The Adoption Call to Action Summit II, held in Washington, DC, in January, brought together adoption leaders from across the country to network, share their Call to Action plans, and explore solutions for the obstacles they were encountering. The event was a follow-up to the first summit and Adoption Call to Action work that started last summer.
At this second summit, state teams received updated state and national data profiles and continued working on their state’s action plans for the Adoption Call to Action, including further developing strategies to improve outcomes for their target populations of children and youth.
The summit provided state teams with opportunities to connect with peers from other states to learn from each other, discuss challenges and barriers, strategize about ways to move their work forward, and identify ways to continue connecting and being resources to each other after the Summit. State teams identified specific commitments and timeframes for when they returned home to keep the momentum going after the summit, with reminders from the Children’s Bureau, the Capacity Building Center for States, and AdoptUSKids that they will continue to support states on this important initiative.
The event included keynote speakers such as HHS Assistant Secretary Lynn Johnson, ACF Commissioner Elizabeth Darling, and members of the AdoptUSKids youth speakers bureau. The message was clear: the voices of our youth and the dedicated professionals in the field both play an integral role in achieving permanency for the 125,000 youth waiting for safe, loving families.
The Summit featured multiple breakout workshops designed to assist states with overcoming barriers and challenges. These workshops ranged from working in rural agencies and county administered systems to practices in family finding and engaging older youth in their permanency to working with philanthropic partners and faith based communities. The Children’s Bureau also shared the new National Adoption Recruitment Campaign public service announcements, highlighting the powerful PSAs as a resource to help states as part of their public awareness and recruitment efforts.
Regional calls offer opportunities to get involved
States are now participating in virtual discussions with peers from other states in their region to share updates on their action plans and how they have made progress on their commitments that they made at the summit.
Five regional discussions—with two regions per call—are being held throughout March, facilitating peer sharing among states and gathering input from states about priority topics for future virtual events for the Adoption Call to Action to be held in the spring and summer and additional forms of support that states would find helpful as they continue implementing their action plans.
Use the links below to register for an upcoming regional call:
- Regions 1 and 2: March 3, 12-2 p.m. eastern
- Regions 3 and 4: March 6, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. eastern
- Regions 5 and 7: March 20, 2–4 p.m. eastern
- Regions 6 and 8: March 9, 12–2 p.m. eastern
- Regions 9 and 10: March 10, 3–5 p.m. eastern
