Family Service of R.I. receives $500K to help children waiting longest for adoption

DARLENE ALLEN, executive director of Adoption Rhode Island, said that youth waiting longest for adoption have experienced many traumatic events in their lives and need specialized help from experts to help them feel safe and securely attached to a new adoptive family.  / PBN FILE PHOTO
DARLENE ALLEN, executive director of Adoption Rhode Island, said that youth waiting longest for adoption have experienced many traumatic events in their lives and need specialized help from experts to help them feel safe and securely attached to a new adoptive family. / PBN FILE PHOTO

PROVIDENCE – Family Service of Rhode Island has been awarded $499,513 through the federal Administration for Children and Families to support the “Together Forever Project,” which focuses on helping children in state care who have been waiting for an adoptive home for at least two years.

“The goal is to find stable, loving homes for these most deserving children,” Family Service of Rhode Island CEO Margaret Holland McDuff said in a statement.

McDuff said that through Family Service’s ongoing partnership with Adoption Rhode Island and the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, children waiting the longest for adoptive families will receive a specialized combination of Trauma Systems Therapy, best practice adoptive parent recruitment, trauma-informed preparation for adoption and ongoing support through each stage of the adoption process.

The objectives for the “Together Forever Project” include improved mental, emotional and behavioral functioning of the children waiting for adoption to avoid placement disruptions; reduction in the number of older adolescents “aging out” of the state system without an adoptive family; reduction of the amount of time children wait for adoption; and integration of the “Together Forever Project” model into the state child welfare system.

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“Every child, regardless of age or circumstance, deserves a family. This grant provides us with the opportunity to partner with the community to support families and children in working through past trauma to develop permanent families,” DCYF Director Janice DeFrances said. “We are very pleased to be a part of the ‘Together Forever Project’ which will help the children in our care who have been waiting for much deserved permanency in their lives.”

Darlene Allen, executive director of Adoption Rhode Island, the state’s designated adoption exchange for children in state care, said that youth waiting longest for adoption have experienced many traumatic events in their lives and need specialized help from adoption and trauma experts to help them feel safe and securely attached to a new adoptive family.

“Similarly the families want to do the best for these kids but often do not have the right support and services. For too many of these kids and families, the adoption disrupts. We want to prevent adoption disruptions and promote family stability. That is what this unique partnership is all about,” Allen said.

The grant is for a 17-month period, and was one of eight awarded nationally.

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