CENTERS' PIECE: National Adoption Month
November is National Adoption Month. Each November we celebrate the adoptions that have been consummated in the past and cheer on the many children in foster care being adopted by their forever home.
Centers for Children and Families, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening individuals, families and children by offering counseling, support and education. The agency has been dedicated to this endeavor since opening its doors in 1957. In 1993, with the support of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), the agency began the Post Adoption Program in the Odessa-Midland area covering 60 counties total.
Since that time, the agency has offered post adoption services to families and has expanded to cover 137 counties of Texas. Centers is now offering services throughout Midland/Odessa, Abilene, Wichita Falls, Lubbock, Amarillo, El Paso, Austin, Waco and their surrounding counties. The program is currently serving approximately 370 families and approximately 730 children who have been adopted through the foster care system.
Centers Post Adoption Program strives to continue providing services such as: parent training, support groups, intermittent alternate care, residential placement, 24-hour crisis intervention, home visits, advocacy, educational support, and casework with information and referrals to all eligible adoptive families.
Centers Post Adoption Program makes every effort possible to ensure that the adoptive families remain intact. Many families who have adopted children are not aware of the unique struggles that their family may be faced with. Centers Post Adoption staff is available for the family to lend a shoulder to cry on or to be an advocate in the school system. We attempt to support the families in whatever ways possible.
However, due to recent state budgetary cuts, our Post Adoption Program is facing many challenging decisions. Centers is being charged with the difficult task to provide all of our families with the above mentioned services with one third of the monetary resources previously dedicated and a first time match requirement. The Post Adoption Program was previously funded $1,411,234.00 annually to cover this vast area. The new contract was cut by almost 50 percent and will fund Centers $723,451.00 as long the required match of $241,150.00 is met.
Centers is seeking additional community support to fill the void left by the state budgetary cuts. It is our greatest fear that an adoptive child will not receive the crucial services promised to them at the time of adoption by the state. Without these services, the child stands a greater risk of returning to the foster care system yet again.
Any resources you have available for the adoptive children of Texas would be greatly appreciated. If you would like additional information on the Post Adoption Program, please contact Robyn LaForge at 432.570.1084, ext. 22.
