Become a Buddy Family
Do you want to make a difference in the life of a teen but can’t make the commitment to adopt right now? Are you thinking about becoming an adoptive family some day, but want to first learn as much as possible about what a family built through older youth adoption looks like? Maybe you have a lot of respect for people who adopt and wonder how you can help them in a very concrete way?
Take a look at becoming an Ampersand Families Buddy Family.
Building a new family through adoption from foster care is a wonderful and exhausting experience for the youth and parents. Buddy families are just regular people in the community who step up to become part of the support network for an adoptive family.
Buddy families get to know parents and their new kids, and they help out by spending a couple evenings and one weekend a month with the youth, so that everyone can have a break from the intense work of family building.
Other ways to get involved:
For Professional Photographers: Minnesota Heart Gallery
The Minnesota Heart Gallery helps children and youth waiting for adoptive families see themselves as they never have before. Together, youth, photographers and families raise community awareness around adoption, foster care and permanency. Most importantly, these images are used to recruit families for Minnesota’s waiting youth, helping them to picture a more hopeful future.
If you are a professional photographer living anywhere in Minnesota interested in volunteering your time and talents, you can learn more here.
Serve on our Board
If you are passionate about permanency for every Minnesota child, please consider learning more about volunteering on our board. We seek a diverse pool of individuals who reflect the youth and families we serve from all across Minnesota. In particular, we need professionals with finance, marketing, public policy and technology backgrounds, as well as those with lived experience in foster care and/or adoption.
Contact Christina Zeise, our executive director, to find out more.
