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Dear Friend,
Last week, reports from Reuters and featured on the Today Show exposed the practice of "re-homing" in which desperate adoptive parents who feel incapable of parenting their children have turned to secret, unethical Internet groups to find new parents for their children/teens. The new homes are unlicensed and unsafe, exposing children to terrible abuse and neglect. Our esteemed colleagues and partners in the adoption community have released statements expressing outrage. They have also outlined critical recommendations to address and prevent this heartbreaking, illegal, and dangerous practice.
C.A.S.E. joins the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC), the National Council for Adoption (NCFA) and other adoption organizations in their recommendations to remedy these tragic situations. We all agree on the imperative need for adoptive families to have access to adoption competent services and supports.
C.A.S.E. has provided education on Capitol Hill in support of legislation to provide funding for the provision of post-adoption support and services. Since our inception in 1998, we have received numerous calls and e-mails from desperate parents around the country seeking referrals for post-adoption assistance. We have tried our best to connect those families with local community based resources; however it is clear that there continues to be a lack of adoption-competent trained clinicians as well as services and supports available to meet these families' needs.
To address this need, in 2009, funding was secured to launch our TAC (Training in Adoption Competency) program, an evidence-informed, intensive, post-graduate training program for clinicians. Experts in the adoption field came together to help us create a standardized, manualized curriculum to build the work force that is desperately needed by adoptive families throughout the United States. We are pleased to say that we currently have nine TAC sites across the country and have trained over 200 mental health professionals to date.
For those of you who reside in the metropolitan Washington, DC area, help at C.A.S.E. is a phone call away. If you reside outside of our service area, we will continue to do our best to help you find resources in your community. It is our hope that you will reach out before the situation you are facing feels insurmountable. Please visit our website to identify the locations of our TAC sites. If you are struggling to locate effective services in your community, we recommend that you contact your local public or private adoption agencies, local or national adoptive parent support organizations, and religious organizations for appropriate referrals.
Finally, we support our colleagues' urgent message that Congress needs to hear from you. Let them know you support legislation that will ensure the safety and protection of children, as well as adoption success, by providing funding and access to adoption-competent, trauma-informed services and supports.
In closing, C.A.S.E. will continue to offer and build adoption-competent services and resources to fulfill our mission to strengthen the well-being of foster and adoptive families, promote adoption awareness, enhance adoption sensitivity, and develop the skills for professionals and families to empower children to thrive.
Thank you,
Debbie Riley, LCMFT
Chief Executive Director
Center for Adoption Support and Education
4000 Blackburn Drive
Burtonsville, MD 20866
(301) 476-8525
(703) 256-3820
[email protected]
www.adoptionsupport.org
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