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The Village established Our Legacy to help you learn a little more about the work and issues that we must grapple with every day. We also want everyone to know why it is important to become a Champion for children.
The month of November has always been particularly important because of it being recognized as National Adoption Month. The Village has worked tirelessly for 200 years to place children into homes with caring foster and adoptive parents. We also want you to learn more about our HOME FOR GOOD initiative, which is a priority in our three year Champions for Children Bicentennial Campaign.
We must look forward to a day when every child will have a warm and loving home.
30 Years of Placing Children into Loving Homes
Starting out as a Village social worker in adoption, RunaWassermann has been a consistent advocate for children for nearly 30 years. Since the merger of adoption and therapeutic foster care 5 years ago, she has been a program director in Permanency Services which focuses on placement of children. With so much experience and wisdom, Legacy E-news asked Runa some basic questions about adoption and how the Village for Families & Children prepares and supports adoptive families.
What are the types of adoption that you see at the Village?
The Village does only domestic adoption; we do not do inter-country adoption. Children who are placed into a pre-adoptive home are referred to us from the State of Connecticut Department for Children and Families (DCF). The children range in age from very young to 12, 13 and 14 years old.
What is the process to adopt?
The first steps are for us to conduct reference and background checks on all prospective foster or adoptive families. Fingerprinting is also required, and they all must go through a training program in order to be approved. At the Village we do three or four trainings a year, each one lasting for nine weeks. Most families are approved within three to four months. Then, we hold lengthy discussions with each family to determine the personality type of child that would be a good placement taking into account the age of the child, their family expectations, and the realities of support and care for that child. We discuss the legal matters that can be involved, since many of the children who come into DCF care are not legally free for adoption; they still have ties to their birth families. This can sometimes be challenging for families when they first hear about it, since they may feel there is a plan for adoption when in fact the child's birth parents may still be working with DCF so that the child can return back to home.
Even if a child is legally free for adoption, he/she must remain in the home of the family for six months to a year before the finalization process for adoption can be brought to Probate Court. Ultimately, the goal is permanency, and the highest degree of that is an adoption finalized in Probate Court. The State of Connecticut did very well in increasing the rate of adoption last year, and the Village did a significant job in contributing to that success; this is why we wanted to highlight and recognize the families who most recently adopted a child in this year's Candlelight Celebration.
The Village adoption program recruits and approves families for children with special needs whose permanency plan is adoption. The program also serves biological parents who need help with planning for themselves and their children. The program reflects the belief that it is the right of each child to be wanted, loved and to grow up in a safe and nurturing family. Children are placed primarily through DCF.
 Are there any characteristic traits adoptive parents all share that you have seen at the Village?
Adoption is the longest running program here at the Village. For many years it was a specific service, not tied to foster care. It has only been recently that the adoption, therapeutic foster care and permanency services have all merged. But I think some characteristic traits are people who have a sense of humor and who are family groups that don't give up easily. Some families may have already had challenges themselves, and they were able to overcome those challenges. They then became interested in fostering a child since many of the same challenges the family already faced they were able to work through - and now they are better prepared and able to adopt a child.
How realistic can a family's expectations really be if they don't know what they will be getting into? It is important for a parent to say "yes, I am not perfect but my child needs me nonetheless."
The State received an award from the Federal Government for high placement rates; what strategy does the Village use to help contribute to this outcome?
The recruitment of adoptive families is where we have to start. We have to have a healthy pool of adoptive families, and it is nice to have a pool that reflects the diversity of the children and that is representative of the children we are trying to place; cultural backgrounds, etc. But this is a real challenge. We are very careful about matching children, and in a condensed version The Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 (MEPA-IEP) is one of several recent federal initiatives and laws aimed at removing the barriers to permanency for the hundreds of thousands of children who are in the child protective system. This initiative really came about so that children would not linger in the foster care system because someone said that a child can only be placed into a family of the same race. So when we do our trainings for parents, the key is that families are able to say "yes, we are a trans-racial family" and for those families to be able to provide the child with what they need in order to keep their cultural background alive.
The right pool of adoptive families comes to the Village through both our outreach efforts and by word-of-mouth. We often say that foster or adoptive parents who have gone through the process are to some degree the best recruiters. We do get families that way, but it is critical for us to be out in the community and visible. However, we are currently seeing less families coming forward, perhaps due to the economic downturn. It is a challenge because if you don't have the families, you can't place the children.
The specific intentions of MEPA-IEP are to:decrease the length of time that children wait to be adopted,
- facilitate the recruitment and retention of foster and adoptive parents who can meet the distinctive needs of children awaiting placement, and
- eliminate discrimination on the basis of the race, color, or national origin of the child or the prospective parent.)
For more information on MEPA, click here.
How do we prepare a child to enter or transition into a permanent family?
Once we have a family and child candidate that seem to be a good fit, then we provide as much information as possible to the family about the child - including their talking to other people who personally know the child. Then, if the family thinks yes, they may be interested in meeting the child, a schedule is arranged for visitation. Depending on the circumstances, the visiting and relationship building can go on for months. It is also especially beneficial if the child is older, so that we can have their input in the process too.
What does Village staff do when things don't seem to be going well with a placed child?
