A “broken family” typically refers to a family unit that has experienced a significant disruption, often due to divorce, separation or the death of a parent. The term can also be used to describe families with unhealthy or severed relationships, even if parents are still together. While commonly used, the term “broken” can be stigmatizing and may not accurately reflect the experiences of all families who have experienced such changes, particularly in the cases of divorce or separation.
There is rarely a family that doesn’t experience some type of brokenness. We see marriages at the breaking point, single parents trying to figure out life on their own, families splitting and children being caught in the middle. This is detrimental to our community, and now there is scientific evidence to explain why this is a problem.
This month, we welcome Marissa Kunes, Mobile Operations Coordinator, to the team. She will be responsible for launching our mobile unit into the community. We will be transporting our mobile unit from Tennessee very soon and preparing it to be branded for Starting Point!
The Starting Point Annual Fundraising Banquet, themed “Preserving Our Heritage,” showcased our commitment to serving families in Knox County. It was an evening full of sharing ministry updates and honoring those who have impacted Starting Point and our community this past year.
Our Male Client Advocates are building trusting relationships of support for these young men. The relationships with our male mentors are reaching outside of the center walls - through calls, texts and even coffee meet-ups. The young men stay engaged, developing hope for their growing families.
Since the elections last year, much debate and tension have reigned in our state. As we anxiously await changes that will likely be made to Ohio’s abortion laws in the wake of Issue One's passage, we still have good news to share with you.
Informed consent is the process by which a health care provider is legally required to educate patients about ALL the risks, benefits, and alternatives of any given procedure or intervention. Nowhere is this more critical than in the area of reproductive healthcare.
Starting Point has spent decades supporting Ohio’s informed consent laws by providing free pregnancy services and education on ALL risks, benefits and available pregnancy options, including Abortion Pill Reversal (APR). Our goal is to equip those facing unexpected pregnancies with the knowledge needed to make fully informed decisions.
Starting Point is committed to overcoming this gap of understanding. Many are surprised to learn that well known celebrities like Jamie Foxx, Steve Jobs, Kristin Chenoweth and Faith Hill are all adopted!! Our staff and volunteers work to encourage and educate young birth moms and dads, not only on a variety of adoption choices available, such as open, partially open and confidential, but also on their own true meaning, value and purpose.
If you follow the news, you may know that pregnancy centers across the country have been under attack since the Dobbs’ Supreme Court decision last year that overturned Roe v. Wade. Ohioans who formerly advocated for making abortion “safe, legal and rare,” not only challenged the 2019 Ohio Heartbeat Law, but are now introducing a November ballot initiative to change the Ohio Constitution. This change would effectively permit abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Key advocates also seek to shut down life-affirming organizations that provide options through education, medical services and material support to those facing an unexpected pregnancy.
We at Starting Point feel called to step up our investment in the lives of young fathers across our community. Pregnancy decision models and educational formats are constantly changing but our core mission to share God’s truth and love with young moms and dads never will. Because of your support, clients facing the fear and anxiety of life changing decisisions will find mentors ready to walk alongside them.
We live in an increasingly complex and fragmented society where it can be difficult to find safe relationships or to build personal, trustworthy support systems. This is where the Start Here Community comes in. Members of this community will not only find education and material support, but also the love and encouragement of staff and volunteers. The team has dedicated their lives to coming alongside those who need a listening ear, the benefit of someone else’s experience, or a safe place to process the life experiences that can be so challenging.
As we celebrate Sanctity of Human Life month, we recognize there are those among us experiencing the “forbidden grief” of pregnancy loss. Everyone knows someone, but these losses are outside the normal rules of polite society, so we rarely know what to say or do. The caring professionals at Starting Point understand and are here to help.
As stakeholders in Knox County for nearly 34 years, Starting Point is committed to educating and empowering teens and young adults to make informed decisions about their relationships and future families.
As stakeholders in Knox County for nearly 34 years, we at Starting Point would like to introduce ourselves to those who may not yet know about this life-affirming organization. We are a faith-based, non-profit Pregnancy and Family Resource Center dedicated to helping young women and men make informed decisions about their relationships and future families.
I wish this wasn’t my story, but God in His great mercy and grace has asked me to make it His story.
Forty-seven years ago, I was a scared 20-year-old student when I discovered I was pregnant. I found my way to Planned Parenthood and believed Satan’s lie, that abortion was a good solution for my problem. No one needed to know my secret and my life could go on as normal. So, I chose abortion.
Creating different social media accounts for both our clients and donors also allows us to reach and connect with the younger generations (Gen Z and Millennials), while still maintaining our relationship with the Gen X and Boomer generations.
I saw a bumper sticker recently that read, “God is pro-life.”
I certainly can’t disagree with the statement. But I also can’t help but wonder if we believers know what pro-life really means. Yes, God is for developing infants. And God is also for the poor, the abused, the neglected, the vulnerable, the abandoned and the marginalized.
I wish I could say it was pure excitement from the first ring. This time around, however, "I’d questioned. And when my phone rang less than twenty-four hours from submitting our “Yes”, I wasn’t sure what to feel but numb. My fingers shook as I answered to hear the words I’d waited so long to hear: “Jamie, she chose you.”
It was November when we knew we’d heard from the Lord about adoption. June when we purchased our new home in preparation. October when we submitted our application. Then finally, it was the beginning of July 2018 when we completed our home study and handed over our profile books to the adoption agency….
Imagine this: You are a single mother, fully responsible for the care of your two children, ages two-and-a-half and 14 months. Most weeks, you are barely scraping by as you live paycheck to paycheck. Your minimum wage job serving at the local restaurant in town covers the bills. . . barely.
You have been making it on your own for a while now, as most of your family lives out of state. You have some friends in town who offer to help, but most days they are unavailable handling their own issues. You wake up every morning feeling the undeniable weight of the day on your shoulders, as you are fully aware that the livelihood of you and your children depends solely on you.
You can do this, you tell yourself when the alarm sounds, even though you’ve been parenting on your own with no support from your children’s father…
Hello! I’m so glad you happened this way. My name is Jamie Read. My husband and I live right here in Knox county with our two young kids: Lucas and Eliana. I am the current board secretary at Starting Point and am a big fan of this ministry for so many reasons.
Fun fact: I love to sign my name “Jamie Joy”. Rest assured, it isn’t because I’m not a fan of my last name. Believe me, I’ve thanked my husband on numerous occasions for not having a long, confusing last name! (Though, of course, I would have married him either way. Probably.) No, I love to sign my middle name because of my story.
My mother was a few months pregnant with me when she lost her father suddenly. It was the next morning, as she sat grieving with my grandmother, I kicked for the first time. A few months later…
