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CATEGORY #1 DECREASE IN THE TIME CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE WAIT FOR PERMANENCY
There were no awards in this category.
CATEGORY #2 INCREASED ADOPTIONS
There were no awards in this category.
CATEGORY #3 INCREASED PERMANENCY FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
AWARDEE: | Esther Conyers Social Worker III |
(Category #3 Increased Permanency for Children with Special Needs) |
ADDRESS: | The Village for Families & Children, Inc. Special Needs Adoption Program 1680 Albany Avenue Hartford, CT 06105 860-297-0574 860-808-0889 FAX econyers@villageforchildren.org |
Over the past nine years, as an Adoption Worker for the Village for Families & Children, Inc., Ms. Conyers has worked closely with the Connecticut State Department of Children and Families in finding permanent, loving homes for its most difficult to place children. During her tenure in Special Need Adoption, Ms. Conyers has many accomplishments including:
Ms. Conyers has advocated for the needs of adoptive families and became a special needs adoptive parent herself. She spearheaded an initiative that lead to a new policy under which the Village provides reimbursement for fees/ expenses for their employees who adopt a child.
AWARDEE: | Illinois Department of Children and Family Services | (Category #3 Increased Permanency for Children with Special Needs) |
ADDRESS: | 406 East Monroe, Station #70 Springfield, IL 62701-1498 217-785-2509 217-785-1052 FAX mcdonald@adcfs.state.il.us |
Through the leadership of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the State of Illinois has restructured its permanency options in ways that build on the strengths and cultural traditions of the African-American family and turned kinship into a positive advantage for achieving permanency. During the late 80's and early 90's there was a radical increase in the number of Illinois foster children living with kin. By June 1996, 61% of all Illinois children in foster care were living with kin. While the use of kinship care was a significant success, DCFS recognized that children in kinship care had longer lengths of stay, partly because they were less likely than children in non-related foster care to exit the system through adoption or reunification. By 1996 Illinois had the highest rate of kinship care in the country, a fact that prompted the Department to rethink its attitudes and policies toward kinship care and permanency. Illinois redesigned its system to be responsive to the strengths and culture of African-American families by initiating three program components:
The new casework processes resulted in more adoptions than ever anticipated. The results were striking:
AWARDEE: | Faith House | (Category #3 Increased Permanency for Children with Special Needs) |
ADDRESS: | 5355 Page St. Louis, MO 63112 314-367-5400 314-367-3101 FAX |
Faith House, the first licensed child caring and placement agency in Missouri, cares for children who are drug exposed, HIV exposed and abused. As the needs of children in foster care became increasingly more complex, Faith House recognized that reunification was not always a viable option for their children and that there were insufficient adoptive homes available. Over the years, Faith House has:
AWARDEE: | Partnership for Adoptions | (Category #3 Increased Permanency for Children with Special Needs) |
ADDRESS: | Children's Home Soc. of VA 4200 Fitzhugh Avenue Richmond, VA 23230 804-353-0191 804-353-7451 FAX chsva@erols.com and |
Chesterfield-Colonial Hts Dept of Social Services PO Box 430 Chesterfield, VA 23832 804-748-1180 804-717-6294 FAX vlr041@central.dss.state.va.us |
Partnership for Adoptions is a collaborative approach involving a licensed, private adoption agency, a department of social services, and clinical professionals in the community. The intent is to bring together clinical expertise and parent education to help assure permanent families for children in the custody of social services and deter adoption disruptions. Partnership for Adoptions has:
CATEGORY #4 SUPPORT FOR ADOPTIVE FAMILIES
AWARDEE: | The Kinship Center | (Category #4 Support for Adoptive Families) |
ADDRESS: | 1504 Brookhollow Drive, Suite 111 Santa Ana, CA 92705 714-957-1004 714-957-1065 FAX dsilverstein@kinshipcenter.org |
The Kinship Center has provided leadership and innovative funding strategies to create landmark adoption-focused child development and mental health programs in Orange County that support the permanent placement of some of the most challenging children in the child welfare system. They feature:
AWARDEE: | Mical Anne Morrill | (Category #4 Support for Adoptive Families) |
ADDRESS: | Family Life Advocate-Downey Side, Inc. 400 Sibley Street, Suite 20 St. Paul, MN 55101 651-228-0117 651-228-0038 FAX stpaulmn@downeyside.org |
Mical Anne Morrill is a Family Life Advocate for Downey Side, Inc., a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide permanent families for foster care youth aged seven through seventeen. Ms. Morrill has
Her successes can be attributed to her realistic approach in facilitating adoptive trainings. Initially, she assists families through a self assessment process to determine whether or not they can successfully parent an older child with special needs. Once families commit to the adoption process, Ms. Morrill empowers them to be successful in their adoptive journey.
