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Donate to AFFEC
Would you like to contribute to AFFEC's cause for helping children? Any amount can have a lasting impact on a child. Click below!
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Our Newest Feature
At the beginning of each month, all Matching Assistance families and their adoption workers receive an update of all homestudy submissions, as well as information about the progress that has taken place during the previous month.
This includes information about correspondence with your Family Adoption Specialist, updates on selection processes on individual children (is the caseworker considering your family, have they declined you as a family, etc.)
This monthly report is meant to be a helpful tool to help families stay connected and feel more engaged and informed about the progress in their adoption journey. | |
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A Big Welcome to Our Newest Family Adoption Specialists!
Barbara Paduh - Barbara has extensive experience as a foster family in Texas. She has adopted two children through the foster care system and been through her own trials and hard times. She is very willing and capable of helping others through this emotional process. She is here for you!
Cynde Gabuya - Cynde is an intern from a local college and brings a positive, helpful attitude to the adoption world. She is here to help and guide families as they work their way through the foster care system. | |
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Are You Interested in Volunteering with Our Matching Assistance Program?
We are always looking for dedicated and compassionate people to help us fulfill our mission. When you work with us you will not only expand your skills, but contribute to changing the lives of foster children and families all over the country.
Volunteer Needs:
Family Adoption Specialist- As a Family Adoption Specialist, you will be a representative for A Family For Every Child while working with families through the adoption process. You will need to be supportive, empathetic, diligent and proactive during this time. You can expect to help answer questions for these families, search and communicate with other agencies for children that may be a good match, as well as communicate with our Matching Assistance Director frequently.
Newsletter- Using our outreach tool-Constant Contact-build templates for newsletters, announcements and outreach tools.
- Create newsletters specifically for our MAP families.
- 3 newsletters a week, 1-2 hours a newsletter
- Research new trainings, webinars, updates on children from our database and compile into weekly newsletters
Web Process Volunteer- Signing on to our log on site and acting as a family, writing script and suggestions that will help our site be more user friendly for families. Help to create web forms and other ways to assist families. Help to develop RSS feed tools, Twitter feeds and other ways families can get immediate info on children they are interested in adopting.
- Create powerpoints and "How-to guides" to help families use the site.
- Log in and develop more efficient guides and resources for using the MAP site.
- May help our Website Coordinator research and develop new tools to maintain and expand our database and log on site.
- Research additional information and resources that can help families within their adoption journey.
- Work with a variety of agencies and organizations looking for additions and ideas for our log on site.
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Agencies: Partner with our Matching Assistance Program
We work with many adoption and state agencies throughout the United States and are now offering an exciting opportunity to partner with A Family For Every Child to further benefit your families. Over time we have developed valuable relationships with many of you; working together to assist families and therefore have found homes for children.
All we are asking is your willingness to let your families know about our Matching Assistance Program and partner with us to better serve families in a time of large workloads for all.
Let's work together and change the life of a child by building a family.
This program will offer your families support that compliments what you are already doing. As a team we can work to match them sooner and perhaps support them through the process. We all know this is a big job and often requires a team.
How our team will benefit you as the families worker:
1) Your family will be able to create their own family biography page, that will be viewed by children's workers. This page reflects their personality and current status, training and experience which is often hard to write on paper in a home study and certainly hard to update as much as families would like to. Families can update daily if they desire.
2) Families will be able to submit their interest and family biography for themselves based on your recommendations and guidance. Even though you will not be required to do these daily submissions, we will cc you on all of them. We will also track these submissions and inquiries and be able to provide you with monthly reports if requested, this should also free up some time.
3) Your family will feel empowered to be their own advocate and hopefully more engaged during this difficult "searching/waiting" part of the adoption process. We all know how hard this can be on families.
4) You as their worker will be able to log on and review your family's profile and submission account at any time.
5) Your family will always have up to date adoption materials, online training information and new photo listings for their continued education, meaning you will not need to hunt for this information for them. When they register, they receive a list of over 50 photo listing sites and a "loaded" Welcome packet with adoption information for their review.
6) And best of all your family will be Matching Faster!!!
If you would like to talk to us further about partnering we are very interesting in exploring these options with you, contact Jenny Hancock, Matching Assistance Director or Christy Obie-Barrett, Executive Director.
jennyhancock@afamilyforeverychild.org or christy@afamilyforeverychild.org | |
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Volunteers:
Adoption Agency
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Matching Assistance Program
Our Matching Assistance Program and our dedicated staff have worked hard to help families through this often long and difficult "matching" phase of the adoption process.
One very important role with our program is our Family Adoption Specialist.
A Family Adoption Specialist is specially trained to find children who meet your family's child preferences, according to your homestudy recommendations. They provide families with a supportive shoulder during this emotional time, resources and at least eight child searches per month.
Our child searches are composed from over 75 active photolisting sites across the country as well as, our additional listings within the Matching Assistance Program. It takes a lot of time to read through and/or read between the lines of each child's bio to decide whether they may be a good match for your family. This is just one place your Family Adoption Specialist comes in handy. They will help you decipher what different language within the biography could mean. They can contact children's caseworkers for additional information and update you on children you submit you homestudy on.
Family Adoption Specialists are also available to help answer questions about the adoption process including submission, selection, and placement. They can keep in contact with your Adoption worker to stay updated about your progress in your adoption journey and work together to help you get matched sooner.
The adoption journey can be long and difficult. Your Family Adoption Specialist is a great source of support during the time.
