Rooted Beginnings, LLC

11/12/2025

Sensational Fun is a nonprofit organization in WNY with the mission to empower children and adults with diverse abilities. Our therapeutic play center provides sports, clubs, respite, open play, a sensory gym and more. We adapt to create an inclusive and safe environment for all to be themselves.

11/12/2025

Democratic socialism is pro-human flourishing.

11/11/2025

Truth!

I’m so confused why people think a Degree in Child Development taught me the secrets to making children happily compliant.

90% of the comments and DM’s I get are from parents wanting to know how to gain compliance from their child. If I offer anything but a simple, logical solution, they often become defensive and sometimes say hurtful things. People don’t realize that a Degree in Child Development does not teach us how to get children to comply. Why? Because that is not a goal that supports healthy holistic child development.


My children are feral… Like… they are often not compliant. Do I often wish they would just LISTEN?! Oh yes but then I usually realize that’s more about my unmet needs, than their needs. If you want to know how to get your child to obey you, happily, this not the place for you. This is a place for people who want to grow alongside their children. This place is for people who want to embrace their child’s imperfect uniqueness. No you can’t have both; autonomy and control, secure attachment and fear. You need to choose what’s more important to you, as a parent.

Do you want your child to fear you or do you want them to feel loved by you?

Responsive Parenting is not about compliance. It’s about connection. It’s a relationship. And yes this relationship requires you to care for something that can be hard to care for sometimes. The job is nurturing, not controlling. We are so focused on the immediate results of compliance that we’re missing the bigger picture of the relationship with our child.

J. Milburn



Do you enjoy my posts about parenting? This post made the cut for my latest book. It’s a concept I’ve never seen before and I’m excited to be the first content creator to do this. I’ve taken my posts and created a book. The book is visually appealing and easy to read, just like when we scroll online or read a book to our child. You can read one post or a whole section. I know I’m bias but it is a must have for all parents who enjoy this page. It is also a way to pass on the knowledge you have gained from this account, to someone else.

Link in comments

Title: Love Grows: A Collection of Works By J. Milburn

11/09/2025

🌱💚🌱

Sensational Fun is a nonprofit organization in WNY with the mission to empower children and adults with diverse abilities. Our therapeutic play center provides sports, clubs, respite, open play, a sensory gym and more. We adapt to create an inclusive and safe environment for all to be themselves.

11/09/2025

This is why inclusion should be a basic human right. This is what happens when we take the most vulnerable humans in our community and isolate them. Parents should not accept this as status quo. Children deserve access to education in their own community with their siblings and neighbors.

OLV Human Services has placed three employees on leave due to allegations of physical mistreatment of students at Victory Learning Center. 🔗 to story in the comments

11/08/2025

🟫 The Beige Box Initiative
Rooted Beginnings is proud to partner with Sensational Fun to launch the Beige Box Initiative — an inclusion and awareness campaign born from lived autistic experience. 💛

For many autistic children and adults, “safe foods” are not about being picky — they’re about safety, regulation, and survival. Safe foods are those that are predictable in taste, texture, and color — like Cheez-Its, Goldfish crackers, applesauce pouches, or Cutie mandarin oranges.

When these foods aren’t available, it doesn’t just impact what’s on the plate — it affects behavior, regulation, and both physical and mental health. In some cases, the absence of safe foods can even be the difference between eating at all or needing a feeding tube.

Our next step is to identify and adopt 10 families, launch a public awareness campaign, and partner with established food pantries to help them identify families who need beige boxes — and fill in the critical gap in available foods.

We’re asking for your help to make this happen.
Please consider donating to Sensational Fun, our incredible partner, to support this initiative and help ensure every family has access to foods that feel safe and sustaining.

🧡 Donations can be made to Sensational Fun:
🔗 https://www.sensationalfun.org
📍 2881 Southwestern Blvd, Orchard Park, NY
Together, we can build understanding, inclusion, and compassion — one beige box at a time.

Sensational Fun is a nonprofit organization in WNY with the mission to empower children and adults with diverse abilities. Our therapeutic play center provides sports, clubs, respite, open play, a sensory gym and more. We adapt to create an inclusive and safe environment for all to be themselves.