AWARDEE: | Child-Rite, Inc. | (Category #4 Support for Adoptive Families) |
ADDRESS: | 216-J Paseo del Pueblo Norte PO Box 1448 Taos, NM 37571 505-758-0343 505-578-4482 FAX Info@childrite.org |
Child-Rite, Inc., is an extraordinary private, non-profit adoption services and support agency dedicated to the belief that every child deserves a permanent, loving and culturally sensitive family, and that there is no such thing as an "unadoptable" child. Founded in 1986 as a support group for adoptive families of special needs children, Child-Rite now serves families throughout New Mexico through its two offices. Its founder, Dr. Larry Schreiber, an adoptive father of ten, views Child-Rite as a means to serve the many thousands of special needs children still waiting in foster care or other institutional settings for permanent, loving homes. Child-Rite is unique in many ways:
Child-Rite enjoys an exceptionally low disruption rate of 8%, which it attributes to the constant availability of no-cost services that allow families to return for support or referral at any time.
CATEGORY #5 Public Awareness
AWARDEE: | African American Adoption Agency | (Category #5 Public Awareness) |
ADDRESS: | 1821 University Avenue Suite N-263 St. Paul, MN 55104 651-659-0460 651-644-5306 FAX afadopt@afadopt.org |
The African American Adoption Agency (AAAA) is based in St. Paul, Minnesota. AAAA has successfully used mass marketing, cultural connections and community relations to raise awareness and galvanize the community to address the issue of the disproportionate number of African-American children waiting for permanent homes in the State of Minnesota. Although African-Americans constitute just five percent of the population in the State, African American children comprise 43% of the foster care population. The following strategies resulted in 40 adoption finalizations in 2001 and 2002:
AAAA has made strides in finding permanent homes for waiting children through its outreach and public awareness efforts. The community has responded by finding homes for more than 260 waiting children.
AWARDEE: | Indiana's Adoption Initiative | (Category #5 Public Awareness) |
ADDRESS: | C/o Children's Bureau of Indianapolis, Inc 615N. Alabama Street #426 Indianapolis, IN 46204 317-264-2700 317-264-2714 FAX Ssmock@childrenbureau.org |
Indiana's Adoption Initiative is an ongoing campaign designed to educate individuals throughout the state about the need for adoptive homes for Indiana special needs children.
CATEGORY #6 INDIVIDUAL AND/OR FAMILY CONTRIBUTIONS
AWARDEE: | Tom and Elizabeth Richmond | (Category #5 Individual and/or Family Contributions) |
ADDRESS: | 1204 Glenwood Peoria, IL 61606 309-672-2377 309-672-2958 FAX |
Since becoming foster parents in 1993, Tom and Elizabeth have parented or provided respite care for 15 children. The Richmonds have adopted three children, Danielle, age 14, Caden, 8, and Olivia, 3, all having special needs.
Elizabeth continues to volunteer at the Crisis Nursery. She also serves as Co-Chair for the Central Region Foster Care Advisory Council, and serves as a trainer for the DCFS Foster and Adoptive Parent PRIDE training curriculum. She has served on the following State level organizations:
AWARDEE: | Allison Rosati, News Anchor | (Category #5 Individual and/or Family Contributions) |
ADDRESS: | 454 North Columbus Drive Chicago,IL 60611 312-836-5555 312-527-4238 FAX |
Allison Rosati's passion for giving a voice to children underscores her personal and professional approach as an award winning news anchor. Having once been a foster child, she understands and relates to children who long for a stable family structure. Now a newscaster with NBC 5 Chicago, she:
Allison's extraordinary commitment is evident in the way she approaches each segment, how she instructs the production team and how she reaches out to each child.
AWARDEE: | Jess McDonald, Director | (Category #5 Individual and/or Family Contributions) |
ADDRESS: | Illinois Department of Children and Family Services 406 East Monroe, Station#70 Springfield, IL 62701 217-785-2509 217-785-1052 FAX mcdonald@idcfs.state.il.us |
Under the leadership of Jess McDonald, Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the department has made dramatic improvement in securing permanency for Illinois children. Through strategic partnerships, program innovations and bold leadership, Director McDonald has orchestrated an agency success story so striking it has become the basis for a case study at Harvard's Kennedy School of Public Policy. He had a distinguished career in State government, and assumed the directorship of the department in 1994. Director McDonald has long recognized the vital role of partnerships in reform and has reached out to the courts as well as to child welfare agencies personally to demonstrate his commitment. His initial partnership with Cook County Juvenile Court judges resulted in:
Under Director McDonalds's leadership, Illinois has secured three separate federal waivers to test policy innovations designed to support the rapid movement of children from foster care to permanency. He led the organization in implementing performance-based contracting, an initiative that won Harvard's Innovations in American Government Award. Building upon the State's successes, he has brought his commitment and passion for child welfare reform to national audiences. His approach to getting better results for children has been consistent: make the right kinds of investments in appropriate training, high quality casework and support for families who commit to forming a life-long relationship with a child.
