Reaching for Healing, Equity, and Permanency; by Misty Coonce and Tori Hensley Being separated from birth parents or caretakers via the child welfare system is a traumatic experience for children and youth. Too often, being placed in out of home care means that children lose their connection to everything that is familiar to them; their… Read more
A couple of years ago a 16 year old young man, was referred to us for child specific recruitment. He had been in foster care since the age of 9, and his parents’ rights were terminated when he was 11. Over those years, he moved between foster homes and group homes. From the records we… Read more
Buddy Families – An Enriching Experience Have you heard of our Buddy Family program? Buddy families are just regular people in the community who step up to become part of the support network for an adoptive family. They get to know parents and their new kids, and help out by spending a couple evenings and… Read more
As an adult adoptee who has worked in the adoption and foster care field for more than 10 years now, my feelings on National Adoption Month are complex, conflicting, and ever evolving. Adoption and foster care are wonderful and painful, necessary and unnecessary all at the same time. For this reason, I am so grateful… Read more
So, what is the 30 Days to Family® program? We know that every child entering the foster care system has a family and community. We as workers just need to find them! This is not always an easy endeavor, but the 30 Days to Family® program uses exhaustive and creative search efforts for family finding. … Read more
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better do better. – Maya Angelou Ampersand Families offers our deepest condolences to the family and friends of George Floyd Though we offer condolences, we do so knowing that our thoughts, words or prayers mean little without our commitment to doing the… Read more
Acceptance Comments Delivered at Voice for Adoption Reception Dirksen Senate Building, Washington, D.C. November 15, 2017 Thank you to Schylar, Melinda and the Voice for Adoption Board for your work – and for recognizing ours. Thanks, also, to the North American Council on Adoptable Children for your nomination. To the congressional delegation who is… Read more
Cloey is awesome at engaging in her own recruitment. Check out her most recent insightful message about older youth adoption. My name’s Cloey. I’m 15 years old. I’m a sophomore and I look forward to going to school every day. What I like about school is being around my friends and sometimes learning about the… Read more
One of the things that continues to inspire my work as a Permanency Specialist at Ampersand Families is our commitment to “honor the brevity of childhood.” We work with teenagers and we know that the clock is ticking for these kids to be able to experience what remains of their childhood within the security and… Read more
Each year, Ampersand Families represents the youth and/or the family in about 25 adoptive placements. While every one of those youth and adoptive families are different, one thing they have in common is the excitement, fear and change that comes with move-in day and the first months thereafter. By the time move-in day comes the… Read more