11/07/2025

Hi all happy Friday. We are looking for people to complete our survey. It’s critical so that we can start filling gaps in the community for families who have children on restrictive diets. even if you do not have a child on a restrictive diet , you may have someone on your friends list who does Our goal is to get this out to as many families as possible if you are a special education teacher, please share with your families. If you are a therapist, please share with your families if you work for an agency or a school in any capacity, please share with your families

11/05/2025

🌿 NYS Autism Spectrum Disorders Advisory Board Meeting

🗓️ Thursday, November 6th | 12–2 PM

💻 Public Meeting — All Are Welcome to Join and Comment

This Thursday’s meeting is an important one — for New York State, and for our community. It’s an opportunity for anyone to listen, to learn, and to be heard.

I’m honored to serve on this board, and I hold deep gratitude for the chance to witness this particular moment: a resolution created by a fellow autistic board member will come to a vote. A resolution that represents a long-overdue shift — away from viewing autism through a lens of deficits, and toward recognizing the strengths, brilliance, and humanity of autistic people.

It may sound like a small change, but it isn’t. It’s a turning point — one that begins to move New York State out of old frameworks and into something more truthful, more compassionate, and more just.

But I would be remiss not to acknowledge what still needs to change. Too often, those without lived experience — or even a personal connection to autism — are absent from these meetings. Sometimes physically, sometimes mentally. Many of the “professionals” who fill these seats come from systems that profit from outdated approaches, showing up only when called to speak rather than to listen.

And yet, amid all of this, there is hope. Autistic board members are beginning to be seen and heard. We are here — not to be tokens, but to help reimagine what inclusion really means.

If you can, please join us. You can register at any time and log in, even at the last minute.

🔗https://meetny-gov.webex.com/webappng/sites/meetny-gov/meeting/register/989382a64c4d4008973b46d527e4eb70?ticket=4832534b00000005ff8dcf9fb8ca6f52d2c048231e3b180668703ee536fdee9229a4271745261fbd×tamp=1762348047112&RGID=r1cb0510d9aa6bb8063eb1c53c027d35d&isAutoPopRegisterForm=false

Come witness this shift. Hear the voices of autistic advocates who have waited far too long to be centered. Feel what it means when lived experience finally begins to inform policy.

This is more than a meeting — it’s a moment of change and of possibility.

11/04/2025

11/04/2025

Join Us Tomorrow: Beige Box Initiative Volunteer & Ambassador Meeting 💛
Dear Friends, Volunteers, and Community Partners,
I’m inviting you to join us tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8:00 PM on Zoom for an important meeting about the Beige Box Initiative — a movement to make sure that no child goes hungry because the foods available to them aren’t safe for their sensory or medical needs.
This meeting is open to volunteers, ambassadors, pantry partners, and anyone who wants to get involved. Together, we’ll be planning and moving forward to mobilize — taking the next steps from awareness to action.
We’ll talk about:
🌾 The story behind the Beige Box Initiative — and why lived experience matters.
📦 How we’re connecting families with safe, predictable foods that meet their sensory and dietary needs.
🤝 Ways YOU can help — by volunteering, becoming a local ambassador, or partnering as a donation site.
📝 Updates on our Safe Foods Survey and how to share it with families in need.
🚀 Our next steps for planning, outreach, and community mobilization.
Ahead of tomorrow night, one of our amazing volunteers will be putting together a draft project plan for us to work through together during the meeting — nothing too formal, just a simple guide to help us frame next steps, clarify roles, and assign tasks as we start to mobilize this effort in a coordinated, sustainable way.
Whether you have a few minutes a week or want to take on a larger role, there’s a place for you in this movement. Your compassion and commitment can help bring comfort, nourishment, and inclusion to families across Western New York.
🕗 Zoom Meeting Info
📅 Tomorrow (Wednesday, November 4, 2025)
⏰ 8:00 PM
🔗 https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79223850451?pwd=cbxGDqUGzqTvuLpG3FgGv7oA8bHXbV.1
🔑 Password: rooted
Please share this invitation with anyone who might want to get involved — friends, families, agencies, or local businesses.
Because food is love, safety, and connection. 💛
And every child deserves that.
With gratitude,
Kate Coffman
Founder, Rooted Beginnings, LLC
Creator, The Beige Box Initiative

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