Local StoriesDecember 29, 2022

Check Out Chasidy Brooks’s Story

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chasidy Brooks.

Hi Chasidy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Adoption has been in my heart since I was a little girl. After personally adopting domestically, my sleep was still ravished by the faces of children I knew who slept in terrible situations across the world. Rainbows from Raya allow me to literally still help these children come home from these horrendous situations. Through advocacy and fundraising, I connected with two moms who had adopted from Eastern Europe. We became best friends and eventually made our work official through Rainbows from Raya.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’m not sure that many things worthwhile are ever easy. However, I have had a team who sees my vision and is always on board to push the envelope to do more. Our struggles are gaining funding without being able to share the face of the child who will receive the grant/airfare because generally, the funding is there before the family is known. Our fundraising is all crowdfunding/ grassroots, which has continued to get the job done but we would love to have corporate sponsors support our work as well.

Our first grant as an official nonprofit was December 2019. Which means the remaining have been during pandemic. Our first grant of 2020 was on the last flight out of Haiti. The next was a family who had completed their adoption in Colombia but had to stay for 3 weeks to complete process and had to

Choose to leave the kids there and come home or stay with them, not knowing what would happen. They chose to stay. During our tenure, all international travel shut down for months, China has shut down entirely, and the war broke out in Ukraine- all affecting the landscape of international adoption. Everything looks very different now than when we started just a few years ago. But through all of that, we’ve been able to continue with our mission of supporting families as they bring their children home to forever families.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am the founder of the nonprofit Rainbows from Raya. We provide quarterly grants that pay for the airfare of children being adopted. The one-way ticket home is generally a last-minute, very expensive cost for adoptive families and we love the ability to take this stressor off their plate so they can focus on what’s important- their child.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
As adoptive moms ourselves, we understand the stress that becoming a family can present for a family. It is important to use to honor the fear of the child as they have their worlds flipped upside down and want to help support their families in any way possible to minimize this stress. Financially, we do this through grants. Logistically, we also do this through providing meal trains for families as they arrive home as well as emotional support and education for families.

Contact Info:

Website: www.rainbowsfromraya.org
Facebook: Facebook.com/rainbowsfromraya

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