Thriving Adoptees - Let's Thrive

HelpUsAdopt.org, founded in 2007, is a national 501(c)(3) adoption grant program. HelpUsAdopt.org was founded by Becky and Kipp Fawcett as a response to their own personal adoption experience - they have 2 daughters -  in an effort to make adoption more feasible for all families. 

The organization is the only one of its kind in the United States that embodies all of the following criteria:

• awards large, life-changing and problem-solving grants up to $15,000
• supports all types of families (married couples, single parents and LGBT families)
• supports all types of adoptions (domestic, international, foster care)
• supports all types of religions, and does not require a statement of faith
• does not charge applicants to apply

Find out more at:

https://www.instagram.com/becky.fawcett/?hl=en

https://www.helpusadopt.org/

https://www.facebook.com/helpusadopt.org

https://www.instagram.com/helpusadopt/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Paige Adams Strickland (1961- ) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and adopted at 13 months. In 1987 she began a search for her biological family members. She has a BA from Florida State University in Spanish Education. She has 30 years experience in teaching. Her writing has been featured and won attention from scinti.com, a wordwithyoupress.com, soniamarsh.com and adoptionvoicesmagazine.com.

Find out more about her at:

https://stricklandp.wordpress.com/author/stricklandp/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/149150308577705/user/542530458/

https://twitter.com/plastrickland23

Check out her books at:

https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27%3APaige+Strickland&s=relevancerank&text=Paige+Strickland&ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paige-Adams-Strickland/e/B00FQ6GU5C?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1644231531&sr=8-1

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Steph is an independent Social Worker, Therapist , Trainer, Manager, Academic, Practice Educator and Consultant.

The main focus of her career has been children's mental health and she managed an award-winning mental health service for children and adopted children for over a decade

Connect with her at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-dip-s-w-ba-bsc-ma-pgce-fhea-08633890/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

A Little About Damon Davis

"I had the good fortune to be reunited with my biological mother in 2009 in a heart warming story of coincidental history, a mutual desire to be reunified, and the pure luck to be able to surprise my biological mother, Ann, for our reunion on her birthday! I always enjoy hearing and sharing the real stories of our lives that makes each of us who we are.

I’m devoting this program to helping people placed into adoption or who grew up in foster care to explore their own emotions, desires, and questions about reuniting with their biological family by asking others to share their true stories."

Listen to his podcast and find out more at:

https://www.whoamireallypodcast.com/

https://twitter.com/waireally

https://www.facebook.com/WAIReally

Here's the podcast I mention:

https://www.thehighperformancepodcast.com/podcast/jonny-wilkinson

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jonny-wilkinson-how-mental-health-crisis-led-to-life/id1500444735?i=1000491917639

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Here's a bit about Jaclyn from her website 

"I believe healthy, post-adoption outcomes begin with pre-adoption education and intentional parenting.

My goals are to create a space that embodies compassion, to foster a therapeutic relationship that enables vulnerability, and to support the exploration of your whole self. I am an ally, an empath, and an attuned listener. I offer a safe environment without judgment to best encourage and support your self-exploration. 

As a trauma-informed clinician, some of my areas of specialty include; transracial adoption, attachment, grief & loss, identity exploration, racial equity and social justice. As an international and transracially adopted person, I weave my personal experiences into my professional training to offer perspective and insight. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in the state of Wisconsin, a public speaker, a national trainer for adoption competency, adoptive parent coach, adoption consultant, adoptive family homeland journey social worker and have facilitated international birth-family searches and reunions."

Find out more and connect with Jaclyn at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaclyn-skalnik-lcsw-12731b2a/

https://www.adoptionwellness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/adoptionwellness/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Jeanette Yoffe, M.A., M.F.T., earned her Master's in Clinical Psychology, specializing in children, from Antioch University in June of 2002. She treats children with serious psychological problems secondary to histories of abuse, neglect, and /or multiple placements. She has specialized for the past 18 years in the treatment of children who manifest serious deficits in their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral development.

She is the Founder of Celia Center Inc, a non-profit organization in Los Angeles supporting all members of the foster care and adoption constellation. 

She is also the Clinical Director of Yoffe Therapy Inc. A mental health center in Los Angeles providing services to families, children, teens, and adults connected by foster care and adoption. Learn more here.

​Jeanette’s desire to become a child therapist with a special focus on adopted and foster care issues derived from her own experience of being adopted and moving through the foster care system. Her personal experience has informed her education and provided insight into the unique stresses involved with these issues.

