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In This Issue:
- Message from Rachel Pratt, CEO
- Help AdoptUsKids Find More Media Families Nationwide
- Helpful Non-Profit Websites
- A New Way to Support AEA: On-Line Shopping Through Giveline
- AEA Standards Committee Meets in June in Chicago
Member News
Message from Rachel Pratt, CEO
This past month, as I worked alongside the Board and the Staff to update the Standards for Adoption Exchanges, revise the organization’s by-laws, and carefully review the Standard Operating Procedures, I clearly saw the two separate but very real challenges that leaders of Adoption Exchanges face each day: 1) recruiting adoptive families for waiting children; and 2) running non-profit organizations.
While I know that the most important reason that you value your membership in AEA is the former, while serving our members I can’t forget that we will achieve our mission only if we run our organizations well. So, along with information about adoption and foster care, AEA begins with this issue of the newsletter to also bring to you information about such topics as maintaining a strong and diverse workforce, fundraising, and working with a Board of Directors. Please let me know if you have specific questions or topics of interest so that I can find answers for you.
Help AdoptUsKids Find More Media Families Nationwide
As you know, AdoptUsKids is dedicated to increasing the public awareness of children in foster care who are available for adoption. Members of the Adoption Exchange Association are an important part of our national media outreach. We receive many requests from radio, television and print reporters across the country. We have available spokesfamilies who are willing to participate in these interviews. However, we still need more families! If you are aware of any interested families who have experience with adoption and foster care, please ask them to contact Kate Kirkpatrick at kkirkpatrick@adoptuskids.org or (717) 545-5251.
Please tell your families that they they are the best voices for adoption! We also understand that each family has many commitments and therefore may need to decline an invitation to participate in an event or interview. By agreeing to be a spokesperson, it is not assumed that they will be available to participate at all times! Please contact Kate directly if you have questions. Thanks so much!
Helpful Non-Profit Websites
The internet has brought information and best practices for running non-profit organizations closer to home. Some national websites you may find useful are listed below. There are additional resources in all of your states.
Alliance for Nonprofit Management
www.allianceonline.org
A professional association, with a host of free resources as well.
Board Café
www.compasspoint.org
Offers information and resources to help non-profit board members.
BoardSource, Inc.
www.boardsource.org
A range of materials to assist non-profit board members
The Foundation Center
www.fdncenter.org
While there are paid memberships to the Foundation Center’s site, basic giving information can be searched and accessed at no cost. Other non-profit information and resources are also available on the site.
The Internal Revenue Service
www.irs.gov/charities
Needs no explanation, except that the site has a separate section for non-profits and charities where forms, instructions, and brochures can be found that will assist non-profits in completing their annual financial filings with the IRS.
A New Way to Support AEA: On-Line Shopping Through Giveline
In May, AEA registered with Giveline.com. Giveline.com is an online store created for the community-minded shopper, offering more than a million bestselling products including books, movies, music, electronics, housewares, gifts and more. Every purchase generates a substantial donation to Adoption Exchange Association – an amazing average of 16% of store sales, sometimes as high as 33%. Giveline has great products, great service, and great prices – the only difference between Giveline and other major online retailers is that every purchase earns money for our organization. Check it out today, and if you decide to buy, remember that the Adoption Exchange Association will earn funds in support of our mission!
Click the button below to begin shopping!
AEA Standards Committee Meets in June in Chicago
The AEA members charged with updating the Standards for Adoption 
Exchanges met for two days in June in Chicago. Present were Colleen Ellingson (Adoption Resources of Wisconsin), Maryjane Link (Children Awaiting Parents), and Rachel Pratt (AEA), with David Wing-Kovarik (Families Like Ours) joining the group remotely.
In 1983, the AEA developed and published its first professional Standards for Adoption Exchanges. These have become a guide to newly forming exchanges and a reference for the industry. They were updated in 1996. The latest version should be ready for distribution to the AEA members by early fall.
The 2007 version builds upon the original 1983 Standards and the 1996 revision, which were based on a review of the policies and procedures of Exchanges in the United States. The 2007 Standards include enhanced and updated information, and their formulation has evolved from contributions by AEA members, extensive discussion of principles and issues by the AEA Board of Directors and the AEA Standards Committee. Development of the Standards provided an opportunity for Exchanges to examine practice, define objectives, clarify concepts, and affirm convictions about achieving permanence for children.
A Standard is a basis of comparison, a criterion, a measure, a benchmark. AEA’s Standards provide guidelines for Exchange services. They are written for an optimal level of service delivery and are intended to be goals for continuous improvement. They represent practices considered to be the most desirable in providing services to children, their families, and agencies. AEA’s Standards are intended to:
- Be utilized by Exchanges but also provide insight and goals that can be useful for a broader audience—everyone concerned with finding families for waiting children, including the general public, citizen groups, public officials, legislators, various professional groups, administrators, board members, and agency and Exchange staff.
- Stimulate improvement of services. They offer a basis for examining and questioning practice and the premises from which policies developed. They provide a way to evaluate performance of Exchanges and the adequacy of existing services.
- Assist in planning, organizing and administering services. They provide content for training Exchange and agency staff. They can help to explain and justify expenditures, budget requests, and appropriations.
AEA looks forward to sharing the new Standards with all of its members and continuing the dialogue about the very best services to children and families.
