What does it feel like to be adopted? Check out these voices of the adoptees themselves. A fantastic Minnesota story by American Radio Works from 2007 featuring siblings Chris and Amanda in Wanted: Parents. The story is here, the audio is here (transcript of the audio is here).Roger's story for Wanted: Parents - A Place [...]
Online social networking sites allow youth in foster care and adoption to connect with others who have shared their experiences. However negotiating social relationships - online ones included - can still be tricky. Youth can can be at risk, and for foster and adopted youth, issues such as who to trust, what to share, and [...]
Today's National Adoption Month post is aimed at foster youth. Although adoption is often presented as being about the best interests of the child, in reality the child or youth in foster care has very little say or input about their own permanency planning. Social workers, Guardian ad litems or CASA workers, judges and foster [...]
On Sunday, November 4th over 400 families participated in the Circus of the Heart, a joint effort of the MN Department of Human Services and the Minnesota Adoption Resource Network. According to the Star Tribune, the event was created to celebrate the adoption of 540 children from foster care in 2011. Commissioner Lucinda Jesson opened [...]
It's National Adoption Month time again. Since President Clinton expanded National Adoption Week to National Adoption Month in 1995, National Adoption Month has been an effort to bring attention to the children and youth in foster care in need of adoption. Throughout this month we will be highlighting stories about foster care adoption and bring [...]
The Children's Bureau just released their 2012 Centennial Adoption Excellence Awards. The report is available here. Awardees include agencies, organizations and individuals that have contributed to the adoption of children and youth from foster care. The program goes back to the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. The awards were presented on october 10 [...]
This morning NPRran a story, Helping Foster Kids Even After Adoption, about the types of post-adoption supports that families that adopt from foster care often need. One of the interviewees on this show is Debbie Riley, our partner at the Center for Adoption Support and Education (CASE). CASE's Training on Adoption Competency curricuum is the [...]
Significant changes were made to the foster care statutes in the last legislative session. This post will summarize part of the new legislation changes, and more will come in a future post. Several definitions were amended: "Child" was amended to include references to other statutes allowing youth to remain in foster care to age 21."Sibling" [...]