Local Nonprofit Works To Help Adopted, Foster Children Of Color With Hair, Skin Care Needs

“When you look good, you feel good,” but for many children in adoptive and foster care, that just isn’t the case.

Adoption and foster care parenting is a good thing, but it comes with challenges. One of those challenges is knowing what to do to take care of the children's hair.

Cut It Forward is a local nonprofit group set up specifically to help with hair and skin challenges for children of color. Vanessa Morrison founded the group.

"When we look at foster care specifically in Oklahoma, we have about 9,600 kids in the foster care system and children of color are disproportionately represented in that number. So, you have a lot of children of color in that system," Morrison said.

Morrison is a product of the foster care system. She said too many times, you see kids with hair breakage and hair loss and skin issues that go untreated. All of this can result in children being bullied and have low self-esteem.

The group consist of barbers, as well as haircare and skin care specialist, all working together to get these kids looking and feeling great.

The program recently caught the attention of a big-time partner.

"We are so fortunate and excited that Target off Northwest Expressway and Rockwell reached out to us, and just loved our mission and wanted to see ways to support us. So we met with them recently and we’re going to be collaborating with them on an ongoing basis," Morrison said.

The group host several workshops and product giveaways throughout the year. They are always looking for support and one of the easiest ways is to follow them on their social media platforms at Cut It Forward, to help get the message out.

There is also a donation link on their website at CutItForward.org.