In This Issue:
- Message from Rachel Pratt, CEO
- AEA Endorses a New Tool for Professionals to Remove Barriers Between Waiting Children and Families Headed By GLBT Parents
- Adoption Opportunities: Diligent Recruitment of Families for Children in the Foster Care System
- AEA Offers New Healthcare Benefit to Employees
- Help AdoptUsKids Find More Media Families Nationwide
Member News:
Message from Rachel Pratt, CEO
Inspired by the success of its family blog (adoptuskids.blogspot.com), AEA has begun a members-only blog. Located at aeamembersonly.blogspot.com, the blog will provide AEA members with new information about the work we do, and give you the opportunity to “talk” to one another about topics of common interest.
Right now, the easiest way to limit access to the blog to members was to require a log-in and to list each active member with blogspot. If you or any of your staff have difficulty logging in, please let me know so that I can correct the problem.
Please check frequently for new posts, and share your thoughts and comments with others. I look forward to starting this new dialogue with each of you.
AEA Endorses a New Tool for Professionals to Remove Barriers Between Waiting Children and Families Headed By GLBT Parents
With 114,000 waiting children in the United States, agencies around the country are struggling to increase the number of qualified families who can provide loving, permanent homes. As many AEA members know, the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender (GLBT) community provides a rich and often untapped pool of prospective foster and adoptive families for children. Organizations can now get the guidance they need to match waiting children with GLBT families by using a new tool from the Human Rights Campaign. Adoption and foster care organizations around the country—including the Adoption Exchange Association and several of its members— have endorsed HRC’s All Children – All Families, that promotes cultural competence among child welfare professionals and educates GLBT adults about opportunities in domestic adoption and foster parenting.
Promising Practices Guide of effective practices for working with GLBT foster and adoptive parents was released at the Child Welfare League of America’s annual conference in New Orleans on December 11, 2007. The guide features sample policies and materials, tips from leaders of welcoming agencies, comments from researchers in the field and GLBT adoptive and foster parents, and an organizational self-assessment for agencies to gauge their current policies and practices and receive guidance for improvement. Agencies can conduct the self-assessment at their own pace. Those that submit their self-assessment online receive one hour of individualized assistance from Dr. Gary Mallon, professor of the Hunter College School of Social Work. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation will create a searchable public database of agencies that welcome GLBT families, and will provide a seal of recognition to those agencies that excel.
All Children – All Families National Advisory Board members serve as key advisors in the development and implementation of the project and provide leadership in the broader child welfare community. Members are Bill Bettencourt (Senior Consultant, Pacific Region Family To Family initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation); Maris Blechner (Executive Director, Family Focus Adoption Services in Little Neck, New York); Michael Colberg (Psychotherapist and Child Welfare Advocate); Janice Goldwater (Founder and Executive Director, Adoptions Together in Silver Spring, Maryland); Jill Jacobs (Executive Director, Family Builders, in Oakland, California); John Levesque (Board of Directors, North American Council on Adoptable Children); Ernesto Loperena (Executive Director, New York Council on Adoptable Children); Gary Mallon (Professor and Child Welfare Researcher/Author, Hunter School of Social Work); Ann McCabe (Family Therapist and Child Welfare Consultant in Philadelphia); Nathan Monell (Executive Director, Foster Care Alumni of America); Toni Oliver (Founder and CEO, ROOTS Inc. in Atlanta); Dennis Patrick, (Professor, Eastern Michigan University); Adam Pertman (Executive Director; Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute); Maria Quintanilla (Executive Director, Latino Family Institute in West Covina, California); Karey Scheyd (Family Recruitment Specialist); and Al Toney (Education & Diversity Consultant, A&K Consulting in Massachusetts); and Diane Wagner(Division Chief, Adoptions and Permanency Resources Division of the County of Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services).
To request a copy of the Promising Practices guide or for more information about the All Children – All Families initiative, visit www.hrc.org/acaf.