The AEA promotes and supports interactive relationships among Adoption Exchanges and stakeholders to:
- Stimulate innovative solutions
- Eliminate interjurisdictional barriers
- Advocate
- Educate
- Actively share information, resources, and effective practices for the benefit of waiting children and families.
Military Families for Children from The Adoption Exchange of Aurora, CO
The AdoptUsKids website is generating considerable activity about military families adopting. The site, coupled with Wherever My Family Is That’s Home, the AdoptUsKids guide for military families, makes adoption a real option for military families, and caseworkers now see military families as an incredible resource for waiting children. The AdoptUsKids book about adoption and military families can be ordered online.
The Adoption Exchange in Aurora, CO is doing exciting work with and on behalf of military families, including a recruiting trip to a US military base in Italy, a collaborative training for caseworkers, and a presentation to its member states about military recruitment.
Recruiting in Italy
Gricignano, Italy, is home to a US naval military base. It was also the host site of a recent adoption symposium for military families. The Adoption Exchange was the only organization at the event to present on adoption from the US foster care system! Topics discussed included the adoption process and challenges that adoptees and families face. There was even the opportunity for some child-specific recruiting. The Italy event, patterned after an adoption symposium held each year in Germany, was attended by more than two dozen prospective adoptive military parents.
Collaborative Caseworker Training
The Adoption Exchange, the National Military Family Association (NMFA) and the Voice for International Development and Adoption (VIDA) conducted two training sessions for caseworkers and military personnel in Colorado. The sessions focused on the many resources available to military families and offered great recruiting tips for caseworkers to better utilize military families as a resource for their waiting children. The Colorado Department of Human Services will be conducting training training on successfully working with military familes in a different part of the state later this year.
Presenting to Member States
The Oklahoma Department of Human Services presented military recruitment strategies to The Adoption Exchange’s member states at the most recent quarterly meeting. OKDHS caseworkers have taken recruitment to the next level by traveling to Germany and placing children overseas. They shared their inspiring stories and offered strategic recruiting methods.
As a result of all of this work, the many military families have expressed interest in adopting AdoptUsKids and The Adoption Exchange continue to promote military families to caseworkers as a useful resource for U.S. waiting children. Check out The Adoption Exchange's next collaborative presentation at the Child Welfare League of America conference in December!
Three Rivers Adoption Council Receives Older Child Initiative Grant
Three Rivers Adoption Council (TRAC) has been awarded the Older Child Initiative Grant from the Statewide Adoption & Permanency Network (SWAN) for the second year. The Older Child initiative is an effort to place many of the state’s older children into permanent homes. The grant focuses on children between the ages of 9 and 18. During last year, TRAC placed 25 waiting children, 17 of whom were in the 9-18 age range, completed 36 family profiles, and recruited 400 families.
TRAC will continue the effort begun last year to establish valuable relationships with faith-based organizations across the state to recruit families as resources for waiting children. “We really work intensively with the church congregation to get them educated about the need for permanent families for older children.” said TRAC Executive Director, Jacqueline D. Wilson. This grant gives TRAC the opportunity to duplicate the successes in the church community here across the state.”
Another important component of the grant is TRAC’s continued engagement of county agencies across the state. TRAC’s matching department has provided county workers with permanent families that will be good resources for the more than 1,900 children awaiting homes. New to this year’s county component of the Older Child Initiative, TRAC will conduct six Matching Summits to bring county agencies together to discuss best practices for choosing families for waiting children.
For this initiative, TRAC is cultivating relationships with the Governor’s Advisory Commission on African American Affairs and the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs. These relationships will build solid ties to these communities and to legislators who need to be aware of the difficulties faced by children who live their lives in the child welfare system.
For more information about TRAC’s older child initiative and the SWAN grant, contact Bridget Clement, (412) 471-8722, beclement@3riversadopt.org.
Report Issued on COAC Post-Adoption Calls During 2006
The Council on Adoptable Children (COAC) enlisted the help of Trudy Festinger, DSW, from School of Social Work of New York University to help the organization better understand calls to its post-adopt services warmline. The result is a 16-page report by Dr. Festinger that summarizes all 288 calls from 200 callers during 2006. Information that was tracked and analyzed includes basic demographic items describing the caller, the nature of the caller’s request, descriptive information about the adopted children in the home, information about each child’s behavioral and special problems, demographic information about birth and foster children, and call outcomes. Here is some information from the report that Adoption Exchanges—particularly those providing post-adoption services or support—might find interesting:
- Phone calls averaged 18 minutes in length (median) each, ranging from two minutes to three hours. When you factor in multiple calls per family, the median length of time that warmline staff spent per family during the year was 20 minutes, ranging from two minutes to seven hours.
- Most callers (78%) called only once, 13% called twice, and the remaining 9% called between three and nine times during that year.
- The most common warm-line request was a caller needing to talk to someone, followed by requests for a parent support group, crisis intervention in the home, mental health counseling, adolescent support groups and financial/subsidy problems.
- The top three concerns mentioned by callers were school crisis (45%), complaints about defiance and curfew violation (41.2%), and verbal aggression (37.4%). When verbal aggression and anger are combined, this was mentioned by 41.2% of the callers.
- Callers who mentioned special needs of children, most frequently mentioned substance exposure (54.2%) followed by attention deficit disorder (48.3%), and learning disability (27.1%).
The Festinger report gives much more detail about the findings. Read the entire report here or contact Ernesto Loperena, COAC Executive Director, at (212) 475-0222 or eloperena@coac.org for more information about his warmline or the forms developed during this study to track caller information.
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