November is National Adoption Month.Every November, a Presidential Proclamation launches activities and celebrations to help build awareness of adoption throughout the nation. Thousands of community organizations arrange and host programs, events, and activities to share positive adoption stories, challenge the myths, and draw attention to the thousands of children in foster care who are waiting for permanent families.
Below are a few celebrities who were adopted. You will be amazed who is on this list!
This year’s National Adoption Month initiative emphasizes the importance of sibling connections for the 102,000 children and youth in foster care waiting for adoptive families.
This year, National Adoption Month focuses on “Promoting and Supporting Sibling Connections.” The theme pays tribute to the unique bond between siblings—it is the longest lasting relationship most people have, longer than the parent-child or spousal relationship. Over the last two decades, research has demonstrated the critical nature of sibling bonds and their importance for children’s development and emotional well-being. In fact, some research suggests that children and youth in foster care experience better outcomes when placed with their siblings.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 requires States to make reasonable efforts to place siblings in the same foster care, kinship guardianship, or adoptive placement and to provide for frequent visits or other ongoing interaction between siblings not placed together. Some States have enacted statutes that protect sibling relationships in foster care, and a few have established laws to protect sibling relationships after adoption. Still, many States struggle to recruit and support families that are able to parent sibling groups, and many children and youth adopted from foster care every year are separated from their siblings.
Explore this year’s National Adoption Month website and the AdoptUSKids website to find resources to help promote and support sibling connections in adoption, specifically:
- Information for adoption professionals, including assessment tools to help with sibling placement decisions, recruitment strategies for finding families for sibling groups, ways to raise public awareness, strategies for keeping siblings in contact, and resources for cross-system collaborations
- Information for prospective adoptive families on how to adopt
- Information for birth parents on openness and maintaining connections
- Information about how children and youth can find at least one committed adult who will support them the rest of their lives
- Firsthand stories of sibling groups waiting for adoption
- Examples of how State agencies are using social media and mobile technology
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Celebrities Who Were Adopted [PHOTOS] was originally published on elev8.com