These caring individuals are her to help you with technical issues, questions, resources, or if you just need to tell someone how you are feeling.
For more information, please contact the Matching Assistance Director at jennyhancock@afamilyforeverychild.org or 1-877-343-2856.
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During the next few weeks, I'll be recording various webinars with helpful information about our Matching Assistance Program and adoption related materials.
Some topics include:
Why is your family biography so important?
How to create a family video and why are they important?
Diagnosis in children
Every Child Deserves a Home written by Stewart Levine
I'd love to have your input on topics that could be helpful to you during your adoption journey.
Please email them to jennyhancock@afamilyforeverychild.org
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Do you have an uplifting story you'd like to share about your adoption journey?
How do you cope with the emotional rollercoaster we call adoption?
Are you a family that has experience adopting transracially?
What suggestions do you have for families trying to do the same?
Email me at jennyhancock@afamilyforeverychild.org
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Matching Assistance
Success Story
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU to the Matching Assistance Program.
Norberto and I have been foster parents since 2007. Prior to that, we were tribal placement parents for a child from the Oneida Reservation. We have always known we have wanted a large family and began working on our dream shortly after we were married.
We tried for a little over 1 year when we started infertility testing. Years of infertility treatment and no babies in site. We decided to start the process to become foster parents when we were told that Jaymie had stage 1 uterine cancer requiring a radical hysterectomy. There went our dreams to ever have our family. Through our journey we were graced with a beautiful foster baby that just over 1 year later we were able to add him to our forever family through adoption.
We continued to foster and 24 placements later, we still were not able to add to our forever family and actually went through a seemingly never ending nightmare with the foster care system. Our journey took us to our adoption agency that then told us about the interstate adoption program. It was on February 18, 2011 that we joined the Matching Assistance Program.
Through the Matching Assistance Program we got leads on well over 250 children that we inquired on. My MAP specialist was sending me searches weekly, but I was out daily searching and inquiring. We ended up inquiring on 285 children and only heard back on a hand full of those.
Some we were matched to and subsequently decided against, some we were not chosen as the best family. Unfortunately, there are many ups and downs with the adoption journey and you get out only a portion of what you pour in. Working with our adoption specialist and Jennifer and Christy, we stumbled on a sibling group of 4 from Texas. We saw them and inquired on 3/4/11 and found out we were the matching family on 4/18/11.
We waited for what seemed like forever for their files, but it wasn't even 1 month later. We soon found ourselves reviewing the files, presentation staffing and accepting the children as a possible placement. We then had to wait for the ICPC to be completed which would allow Florida to take over the month to month case evaluation.
We found out that the ICPC was approved on July the 8th we were allowed to go visit the kids. We flew out on July 13th and we were able to spend 7 full glorious days with our kiddos, and subsequently found out we were allowed to take them back with us on the plane. There have been extremely minor speed bumps, but all is going very well with our family which is now 5 kids and 2 adults.
It seemed to take forever when we were going through it all, but when I put it in prospective, from seeing and inquiring on the children to official placement of them, it was 4 months and 19 days, a whirlwind in prospective. As much help as the Match Assistance Program is, it is dependent on the adoptive families willingness to put in effort.
Norberto and Jaymie
August 2011
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Winter Wonderland Annual Event November 3, 2011
Valley River Inn
In the Willamette Ballroom from 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM
Purchase Your Tickets Now!
Take a look at some of our past items:
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Feature Families
To view more of our families, visit our Waiting Families page.
Andrea Stewart
I plan to provide love, support, structure and security in a safe environment which will hopefully allow a child who may have had a rough start to life to flourish. I am not a religious person but would describe myself as a spiritual person who is open-minded and respectful of other people's beliefs. I am a somewhat quiet and reserved in personality, but am fiercely loyal to those that I love. I live in my own home in a very sought after school district in California. The schools are all in walking distance from my home.
I have a stable job with the same company for just under 14 years, which will supply my child with all aspects of health insurance. I have good support from my family and friends in undertaking this process. I am in good health and believe in living a healthy lifestyle. I am very excited to see where this journey will take me.
Garth and Melissa Furler
Hi! We're Garth and Lisa, and we're longing to raise a son or daughter!
We hope to welcome a child to our family. A little one who would thrive in a family surrounded by books, Legos, cars, video games, dogs, and lots of time out in nature hiking, mountain biking, or just lounging in the yard. We want to take our child on international adventures, on road trips in the US, spending time on the mountain with Garth's family, or on a tropical island with Lisa's family. We are a family that enjoys calm and structure, but also goofing around, talking, laughing, doing things together, or just sitting around enjoying one another's company.
We realize that our son or daughter may need additional supports. As a result, we have found potential resources in our community. Given the ever shrinking resources in the public schools, we have decided to access alternative options. We have chosen a Montessori school to provide our child's education during their first years. The charter school in Mosier will provide middle school and high school education. Read More
Sayre Merritt
We have been happily married for over 25 years. We have two biological boys who are now 23 years old. David lives at home for right now and works in a local car dealership as an auto technician. Daniel is married and he and Melissa have a one-year-old son.
Both the boys are excited at the prospect of having an adopted sister. I grew up in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts and Esther grew up in Waycross, Georgia. She has a younger sister and two younger brothers. I have three older sisters. We have been on this adoption journey for almost five years and have to completely start over two times.
We have a lot of resources available to us and have a support network of foster and adoptive parents in our church. We have a lot of time and energy to devote to any child who comes into our home. We are also financially stable so that this child will be taken care of and supported and loved. Read More
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