Today we’d like to introduce you to Whitney Runyon.
Whitney, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m one of the founders of The Archibald Project, the leading orphan care advocacy organization in North America.
Since documenting an adoption in Bulgaria in 2011, my husband Nick and I have traveled internationally 19 times to work with families and organizations seeking to holistically fight the orphan crisis. Through our years of hands-on experience Nick and I have learned the hard way who to trust and that when it comes to vulnerable people how we must investigate and ask hard questions because people’s lives are at stake.
Currently, our focus is on the United States Foster Care Crisis. I say crisis because it truly is, we have over 420,000 youth in foster care, many of whom do not have a foster family available to them, so they are living in group homes or CPS offices. There are more children who need a safe place to live than there are foster families in our country, so we are passionate about using our storytelling and social media platforms to really educate and inspire a foster movement across America.
The Archibald Project’s desire is to see the orphan + foster crisis eliminated. This does not mean there will no longer be vulnerable children in the world, but this means that every child will have a safe and healthy home environment where they have the opportunity to develop and thrive.
A few years ago, as we were working with a beautiful family preservation organization in the Republic of Congo we met our three children and became a family through adoption.
Please visit @thearchibaldproject on IG and www.thearchibaldproject.com to learn more.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When we were first starting out, since we are an advocacy nonprofit, and were using storytelling to accomplish our mission before storytelling and social media were really popular, we had a handful of people tell us not to quit our day jobs! It wasn’t fun to hear that people thought we would fail, but our passion was deep and a few naysayers didn’t slow us down.
I always tell people who are just starting a new endeavour/business/nonprofit that slow and steady wins the race. We’re living in a world of instant gratification, but I truly believe so much character development happens when we stick with something through the years and really pour our hearts and souls into it. You might not see massive success right away, or ever, but just keep going!
We have seen The Archibald Project’s work inspire countless people into caring for vulnerable children. One of the coolest things is: we aren’t all called to adopt or foster, but we can all do something. Through TAP’s stories and advocacy, we educate people on all the ways to get involved, so people have written to us saying that they are becoming a social worker or psychiatrist to help youth in foster care, or people have helped vulnerable moms keep their children out of foster care by stories we’ve shared! The ways to truly help vulnerable children are endless and we’ve seen such a huge impact over the years of people starting to understand that they can play a part even if they don’t adopt or foster.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The Archibald Project tells stories that change lives. There is no one else in the world doing exactly what The Archibald Project does. Yes, there are organizations telling stories, but they are very specific to their own businesses, such as their adoption agency, their education program, their family preservation efforts, their foster care work etc, but TAP tells stories about all the ways to get involved. Adoption, foster care, family preservation, child education, child trafficking and orphanages, corruption in international adoption and supporting birth mothers and adoption ethics, are all things we share and are passionate about! We have an amazing podcast (Around the World with The Archibald Project) where we interview guests who have real-life experience and can share wisdom and advice for our listeners, like adult adoptees, or adults who aged out of foster care, or attachment therapists or transracial adoptees, etc.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Our definition of success would be someone seeing (or hearing) one of our stories and they decide to care for a vulnerable child or family in some shape or form.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@thearchibaldproject.com
- Website: www.thearchibaldproject.com
- Instagram: @thearchibaldproject and @whitrunyon
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thearchibaldproject
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM32JmlLuOH8PaeuL59znbQ
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/around-the-world-with-the-archibald-project/id1034940481
Image Credits
Whitney Runyon Photography The Archibald Project