​More at:

https://www.jeanetteyoffe.com/

https://twitter.com/JeanetteYoffe

https://www.instagram.com/jeanetteyoffe/

https://www.facebook.com/jeanette.yoffe

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Andrea Damone-Brown received her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and her Masters in Education focusing on Professional Counseling and Psychotherapy through Oklahoma City University. She has been working in the adoption field since 1992 and was the Director at a licensed adoption agency in Dallas for six years. Andrea also co-founded and co-Directed Lifetree Adoption Agency in Dallas, Texas from 2003 to 2014.

Continuing her passion for adoption, she recently branched out on her own in 2014 to focus on serving individuals in each area of adoption through Texas Christian Adoptions. It is her passion and ministry to love and help people as Jesus loved and served. God is Love, and it is her goal to counsel those who feel alone, and to help them see how much God loves them and that He has a plan for their life. His unfailing love will guide them through their journey.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-damone-brown-754a868/

Here's more about her agency from their website:

Texas Christian Adoptions, LLC has over 30 years of experience in the field of adoption. We are a licensed child placing agency that provides professional guidance in pre- and post-adoptive services for both Expecting Mothers and Adoptive Families. It is important that our Expectant Mothers find peace about their decision, which is why we offer professional counseling services and a Support Group to help them find that peace.

Our objectives are to help Expecting Mothers determine if placement is in the best interest of both them and their child. Second, to place newborns up to three years of age with families who desire to adopt a child. Third, for Expectant Mothers who decide on adoption, we help them through the emotional and legal processes of adoption.

Our goal is to ensure solid placements by guiding our Expectant Mothers in a supportive manner, and assisting them in a healthy recovery from normal grief and separation loss issues. We encourage our clients with the knowledge that God is faithful and loves His children. That the trials they are encountering are  opportunities to see God work miracles in their life.

 Texas Christian Adoptions, LLC offers open, semi-open, and closed adoptions. Semi-open adoptions are the most common type of adoption. It means that first names are shared and the Birth parents would be receiving updates and pictures until the child is 18 years old. The Birthparents can also send correspondences and gifts for the child if they felt comfortable doing so.

Texas Christian Adoptions, LLC is a proud member of the Better Business Bureau.

We are also licensed by the Department of Family and Protective Services. To learn more about them and how they serve the community, you can go to their website: https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/default.asp

More at:

https://www.facebook.com/texaschristianadoptions

https://texaschristianadoptions.com/

https://www.instagram.com/texaschristianadoptions/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Steve Sunday has worked in the field of adoption for more than four decades as a caseworker, supervisor, and administrator. Currently, he is the Founder and President/CEO of Forever Bound Adoption, as well as an advisor to the adoption advocacy support organization, United for Adoption.

Since graduating with his MSW in 1981 from Arizona State University, he has worked professionally in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma and Utah. He has taught students at the collegiate level in three states. He has also spent hundreds of hours coaching and mentoring young people, largely on a volunteer basis.

Steve was the project lead on the award winning “Adoption, It’s About Love” television and radio commercials in partnership with Bonneville Communications. He spent approximately 30 years of his career with LDS Family Services. In 2009, he was appointed to the board of directors for the National Council for Adoption. Steve also served on the board of directors for the Foster Care Foundation of the State of Utah for six years. He was named the adoption “Professional of the Year” in 2013 by the Utah Adoption Council.

More recently, Steve was selected to represent adoption experts and professionals as part of the April 2020 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services panel on private infant adoption policy in Washington D.C. He is a passionate advocate for the needs of children not only in the United States, but worldwide.

Reflecting on his life’s work, Steve commented that it has been one of the choicest blessings in his life to be associated with the great work of caring for children and building families. Family is central to Steve’s personal life, as well as to his professional life. Steve and his sweetheart, Karen, have been married for over 40 years and have seven children and twenty five grandchildren.

Connect with Steve at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-a-sunday-77934a26/

Here's a link to episode about infertility I mention https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/the-impact-of-infertility-with-erika-schmitt-director-of-adoption-and-permanency-services

FOREVER BOUND ADOPTION’S MISSION IS TO BENEFIT CHILDREN BY PROVIDING EDUCATION, GUIDANCE AND LIFELONG SUPPORT TO CREATE, SUSTAIN AND PRESERVE NURTURING FAMILIES.

Founded in 2012, Forever Bound Adoption is a licensed 501(c)3 adoption agency. They are passionately committed to the belief that every child deserves a nurturing, permanent family. They serve children, birth parents and adoptive families.

More at:

https://www.foreverboundadoption.org/

https://www.instagram.com/foreverboundadoption_/

https://www.facebook.com/foreverboundadoption/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Pat joined the Coalition team in December 2016 as the Director of AGAPE in the Southern Tier/Finger Lakes region.  After three months he transferred to the Long Island Rockland Region to be the Director of AGAPE after AFFCNY was awarded an additional contract. He now serves as the Coalition’s Executive Director. Pat is an adoptive dad.

