NACAC | Post-Adoption Support

The following resources are designed to help Community Champions Network (CCN) and others advocate for improvements in adoption policy and practice in their communities. Click here to download a presentation about the history of CCN (PowerPoint or PDF).

Read an article that includes preliminary results of NACAC's 2010-11 post-adoption needs survey here.

CCN Newsletters

Our newsletters offer reports about the project and each site's goals and progress.

Advocacy Resources

NACAC

Advocacy: Taking Action to Make a Difference
Advocating for Post-Adoption Services: Tools to Promote Parent-Led and Child-Driven Services
Developing a Parent to Parent Support Network
Adoption 101
The Awareness chapter of the National Adoption Awareness Month Guide
Post-Adoption Services: Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Children Adopted from Foster Care
Starting and Nurturing Adoptive Parent Groups
How to Use Personal Stories for Advocacy (tips and strategies)
Sharing Personal Stories to Achieve Your Advocacy Goals (worksheet)
Taking A Break: Creating Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Respite in Your Community (created in collaboration with AdoptUsKids)
Promote Permanent Families, Reform Foster Care
Links (check out the many useful links on the NACAC web site)

Evan B. Donaldson Institute

E-Newsletters (click on the link to sign up)

Other

Community Assessment Tools

The following materials (in Word and Excel) are designed to help those who are creating or enhancing post-adoption services in their communities:

Release — It is a common experience for post-adoption resource centers and providers to report difficulty in contacting adoptive families for the purposes of publicizing their services. In this age of HIPPA and heightened concerns about confidentiality, agencies are reluctant to share contact information or send out announcements on behalf of providers and programs. The state of Wisconsin has created a release form for adoptive parents to sign upon legalization so that they can be informed of programs and services that may be of help in parenting their growing family in future days. This template can be adapted for your region to use. Our thanks to the Wisconsin CCN site.
Surveys — When creating post-adoption services and programs, it is essential to have families and youth inform our efforts. These three surveys (parent, youth, and professional versions) have been used in Rhode Island to assess community needs very successfully. Thanks to the Los Angeles County Post Adoption Unit of DCYF.

Kids and Judges Day

The following documents (in Word) are designed to help advocates who would like to host a Kids and Judges Day in their community. These events are designed to educate judges and court personnel about children's and youth's needs, and to ease children's and youth's fears about the court process. We encourage you to use these documents to host your own Kids and Judges Day!