Safe Haven Baby Boxes mission is to prevent illegal abandonment of newborns by raising awareness, offering a 24-hour hotline for mothers in crisis and offering a last resort option for women.
Founder, Monica Kelsey, started Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Inc. after learning she was abandoned as an infant and after seeing a "baby box" in operation at a church, in Cape Town, South Africa. She has made it her personal mission to educate others on the Safe Haven Law and to do whatever it takes to save the lives of innocent babies from bei
Founder, Monica Kelsey, started Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Inc. after learning she was abandoned as an infant and after seeing a "baby box" in operation at a church, in Cape Town, South Africa. She has made it her personal mission to educate others on the Safe Haven Law and to do whatever it takes to save the lives of innocent babies from being abandoned. The Safe Haven Baby Box takes the face to face interaction out of the surrender and protects the mother from being seen.
The Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization's primary goal is to raise awareness of the Safe Haven Law. Women in crisis can call the 24 hour hotline and can receive counseling and assistance. To date, the hotline has received close to 4,000 calls from every state in the United States. Safe Haven Baby Boxes has referred over 500 women to crisis pregnancy centers, assisted in 6 adoption referrals, and have had at least 90 legal Safe Haven surrenders. Ten babies have been surrendered in one of our 52 baby boxes. Three babies were surrendered to firefighters at Safe Haven Baby Box locations. Since April 2016, when the first box was installed, there have been no dead abandoned infants in the state of Indiana.
2018 Annual Report is now available. See below.
Raising awareness of the Safe Haven Law is vital and educating our youth is one of our primary goals. Safe Haven Baby Boxes representatives have spoken to students in hundreds of schools and universities in the past five years. Our representatives are available to speak to any size group - individual classes or an assembly with all students. Please contact us if you are interested in having someone speak at your local school.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes travels to fire stations and hospitals to train first responders on the Safe Haven Law. We find that many of our first responders are familiar with the law, but need more training on how to handle safe surrenders and their response to mothers-in-crisis. Please contact us for more information or to schedule training.
Billboards are an effective method for raising awareness of the Safe Haven Law, increasing our reach to potential mothers-in-crisis. To date, there are 21 billboards in Indiana and Ohio and one in Arkansas. Funds are used from grants and donations for billboards in these areas. Our hope is to have billboards in or around communities where Safe Haven Baby Boxes are available.
The Safe Haven Baby Boxes program offers services that go beyond the installation of a baby box in a fire station and/or hospital. Raising awareness and providing support to mothers-in-crisis prevents illegal infant abandonment. Having a baby box in a community provides a focal point to support the Safe Haven Law and allows our first responders and community with a proactive method to eliminate illegal abandonment.
We connect with communities through traditional marketing strategies like fliers, fundraising events, billboards and media coverage. Our primary mode of direct communication is through the National Safe Haven Baby Boxes Crisis Hotline (1866-99BABY1). This service provides for Mothers-In-Crisis to speak to a crisis counselor with the goal of providing access to resources that provide the mother-in-crisis the necessary information to make the right choice for her infant.
Please contact us if you would like more information about how to get a Safe Haven Baby Box in your community or to learn more about getting them in your state.
Founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Monica Kelsey, knew she was adopted at birth and raised by a Christian family in Paulding, Ohio. It wasn't until the age of 37 that Monica discovered the shocking circumstances of her conception and subsequent birth. She learned that her birth mother had been brutally raped and left to die and that she had abandoned Monica just a few hours after giving birth.
After some soul searching, she stopped wrestling with the "why" and instead decided to focus on the "how." She did this by asking herself one question: "How can I take this gift of life that I've been given and make a difference?"
The answer turned out to be simpler than Monica could ever have imagined: follow God's plan for her life, believe her life has purpose, and embrace the realization that she is on this earth--that her life was saved to fulfill that purpose. Her journey to Cape Town, South Africa and her discovery of a “baby box” in operation there lead her to the beginning of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, the only safe haven organization that is saving abandoned babies through electronically monitored boxes installed in fire stations and hospitals in the United States.
Monica is also a retired firefighter and medic, living in Indiana. Her mission to protect all human life from conception to natural death is personal. She has been sharing her pro-life views with millions of people since February 2011 and works diligently to support pro-life legislators who take a stand to defend the lives of the innocent.
Mrs. International 2016
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