Below are helpful resources and services for use in your work. To get future tools like this delivered to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list for professionals.
Tools to help you find families
- Collection of photolisting resources: Find best practices, including how to write child narratives and tips for involving youth in the process.
- Customer service concepts for recruitment and retention: This guide discusses how to apply customer service principles to more effectively engage and support foster, adoptive, and kinship families.
- List of resources on diligent recruitment: Browse the list to find all AdoptUSKids resources on diligent recruitment. Be sure to check out the Diligent Recruitment Navigator.
Tools to help you support families
- Assessing the racial and ethnic cultural competence of your support services: This tool is designed to help you build more culturally competent support services.
- Support Services Assessment Tool: Use this tool to plan and conduct a robust review of your support-service array and consider ways to strengthen your services.
Resources to raise awareness about the need for foster and adoptive parents
- Public service ads on the AdoptUSKids YouTube channel: Watch and share these videos to spread awareness about adoption from foster care.
- Schedule a meeting with our team to learn about how our ad campaign and speakers bureau can support your awareness and recruitment efforts. We are also interested in any referrals for parents or young adults you may have for the speakers bureau.
Program for emerging leaders of color
The Minority Professional Leadership Development (MPLD) program at AdoptUSKids is designed for emerging leaders of color working in the child welfare field. Fellows get hands-on experience, exposure to national experts, and mentorship opportunities.
- Applications are open now for the next cohort. Join us for an information session to get all your questions about the program answered.
- MPLD fellows complete action research projects on topics like kinship care, transracial adoption, and how to improve permanency outcomes. Watch videos of past fellows presenting their research and findings.
Resources to share with the families you work with
- AdoptUSKids blog for families: Current and prospective foster and adoptive parents will find stories of people with lived experience and parenting advice from real families. As a worker, you can point your families to articles that will help meet their needs, including transracial parenting resources and how to understand adverse childhood experiences.
- Navigating Adoption podcast: This podcast brings together real adoptive families and adoption experts to showcase the unexpected rewards of adopting a teen from foster care.
Reach out to our team!
- Contact consultation@adoptuskids.org to discuss how AdoptUSKids can help your state, territory, or tribe build capacity.
- Contact info@adoptuskids.org for questions about the photolisting or to contact your state’s foster care and adoption resource specialist.