It is sometimes hard to know what the results will be when a child is placed with a family. We are supportive, accessible, and sometimes counseling or therapy may be recommended. Our Village permanency social worker will continue with in-home services to support or refer any needed services. For example, if the child is having problems in school, we go with the family to visit the school to advocate on behalf of the child and to discuss what resources in the school or locally that may be helpful. But the key, especially for families considering adoption, is that they must understand that they will become part of the child's life. There are situations that require counseling that the child must work on. The family must remain an integral part of the family counseling process - this is extremely important to success. In adoptive care, the worker who is assigned to a family will certainly focus on the adoption issues, the family and child getting to know each other and by being supportive. Also, it is sometimes necessary for a family to get their own support system if they live very far away.
If someone wanted to adopt a child from the Village, how much will it cost?
It does not cost anything to adopt through the Village, and in fact most of the children will come with some form of a subsidy when the adoption process is complete.
Depending on the needs and the age of the child and especially if the child has been certified as special needs and difficult to place, financial assistance is available or at least medical assistance for the child. Now, what is really nice is that the laws have changed so that parents of an adopted child (as well as foster children) are now eligible to receive tuition assistance for college education. This is applicable to families who have adopted since 2007, so things have definitely improved for adopted children.
Many of the families who adopt are from the greater Hartford. Still, we are very open to working with families from any area; if a family is willing to come here we will definitely work with them.
How can a person learn more about the Village’s adoption and foster care process?
This is also where our recruitment efforts come in and our ability to raise awareness- every second Thursday a month we have our information meetings at Village South. People find out about these meetings when they call our office for information, or they see it posted in community calendars. Others find out through information on our website or through flyers that we distribute.
Families interested in adoption may attend Village information sessions on the second Thursday of each month.
Call 860.236.4511 for more information.
 Home for Good - A Campaign priority
This November is an important month to celebrate the joys of adoption - both for the adopted children and for the adults who adopt. But with several hundred children in our state that are in need of placement, we are now facing a critical shortage of available foster homes. The Village's Champions for Children Bicentennial Campaign initiative HOME FOR GOOD focuses on foster care and adoption and on strengthening our outreach and services. Through HOME FOR GOOD, we are helping children find their 'unfound' family. To learn more about our how you can give something back to the community and become a Champion for Children, CLICK HERE.
Links:
Children and Families in the News
Here are a few articles and informational links centered on adoption, National Adoption Month, and issues that the Village must deal with everyday. Please note that by clicking on the links below, you will enter websites not managed by the Village. The Village for Families & Children takes no responsibility for the content contained in those sites as we do not exercise editorial or other controls over them.
Families interested in adoption may attend Village information sessions on the second Thursday of each month. For a schedule of meetings call 860.236.4511 or Click Here.
http://www.villageforchildren.org/images/stories/PDF/flyer%20adoption%20mthly%20meeetings%20english%20spanish.pdf
The President of the United States of America's proclamation.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-proclamations-national-adoption-month
Governor M. Jodi Rell proclamation.
http://www.ct.gov/dcf/lib/dcf/homepage/pdf/nov1adoption_gov_press_release.pdf
"You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent"
The Ad Council's new public service announcement (PSA) campaign of the Children's Bureau, the Adoption Exchange Association, and AdoptUsKids chose this year's theme as "You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent." The PSAs take a look at some of the ordinary situations that parents experience everyday with their children, thus reinforcing the notion that it is these moments that really count.
Click here to watch videos
Child Welfare Information Gateway provides access to information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families. Visit often for the latest on a wide range of topics from prevention to permanency, including child welfare, child abuse and neglect, foster care, and adoption.
Adoption link http://www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/
Achieving & Maintaining Permanency http://www.childwelfare.gov/permanency/
Foster Care http://www.childwelfare.gov/outofhome/
State of CT Department of Children and Families
Info on how to Change a life - yours and a child’s - adopt, foster or mentor a child.
http://www.ct.gov/dcf/cwp/view.asp?a=2561&Q=330740
Connecticut State Statutes/ Adoption
http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/state/index.cfm?event=stateStatutes.processSearch
Connecticut Gains in Adoption Placements Rewarded with Federal Funding.
http://www.ct.gov/Governorrell/cwp/view.asp?A=3675&Q=447800
CT Association of Foster and Adoptive Parents
http://cafap.com/
What are the adoption laws in my state? How do I find out about my state laws governing adoption?
Adoptions in the United States are primarily governed by State laws and regulations. Federal laws regarding adoption are limited to laws regarding assistance in adopting children with special needs*, tax laws which give credit or exclusions for qualified adoption costs, and laws governing the placement of children.
Child Welfare Information Gateway, a service of the Children’s Bureau, provides summaries of some aspects of State adoption laws and other relevant legal information on its website at http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies. While every attempt has been made to be as complete as possible, additional information on these topics may exist in other sections of a State's code as well as in agency regulations, case law, and informal practices and procedures. For more information, you may wish to contact an attorney familiar with adoption laws in your State; the American Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service provides a State-by-State directory of attorney referral programs at http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/lris/directory/home.html; click on your State for a listing of referrals. In addition, the Cornell University Law School online Legal Information Institute has a page relating to legal issues in adoption at http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/adoption.
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