Adoption and Foster/Kinship Care Support Groups

PN-8100.6500-030

Mutual support groups whose members are individuals who have adopted a child or are considering or in the process of adoption, birth parents who relinquished a child for adoption, people who were, themselves adopted, foster care providers, children in foster care, kinship caregivers (paternal or maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members, members of a child's tribe or clan, godparents, stepparents, neighbors, friends of the family or other adults who can serve as "family"), children cared for by relatives under a formal or informal kinship care arrangement and/or adults who, as children, were raised in foster or kinship care. Groups may also be structured for adoptees, siblings and/or birth parents who have been reunited; older kinship caregivers who have taken on an unexpected parenting role later in life; and people who have other kinship issues, e.g., grandparents and other relatives who have been denied access to a grandchild or other youngster due to a death or divorce in the child's family. Meeting formats may include in-person, telephone or Internet options.

Adoption Services

PH-0300

Programs that participate in arranging permanent homes under new legal parentage for individuals whose birth parents are unable or unwilling to provide for their care. Included are programs that provide counseling and assistance for people who decide to relinquish their children for adoption or arrange for an independent adoption; which recruit, select, counsel and match suitable adoptive parents with children who have been relinquished; which assist in the adoption of stepchildren, adults or foreign-born children; which provide foster care for children who have been relinquished for adoption but not yet placed; and/or which assist people who are adopted to locate their birth parents and birth parents to locate the children they relinquished.

Foster Home Placement

PH-2400.1900

Programs that link individuals who are in need of alternative living arrangements with appropriate private family homes that are licensed to provide foster care. Licensing requirements vary from state to state and, in some situations, licensing is not required at all. Programs that provide placement services for children and adults with disabilities are generally also responsible for recruiting, training, certifying and monitoring placements in family homes and for providing support for the family and the individual(s) with disabilities who live with them.

Foster Parent/Family Recruitment

PH-2400.2000

Programs that identify and enlist people who are willing to provide foster care for dependent children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse, neglect or abandonment and need an alternative family living arrangement, or for children or adults with developmental disabilities, sensory impairments, physical disabilities, emotional problems or multiple disabilities who are unable to live with their birth families or in an independent setting. Programs that recruit families to provide foster care for children and adults with disabilities are generally also responsible for training, certifying and monitoring placements in family homes and for providing support for the family and the individual(s) with disabilities who live with them.