The former Founder and Executive Director of You Gotta Believe! The Older Child Adoption & Permanency Movement, Pat was also previously Board President of the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York.   Other work experience includes seven years directing another adoption agency’s New York Regional program that placed older youth for adoption and working as a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiter in Connecticut where he found homes for a caseload of youth on the verge of aging out of the foster care system.  Pat also served as a consultant to Spaulding for Children’s Federal cooperative grant with the Quality Improvement Center for Adoption and Permanency (AIC-AG).

Pat currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of the North American Council on Adoptable Children as its Secretary.  He produced and hosted a radio broadcast called “The Adopting Teens and Tweens Radio forum” for 13 years on WGBB, Long Island’s oldest radio station.  Pat also serves as a community board member of Brooklyn’s Community Board 13 a position he was appointed to by the Brooklyn Borough President.  He is an honorary board member of Voices for Adoption, an organization which is the adoption advocacy arm in Washington DC.   Pat is also on the Advisory Board of Foster Families Today and the Treehouse Foundation.

Pat has received numerous honors in his career for his work in adoption including The Angels in Adoption award by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, the Adoption Excellence Award from the US Department of Health & Human Service’s Children’s Bureau, and The Child Advocate of the Year award from the North American Council on Adoptable Children.

Pat has his BA in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice where he graduated as his class’s co-valedictorian.  He has his M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University.   Pat has a certificate in Adoption Therapy that he received from Hunter College in 2007 and he recently completed a course of study in the Training in Adoption Competency, an evidence based curriculum created by Center for Adoption Support & Education (C.A.S.E.)

Pat is an adoptive father who lives in the Coney Island community of Brooklyn, New York.

https://www.facebook.com/pat.obrien

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-brien-0071ab6/

The Coalition unites foster, adoptive and kinship care families, giving them a voice and providing support, information and advocacy.  By fostering communication and collaboration between families, agencies and concerned citizens, we seek to ensure the stability, well-being and permanency of all children.

No foster, adoptive or kinship care family in New York State will feel alone or unsupported and that all such families will have the tools, support and community they need to nurture their children and be role models for others. Goal:

• Educate and support foster/kinship care/adoptive parents and the professionals who serve them by utilizing information-sharing, services, peer support and referral.
• Improve services available to children and families.
• Increase citizen involvement in local service planning and delivery.
• Educate leaders and stakeholders about the realities, challenges and rewards of foster/kinship care/adoptive parenting.
• Advocate for greater support of foster/kinship care/adoptive families by federal, state and local agencies.

To learn more, read our history, learn about our current programs, join us at an event and meet our team.

https://affcny.org

https://www.facebook.com/affcny/

https://twitter.com/AFFCNY

https://www.instagram.com/affcny/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Matthew McCall started at The Home in 1998 as a Child Care Worker. Matthew has held virtually every client serving role at The Home, from counselor, to clinician, program and department director, in both congregate care and community settings. 

For much of his career at The Home, Matthew served as an internal consultant to all The Home’s programs, providing support and leadership during times of transition, challenge, growth, or reimplementation. In his current role he brings these skills to bear developing and supporting new programs, business lines, and initiatives for The Home. Matthew also oversees The Home’s Family Support Programs, Foster Care and Adoption, Transition Aged Youth, and Therapeutic After-School Programs. 

Matthew has spent most of his professional career at The Home, working in a variety of their programs. He is a graduate of Curry College and Simmons School of Social Work, and is a professor of Social Work Practice at Simmons University and Bridgewater State University.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmccallmsw/

The Home for Little Wanderers helps build stable lives and hopeful futures for children who are abused, neglected or at-risk.

Here's some more from their website:

As the oldest child welfare agency in America, we have maintained our commitment to children since before the Civil War. Because every child deserves happiness, and no child should go through life alone.

Each year, our community-based programs and residences meet the needs of more than 15,000 diverse youngsters and family members. These children are often society’s most vulnerable, victims of trauma, violence or shattered family lives.

We ensure their emotional, social, educational and physical well- being from birth to age 26 through a dedicated team of professionals and a wide range of critical services. As a result, disadvantaged kids have safe surroundings, loving relationships and a secure path toward tomorrow.

Find out more at

https://thehome.org/

https://www.facebook.com/thehomeforlittlewanderers

https://twitter.com/thehomeorg

https://www.instagram.com/thehomeforlittlewanderers/

https://www.youtube.com/user/home271

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.