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Adoption Services for Youth who Want to Maintain Family Contact
Among the funding opportunities provided by the Children's Bureau in the Administration on Children, Youth and Families in FY 2005 were grants for Developing Adoption Services and Supports for Youth Who Wish to Retain Contact With Family Members in Order to Improve Permanency Outcomes. Grantees received funds for the purposes of:
(1) Demonstrating the effective implementation of strategies for introducing the concept of open adoption to youth and/or sibling groups who prefer to maintain contact with birth families and/or siblings
(2) Demonstrating effective implementation strategies for connecting youth to adults to promote a range of permanency options, particularly adoption and open adoption, and including guardianship and kinship care
(3) Demonstrating the effective models of youth leadership and collaboration between youth, siblings and other family members, caseworkers, and possible adoptive families in planning for youth permanency
(4) Evaluating the processes and outcomes of these strategies and models
(5) Disseminating information about these strategies and models so that other States/locales seeking to implement effective open adoption programs for youth and sibling groups have a demonstrated resource for guidance, insight, and possible replication
Nine Cooperative Agreements were funded for a 5-year period, and they currently operate as Demonstration Projects. The awardees are:
- Adoptions Unlimited, Inc., Chicago, Illinois
- Bellefaire Jewish Children’s Bureau, Shaker Heights, Ohio
- Bethany Christian Services, Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Child and Family Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
- Family Builders By Adoption, Oakland, California
- Homes for Black Children, Detroit, Michigan
- Kidsave International, Inc., Washington, DC
- New York Council on Adoptable Children, New York, New York
- You Gotta Believe! The Older Child Adoption & Permanency Movement, Inc., Brooklyn, New York
The grant cluster met to share their progress during the National Adoption and Foster Care Summit on August 3-4, 2006, in San Antonio, TX. Grantees discussed a number of diverse and creative service delivery techniques. One project formed a choir in which foster youth are able to interact and perform together. The performances also serve as a recruitment forum for prospective families. Several of the grantees provide mediation services between prospective adoptive and birth families.
For specific project abstracts and project contact information, please visit http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/grantreview/directory/DetailGranteeServlet.
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