November is National Adoption Month. This month we celebrate the families who have already been joined through adoption and call attention to the children and youth who are still waiting for a permanent family. This year’s National Adoption Month is focusing on older youth in care, specifically 15–18 year olds in foster care. This year’s theme highlights the importance of identifying, developing, and supporting adoptive parents to become “no matter what” families for teens. Social workers often play key roles in the lives of older youth in foster care and can continue to be instrumental in connecting older youth with permanent families.
To help professionals in this process, Child Welfare Information Gateway, in collaboration with AdoptUSKids, has gathered resources on this year’s National Adoption Month website to help child welfare agencies develop an effective response system that includes targeted recruitment, preparation, and ongoing development and support of prospective and current adoptive parents. For more information visit the following:
- Explore resources For Professionals, featuring materials on recruiting and responding to families for teens and involving and engaging teens in the process.
- View the Videos and Podcasts page that showcases the stories and voices of adopted teens and their families.
- Print and use the tip sheet, Talking With Older Youth About Adoption, which provides practical examples on how to start the adoption conversation with youth.
These resources can help social workers and their agencies build more targeted recruitment strategies and develop a continuum of development and support services. Social workers can also help promote and support the adoption of teenagers and keep these critical conversations going all year long.
For more information on National Adoption Month, click here.
In addition, please visit the following NASW resources:
NASW Standards for Social Work Practice in Child Welfare
How to Screen Adoptive and Foster Parents
For other child welfare resources at NASW you can click here.