Adoption Opportunities: Diligent Recruitment of Families for Children in the Foster Care System
As many of you may know, the Children's Bureau has announced a funding opportunity entitled "Adoption Opportunities: Diligent Recruitment of Families for Children in the Foster Care System." The application deadline is May 29, 2008, and it is likely that awards would begin at the start of the Federal fiscal year, October 1, 2008. The full grant announcement is available online at:
www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/HHS-2008-ACF-ACYF-CO-0046.html, or click here to download a copy of the announcement.
This cooperative agreements works hand-in-hand with AdoptUsKids. AEA will not be applying, and is not in a position to provide letters of support or internal information to other applying organizations. Please do visit www.adoptuskids.org for the latest publications and other information that may assist you in your applications.
AEA Offers New Healthcare Benefit to Employees
With high-cost premiums already and a proposed 7% increase in 2008, the Adoption Exchange Association chose to offer health insurance plans with high deductibles coupled with funded Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA). While continuing to offer quality benefits, the HRA account substantially reduces costs to both the organization and the employee.
Here is how it will work at AEA: First, health insurance deductibles on one of the available plans were increased to $1,500 (individuals) and $3,000 (families). AEA then established an HRA for each affected employee, and funded those accounts in the amount of the deductible. The employee will pay out-of-pocket up to the amount of the deductible and will submit receipts for full reimbursement. After the deductible has been met, coverage will no longer involve out-of-pocket expenses. AEA also incurred one-time set-up costs for the HRA, and has chosen an external company to administer the HRA rather than administering internally. Set-up and administration must be factored into the planning.
While your own organization’s plans will vary, savings on the AEA plans will be nearly $1,500 for individuals and more than $5,000 for families.
If you are interested in knowing more or have already implemented a similar plan in your organization, please contact Rachel Pratt at rpratt@adoptea.org.
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 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!
Because all children need families, the Adoption Exchange Association serves its members by stimulating innovative solutions, eliminating barriers, advocating, educating, and sharing excellent practice. Our central goal is to assist and encourage our members nationwide as they find adoptive families for all children and youth who wait in foster care.
COAC’s Family Circle of Support: Helping Families With AIDS Plan for Permanency
Gloria, a guidance counselor from Manhattan’s Upper West Side and an avid Salsa dancer, was diagnosed with HIV twenty years ago. She continued to live her life fully until she developed AIDS in 2002. In and out of the hospital, Gloria lost 100 pounds and her hair and teeth, and became too weak to get out of bed. Faced with her own mortality, Gloria knew she needed an advocate as she talked with children about her illness and their own HIV status, and to lead Gloria through the legal process of planning for her children’s lives after her death. Through its Family Circle of Support (FCOS), the New York City-based Council on Adoptable Children (COAC) became the advocate and friend that Gloria needed.
Imagine you have been diagnosed with HIV. Can you psychologically cope with your illness? Are you prepared for your medication regiment, frequent blood work tests, and many trips to the hospital? How will you talk to your family, your children? And how will you prepare them for when you are gone? FCOS is a program designed to be in your corner as you face these difficult issues. Through this important program, COAC helps families come to terms with their HIV/AIDS diagnosis.
Originally started as the AIDS Orphans Program in 1992, FCOS provides permanency for children, case management, supportive counseling, and legal services regardless of insurance or citizenship status. COAC’s qualified staff is well-experienced on AIDS-related issues and the various resources in New York City for those who are diagnosed. Agency staff speaks English, Spanish, and Creole, and provides home or hospital visits to clients cannot travel.
If you would like to learn more about COAC’s FCOS, please contact Ms. Joann Buttaro, at:
Family Circle of Support
New York Council On Adoptable Children
589 Eighth Avenue, Fifteenth Floor
New York, NY 10038
Phone 212-475-0222, extension 212.
jbuttaro@coac.org
Adoption Exchange Association | 8015 Corporate Drive, Suite C | Baltimore, MD 21236 | 410.933.5700 | www.adoptea.org
