Darlene Allen

SUPPORT PROVIDER: Darlene Allen, CEO and executive director of Adoption Rhode Island in Providence, ensures everyone at the family service center receives support, from the children and families to the staff and volunteers, including those who are fostering or adopting children. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
SUPPORT PROVIDER: Darlene Allen, CEO and executive director of Adoption Rhode Island in Providence, ensures everyone at the family service center receives support, from the children and families to the staff and volunteers, including those who are fostering or adopting children. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

PBN 2021 Leaders & Achievers Awards
Darlene Allen | CEO and executive director, Adoption Rhode Island


Darlene Allen, CEO and executive director of Adoption Rhode Island in Providence, has dedicated her life to working with children throughout the state and innovated how to find homes for those children.

With her undergraduate degree from Providence College, and her master’s degree in human services from the University of Massachusetts Boston, Allen has been an innovator in the nonprofit sector, working to develop programs for Rhode Island’s youths that focus on support.

“It’s a small state; they’re all our kids. Every young person should get what they need to be able to get through high school, as well as other opportunities to break the cycle of poverty and child welfare,” she said.

- Advertisement -

Adoption Rhode Island has fostered work around the idea that Allen sets forth: We all need support. From her staff to her volunteers, including those who are fostering or adopting children, as well as the children and families they serve, they all receive support from the organization.

“One child and one family at a time, we’re helping with evidence-based interventions given to teachers, child welfare workers, home visitors [and] other professionals to help make a difference,” she said.

Allen is hands-on with most of the work she does, helping lead national panels on helping youths, as well as developing programs within the state such as the Heart Spot Gallery, which allows for professional photographers to photograph those who are looking for families, and then the exhibit travels throughout the state.

She also developed a program focused on teens who are about to age out of the foster system and who are faced with the threat of no social support, and sometimes a lack of education.

Allen attributes much of the success of Adoption Rhode Island to her staff and their dedication and hard work. Overall, regarding the children she works with, she said, “If you give them the chance, they can succeed.”

No posts to display