[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.7″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-bbff193d-9f25-4f62-a082-b0a280e7e4f7%22:%91%22background_color_gradient_stops%22,%22background_color_gradient_stops%22%93,%22gcid-c942ee9b-53e7-4bb2-9226-c767f8018c86%22:%91%22background_color_gradient_stops%22,%22background_color_gradient_stops%22%93}” title_text=”vibrant-rainbow-sky-stockcake” background_image=”https:\/\/riosrainbow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/vibrant-rainbow-sky-stockcake.jpg” sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”|||” custom_width_px=”1440px” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.7″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”||||||||” header_font=”Playfair Display|700|||||||” header_text_color=”#ffffff” header_font_size=”60px” header_line_height=”1.5em” header_2_font=”||||||||” header_3_font=”||||||||” header_4_font=”||||||||” header_5_font=”||||||||” header_6_font=”||||||||” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” text_orientation=”center” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||20px|” locked=”off” inline_fonts=”Annie Use Your Telescope” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”gcid-bbff193d-9f25-4f62-a082-b0a280e7e4f7″ divider_weight=”3px” disabled_on=”on|on|off” _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” max_width=”80px” module_alignment=”center” height=”10px” custom_margin=”||20px|” animation_style=”slide” animation_direction=”bottom” saved_tabs=”all” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-bbff193d-9f25-4f62-a082-b0a280e7e4f7%22:%91%22color%22%93}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.7″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Archivo||||||||” text_text_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.8)” text_font_size=”18px” text_line_height=”1.8em” header_font=”||||||||” text_orientation=”center” max_width=”600px” module_alignment=”center” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Our goal is to raise $50,000 by December 31st to fund child-safety grants and sustain the advocacy, education, outreach, and operations that make this work possible in Indiana. Donate HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Featured Products” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”_initial” custom_padding=”38px|0px|0px|0px||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.7″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.7″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.7″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Rio Marie Allred was a vivacious, beautiful, sarcastic, and witty 12-year-old girl from Elkhart, Indiana. Rio loved creating and drawing, was an avid reader who completed the entire Harry Potter series at a young age, and enjoyed camping and kayaking with her family and rocking out with her best friend, Lili. In December 2020, Rio began experiencing hair loss. What started subtly became more aggressive over time, and Rio was eventually diagnosed with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes the body to attack its hair follicles.<\/span><\/p>\n When Rio started middle school in the fall of 2021, she was severely bullied because of her condition. She was taunted and called horrific names. Students took her wigs and hats from her head, and she endured physical assaults on a regular basis.<\/span><\/p>\n Rio\u2019s parents, Aaron and Niki Ball, repeatedly met with school officials at multiple levels of administration seeking protection for their daughter. Despite their continued pleas for help, the severe bullying remained unresolved.<\/span><\/p>\n On Monday, March 14, 2022, Rio died by suicide. She was only 12 years old.<\/span><\/p>\n Rio was, and remains, fiercely loved by her family and friends, as well as by countless people who never had the opportunity to meet her. Rio\u2019s Rainbow was established in her honor to create meaningful change, protect children from abuse and bullying, and ensure that no family is forced to endure the devastating and preventable loss of a child they love.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, Aaron and Niki remain deeply involved in frontline child-safety work across Indiana. They continue this work because the same gaps in school accountability, safety, mental-health resources, intervention, and oversight that contributed to Rio\u2019s death still exist. Children throughout Indiana continue to be abused, bullied, neglected, and lost to suicide at alarming rates, while too many parents are left pleading with the very systems responsible for protecting them.<\/span><\/p>\n Rio\u2019s story is not an isolated tragedy. It is a call to action.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Rio\u2019s Rainbow works to ensure that every child can attend school and grow within their community without fear, free from physical, emotional, and psychological harm. We advance this mission through:<\/span><\/p>\n -Child-safety and anti-bullying advocacy<\/span><\/p>\n -Direct support and resources for children and families<\/span><\/p>\n -Community education and prevention initiatives<\/span><\/p>\n -Grants supporting child safety, youth wellness, and family advocacy<\/span><\/p>\n -Legislative reform and stronger institutional accountability<\/span><\/p>\n -Collaboration with parents, educators, organizations, and state leaders<\/span><\/p>\n -Long-term systems change that prevents harm before tragedy occurs<\/span><\/p>\n We believe children deserve more than sympathy after they have been harmed. They deserve prevention, protection, accountability, and meaningful action.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Alongside other grassroots organizations, parents, youth, survivors, advocates, educators, and community leaders, Rio\u2019s Rainbow helped launch the Indiana Child Safety Campaign, a growing, parent- and community-led movement working to make child safety a top legislative and budgetary priority throughout Indiana.<\/span><\/p>\n Through years of advocacy and direct work with children and families, we have learned that the gaps threatening children do not exist within one school, agency, county, or community. They exist across nearly every state system serving children, including:<\/span><\/p>\n -Schools and educational institutions<\/span><\/p>\n -The Department of Child Services and child-welfare system<\/span><\/p>\n -Healthcare and mental-health systems<\/span><\/p>\n -Juvenile and family courts<\/span><\/p>\n -Youth-serving organizations and community institutions<\/span><\/p>\n The Indiana Child Safety Campaign brings families, advocates, professionals, community organizations, and policymakers together to identify these systemic gaps and advance comprehensive reforms. Our work focuses on strengthening prevention, expanding mental-health and family resources, improving reporting and investigations, enforcing school and institutional accountability, protecting children\u2019s and parental rights, and creating independent oversight and transparency across child-serving systems.<\/span><\/p>\n Our vision is an Indiana where every elected official, agency, institution, and community recognizes protecting children as its highest responsibility, and where families no longer have to wait until a child is seriously harmed before someone acts.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Protecting Indiana\u2019s children will require all of us. Whether you are an individual, parent, advocate, educator, professional, community member, business, or organization, there is a place for you in this movement.<\/span><\/p>\n Add your name to the growing number of Hoosiers calling on Indiana\u2019s elected officials and state leaders to make child safety a top legislative and budgetary priority.<\/span><\/p>\n By signing, you are standing for stronger prevention, protection, accountability, transparency, mental-health resources, and systemic reform across every institution serving Indiana\u2019s children.<\/span><\/p>\nProtecting Children: A Year-End Call to Action<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
From Heartbreak to Action<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
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The Indiana Child Safety Campaign<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Join the Indiana Child Safety Campaign<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
Sign as an Individual<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n