AWARDEE: | Brenda Krause Eheart Executive Director |
(Category #5 Individual and/or Family Contributions) |
ADDRESS: | Generations of Hope 1530 Fairway Drive Rantoul, IL 61866 217-893-4673 217-893-3126 FAX b-eheart@uiuc.edu |
An adoptive parent herself, Brenda Eheart has devoted herself in her personal and professional life to promoting adoption as a way to build families. She has worked tirelessly to implement innovative adoption practices within the traditional foster care system in three principal ways.
CATEGORY #7 APPLIED SCHOLARSHIP AND/OR RESEARCH
There were no awards in this category.
CATEGORY #8 PHILANTHROPY
AWARDEE: | Daunte Culpepper, Minnesota Vikings African American Adoption Agency Celebrity Spokesperson |
(Category #8 Philanthropy) |
ADDRESS: | African American Adoption Agency 1821 University Avenue Suite N-263 St. Paul, MN 55104 651-659-0460 651-644-5306 FAX afadopt@afadopt.org |
Daunte Culpepper, quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, is celebrity spokesperson for the African American Adoption Agency (AAAA) in St. Paul, Minnesota. Duante, himself adopted, is personally committed to help finding permanent homes for Minnesota's more than 350 waiting children of color. While Duante's generosity has resulted in significant direct and indirect financial support, his philanthropic contributions are much more far-reaching. He has
Duante is the face of adoption. He helps overcome stereotypes and build community connections. By sharing his story, he has helped the AAAA place more than 260 children in their forever homes.
AWARDEE: | Freddie Mac Foundation | (Category #8 Philanthropy) |
ADDRESS: | 8200 Jones Branch Road McLean, VA 22102 703-918-8888 703-918-8895 FAX |
The Freddie Mac Foundation helps children fulfill the dream of having a family of their own. The Foundation was founded in 1991 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to opening doors to hope and opportunity for children, youth and their families.
Freddie Mac's philanthropy makes a specific and critical difference for local agencies that serve children in foster care. There are countless examples:
Freddie Mac stands out as a foundation that understands the whole picture of achieving permanency for children in foster care: public awareness and education about the need, parent recruitment, family training, skillful assessment, matching and placement, and post-adoption follow-up and support.
CATEGORY #9 JUDICIAL OR CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT
AWARDEE: | Massachusetts Coalition for Permanency for Children and Betsy Neisner, Chairperson |
(Category #9 Judicial or Child Welfare System Improvement) |
ADDRESS: | MCPC PO Box 268 Leverett, MA 01054 413-367-0015 413-367-0164 FAX massadoption@aol.com |
The Massachusetts Coalition for Permanency for Children (MCPC) is a multidisciplinary group with representation from the courts, public/private child welfare agencies, attorneys and community advocates, as well as, birth, foster and adoptive families across the Commonwealth. Their common interest is the approximately 3,400 waiting children in foster care who need permanent homes and their birth families.
The Coalition identified the need for implementation of a permanency mediation model in Massachusetts. To that end, the Coalition engaged in:
AWARDEE: | Erie County Court Improvement Project | (Category #9 Judicial or Child Welfare System Improvement) |
ADDRESS: | Erie County Family Court One Niagara Plaza Buffalo, NY 14202 716-858-8184 716-858-7115 FAX stownsen@courts.state.ny.us The Honorable Sharon S. Townsend |
The Court Improvement Project (CIP) is a collaboration of the Erie County Family Court, Erie County Department of Social Services, New York State Office of Children and Family Services, child welfare agencies, legal advocates, and service providers. Begun in 1998 it was born of the commitment to a process of long-term system change.
AWARDEE: | Catawba County Department of Social Services | (Judicial or Child Welfare System Improvement) |
ADDRESS: | PO Box 669 Newton, NC 28658 828-695-5600 828-695-2497 FAX Bobby@mail.co.catawba.nc.us |
From 1998 through 2002, Family Builders of Catawba Valley (FBCV), the adoption unit of Catawba County Social Services, created a dramatic change in the county's foster care population. Adoption increased by 50%; the foster care population decreased; more children exited the county's custody; and the median number of days in foster care changed from 18 months to 11 months. FBCV partnered with the entire child welfare division of the agency and undertook three major system reforms to realize these achievements:
The entire child welfare staff has celebrated these accomplishments together and remain committed to system reform and accountability to ensure that all Catawba County children are safe in a nurturing home.