AdoptUSKids video and facilitation guide
“When We Have Each Other: Teen Adoption Stories” is a video, paired with a facilitation guide, to support meaningful conversations with youth, families, and colleagues.
Professional development
Congratulations to the 2025 APLD graduates!
AdoptUSKids celebrates the newest leaders in child welfare. This year’s APLD fellows tackled key issues and shared ideas to improve foster care and adoption outcomes. Applications for the 2026 cohort open January 9.
Planting seeds, growing leaders: APLD celebrates Cohort Six graduates
Phoenix Santiago didn’t grow up discussing policy, but her time in foster care showed her firsthand its real impact on actual lives. And while that lived experience proved invaluable in her child welfare work, she felt she needed more to make the desired difference in the industry. “We never talked about data and policy at home,” she said, “and I didn’t think I had that skillset.” In 2023, she resolved to change that, and her…
Kinship care: “It’s better for the children and it’s better for the community”
Greta Archbold, who works in the New York City regional office, researched how to better prepare regional office staff to make kinship placements.
How books can be therapy: Plus, reading recommendations for child welfare professionals
Kendra Morris-Jacobson with the Oregon Post-Adoption Resource Center Library discusses the benefits of bibliotherapy, which promotes healing through reading. Plus, she offers her recommendations for the best books to read as a child welfare or family support professional, as well as books she’d suggest for families to read together to help their child or youth process difficult emotions.
APLD fellow explores how to share post-adoption information
Melissa Fleurio investigated how families could benefit from post-adoption services when encouraged to seek them out before they encountered a crisis.