Today we’d like to introduce you to Atasha Kelley-Harris.
Hi Atasha, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
For almost 29 years, having worked for numerous companies across the country and in multiple roles for child and family-serving organizations – in 2020, Founder Atasha Kelley-Harris decided to singlehandedly build a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to strengthen family life by reuniting, reconnecting, and restoring children, youth, and families.
Holding a master’s degree in Educational Psychology with emphasis in Counseling and Human Relations, and as a Certified Family Life Educator, she enjoys educating, modeling, and supporting individuals in all aspects of healthy family life. As a social work administrator, she enjoys mentoring young professionals in their direct practice with individuals and families.
Atasha and her husband have been married for 22 years and have a soon-to-be 19-year-old son who is currently a college freshman pursuing his passions of Basketball and Business Management and Entrepreneurship.
While they have been married for over two decades, Marc and Atasha are actually childhood sweethearts, having met in middle school and began dating shortly thereafter. Having built their family life on the principles of Faith, Family, Friends and Fellowship, they have been able to successfully navigate the highs and lows of marriage and parenting in a unique way that far too many have not been able to successfully accomplish long-term.
They attribute their success in marriage and family life to these three factors: Christ, Commitment, and Compassion. We both understand the need to submit to a Higher Power, as well as to maintain a secure connection by engaging in frequent couples and family-centered fun and community service.
Throughout her entire career, Atasha has been dedicated to helping children, youth, and families. Believing that a healthy family foundation is the strongest predictor of an individual’s future success, Family Roots for Life, Inc. seeks to promote, build, and ensure strong, healthy, stable families, so that children and youth have the positive start in life they so deserve.
The ultimate mission of Family Roots for Life, Inc. is to reunite, reconnect, and restore children, youth and families through the provision of social, emotional, and behavioral health services to ensure child and family well-being.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
While it has not been a completely smooth road, it also has not been an impossible one. Some of the struggles include: (1) staying motivated from day-to-day when you’re the sole person working to build an organization, (2) getting others to believe in and support “your” dream, (3) having to finance your dream with few resources, and (4) having to juggle “life” – through a pandemic – while building.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Non-Profit Administrator and 29-year veteran social worker with experience working with children, youth, individuals, and families across a broad spectrum of social services, including child welfare – foster care, adoption, post-adoption, prevention and early intervention, as well as training, coaching, and consultation.
I am most known for my work as a child and family services professional, having specialized in adoption and child-placement for many years. I hold a Licensed Child-Placing Agency Administrator’s credential in the State of Texas which allows me to make decisions regarding the placement and care of minor youth who are usually in state custody.
I am most proud of the many children and youth I have assisted in helping to achieve permanency – either through reunification with birth family and/or through adoption.
I have also had the opportunity to serve over a decade as a media spokesperson, leveraging my voice and expertise, to help identify permanent families for youth in foster care.
What sets me apart from others is my long-term work in the industry, with almost three decades, and having worked in several different states and across the country at various levels – local, national and with international reach.
How do you define success?
I define success as having achieved whatever goals – large or small – one desires and in whatever timeframe that works best for the individual.
Success is subjective and might look different from one person to the next. Success is essentially what you, as a unique individual, make it to be!
Giving Levels:
- $25 donation
- $50 donation
- $100 donation
- $500 donation
- $1,000 donation
We appreciate your support to our Mission!
Please donate to us at:
https://familyrootsforlife.org/donation
Contact Info:
- Email: info@familyrootsforlife.org
- Website: www.familyrootsforlife.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FamilyRootsForLifeInc/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/
family-roots-for-life-inc- 411590225/ - Other: https://www.volunteerhou.org/agency/detail/?agency_id=124150
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