutic foster family.” Dedicated foster parents help children with behavioral and/or emotional needs while working with mental health professionals. In addition, we offer support to young adults who are aging out of foster care with few resources. A team of caring volunteers helps the young adult establish goals and accountability. Together they develop and implement a plan for a successful transition to adulthood. We are proud to have impacted families and children with life-changing services. We’ve seen families move from homelessness to stability, youth continue their education and start successful careers, communities surround families with strong networks of support. It’s an honor to be a part of their stories.

Columbia, Maryland

Fair Start Movement

The Problem: Family planning in the world today is based upon a parent-centered and isolationist model that hurts children, families, communities, and our environment. That model prevents the realization of freedom and is the fundamental source of our social and ecological crises. That model is the product of governments and businesses that profit from population growth, want to avoid collective obligations that require investing in rather than exploiting future generations, and who helped eliminate the responsibilities inherent in having kids as a means of accelerating growth. The Solution: Having Kids acts as a “part replacer,” replacing the morally incoherent parent-centered model, which has been debunked by theorists, with the truly human rights-based and child-centered Fair Start model. That move will also create space for the development of even better models. Future children should be the focus of family planning laws and policies because they have the most at stake. That change is the key to freedom – the freedom to a say in the rules under which one lives, to equal opportunities in life, and the freedom from others that is nature. That is what a decolonized future looks like. This is not merely theoretical, but the basis for concrete action we can take today at multiple levels of social change – legal, institutional, cultural, discursive, etc. The Fair Start model is the best construction of the moral and legal right to have children. Here are examples of how Having Kids is replacing the old and isolationist model with the Fair Start model. Having Kids is more a praxis of truly human rights-based family planning than an entity. We invite you to join the transition to better family planning by taking actions to ensure kids a fair start in life, and speaking out about what you’ve done. The human brain is predisposed to focus on the immediate over the important. Working for social change without family planning reform is the worst case of this tendency, but together we can change direction. Having Kids is not just another voice in the crowd. Instead, we make sure all voices matter by changing the nature of the crowd.

Tucson, Arizona

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Assembly Of God-Hessville

Making a difference in communities through dedicated service and impact.

Hammond, Indiana

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Northeast Iowa Food Bank, Inc.

Making a difference in communities through dedicated service and impact.

WATERLOO, Iowa

Nepal Orphans Home, Inc.

Nepal Orphans Home attends to the welfare of children in Nepal who are orphaned, abandoned, or not supported by their parents. NOH provides for the children's basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing, as well as schooling and health care, and administers to their emotional needs with love and compassion, allowing them to grow up in a nurturing environment. Our mission is not just to rescue children from abject poverty, but to enable the children to develop and realize their potentials.

Davidson, North Carolina

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Nature

Beulah, Colorado

LEELANAU CENTER FOR EDUCATION

Making a difference in communities through dedicated service and impact.

GLEN ARBOR, Michigan

BENET HILL MONASTARY OF COLORADO SPRINGS INC

WE are a non-profit, religious group of Roman Catholic women. Our mission is to "provide the sacred space of hospitality and the use of our human and material resources in education, spirituality, and other viable ministries. WE do this with all God's people and with a special emphasis for women."

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Joy-Southfield Community Development Corporation

The mission of Joy Southfield Community Development Corporation (JSCDC) is to support residents and businesses in building a healthy and a thriving community.

Detroit, Michigan

Surfing for Hope Foundation

Surfing For Hope was created to help inspire people challenged by cancer through the positive energy of surfing.

San Luis Obispo, California

Edify

To improve and expand sustainable Christ-centered education globally.

Boston, Massachusetts

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Loving Hands Ministry

Making a difference in communities through dedicated service and impact.

Bradenton, Florida