Do Your Homework!
Adopting a teen from the child welfare system is a huge (and rewarding!) journey. As you think and talk about this next stage of family life, you may want to explore resources that will answer questions and help you prepare.
Books:
- My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, Resmaa Menakem (2017)
- A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, Sun Yung Shin (2016)
- Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah, and Sun Yung Shin (2006)
- The Handbook of Adoption, Amanda Baden (2006)
- Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoptions, Laura Briggs (2012)
- Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, Dorothy Roberts (2002)
- See No Color, Shannon Gibney (2015)
- What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey (2021)
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk (2014)
- Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive, Daniel Siegel (2012)
- To the End of June, Beam (2013)
- Reclaiming Youth at Risk, Brendtro, et al (1990)
- Love Me, Feed Me, Rowell (2012)
- Connecting with Kids through Stories, Lacher, et al (2005)
- White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, MacIntosh
- Why do they act that way?, Walsh (2004)
- Born for Love, Szalavitz & Perry (2010)
- On Their Own, Shirk & Strangler (2004)
- Parenting Adopted Adolescent, Keck
- Three Little Words, Rhodes-Courter (2008)
- Orphans of the Living, Toth (1997)
- Ellen Foster, Gibbons (1987)
- Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control, Forbes & Post (2009)
Podcasts:
Note, we don’t necessarily agree with everything that is presented on the podcasts, but we really hope that people will immerse themselves in thinking about the various key issues.
- Adoptees On
- Black to the Beginning
- Adopted Feels
- The Rambler
- The Adoptee Next Door
- Who am I Really?
- Born in June, Raised in April
- Creating a Family
- The Honestly Adoption Podcast
- The We Turned Out Okay Podcast
- Adoption Now
- Mixed Bag: Culture, Adoption, and the Transracial Family
Information regarding Adoption in Minnesota:
- MNAdopt
- MN Adopt HELP
- MN Adopt Education Program
- MN DHS Adoption Information Sheet 10.2015
- North American Council on Adoptable Children
- Lutheran Social Services Kinship Support Services
- Minnesota Department of Human Services, Northstar Care for Children Overview
- Minnesota Statutes Sections 260C.601 to260C.635 (adoption statutes)
- Minnesota Administrative Rules 9560 (covering adoption and foster care)
- Current Adoption Tax Credit Information
- Adoption Support Groups around Minnesota
- MNADOPT Resource Lists
Websites:
- Proof Alliance
- upEND Movement
- Center for Advanced Study in Child Welfare
- MNAdopt
- North American Council on Adoptable Children
- Adoption Medicine Clinic, University of Minnesota
- Center for Study of Social Policy, racial equity in child welfare
- The Path to Racial Equity in Child Welfare
- Resources for preparing teens
- Internat safety for teens
- Voice for Adoption
- Child Trauma Academy
- Child Welfare Information Gateway
- University of Minnesota Extension- Family and Youth Development
- Disability Child Welfare Collaborative
- PACER Center
- Stop it Now!
- Harlow’s Monkey (“an unapologetic look at transracial and transnational adoption”)
- To Write Love on Her Arms (hope and help- self injury and depression)
- Foster Care Alumni of America
- Partnership for a drug-free America (parent resources)
