Fifty years ago, foster and adoptive families across the state came together to advocate for the needs of their families and their children.
From this movement, we have grown into adoptive and foster parent groups, concerned agencies and individuals throughout the Empire State. We provide vital services that offer support to families and their children. We educate the public, legislators and government leaders about the needs and realities of foster/kinship care/adoptive families. Finally, we collaborate with child welfare agencies and other groups to ensure that families are best able to support and parent the children in their homes.
Why Support the Coalition?
Our foster care system is extremely complex. Relatives who care for children often receive little support and adoptive families cannot find meaningful, relevant support for themselves and their children.
Our programs fill an essential need:
Your contributions will help us sustain this support. It will help us to grow to meet the needs of our state’s most vulnerable children and families.
Read the Stories* of Our Impact
Angie
Angie* is a grandmother who was in a two-year struggle to gain guardianship of her grandsons Michael* and Jeremy*. Each time she thought that bringing the children home was in sight, the foster care agency demanded another item, document, or course training.
Rosa
Rosa* wanted some advice about how she could adopt Monica*, age eight, and Louisa*, age six. Rosa was their foster parent. She had a good relationship with Diana, the girls’ mother, but Diana could not parent due to her mental health issues. The girls’ father had abandoned them several years ago. Adopting would not be simple. Rosa primarily spoke Spanish and had no funds for legal counsel.
Sam
After foster parenting for eight months, Angie legally adopted Sam. Angie was experienced, but now Sam, at sixteen, was really testing both her parenting skills and patience. Angie tearfully admitted to “being done,” ready to surrender Sam back into the foster care system out of frustration and desperation.
Ellen
Ellen had been caring for Eric, who had several challenging behaviors. Ellen admitted that she was at the end of her rope and seriously ready to call her foster care agency and demand they remove Eric from her home. Ellen felt she had no choice.
Beth
Beth* called the Coalition’s HelpLine on a Thursday looking for information on how to search for biological family including her birth mother and known biological siblings. As an adult adoptee born and adopted through foster care in New York, she had tried to search on her own for fifteen years, only to reach a dead end again and again.
