Adoption Services

As an affiliate of the Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN), Family Care for Children and Youth, Inc. offers quality, individualized services for children and families in all phases of the adoption process.  Our adoption services include:

  • Family Profiles
  • Child Profiles
  • Child Preparation Services
  • Finalization
  • Child-Specific Recruitment
  • Post-Permanency Services

We are a Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN) Affiliate, so all of our adoption services are provided to resource families absolutely free as long as they are looking to adopt a Pennsylvania child from within the child welfare system. If you are not a client or resource family for a child in the welfare system, then we are still happy to perform any of these services for a reasonable fee.

Applicants for adoption services must be 21 years or older and meet other specified requirements.  Training is provided by Family Care for Children and Youth, Inc. for all prospective adoptive families.

If you are interested, please call, email, or contact us online.

FAMILY PROFILES

Our family profiles are designed to determine how suitable a specific applicant is to be an adoptive parent. During this process, we will analyze the applicant’s qualifications and readiness, ensuring that he or she is able to provide a loving, safe, and nurturing environment for a child within a home that will address the child’s specific and unique needs.

FCCY will perform authorized family profile services for existing resource parents in our system or for families that are recruited for a specific adoptive placement. The Family Profile unit of service includes the following:

  • Pre-adoptive family orientation
  • Training completion on issues relevant to special needs adoption
  • Completion of the family profile
  • Continued pre-adoption education to keep families interested in adoption pending a placement
  • Registration with PAE (Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange)
  • Completion of an addendum during the first and/or second year following the completion of the family profile in cases where a child is not placed with a pre-adoptive family

A county agency may request a family profile addendum when a family is being considered for a child placement or when necessary for a court proceeding.

CHILD PROFILE

A child profile is a comprehensive review of a child’s emotional, social, and medical history. The process of developing a profile is a collaborative effort, involving the child and all of the significant people in his or her life.  The information gathered in a child profile is confidential and will only be shared with the appropriate agencies and prospective, eligible families. Every child up for adoption must have a child profile.

According to the SWAN Bulletin, the purposes of the child profile are:

  • To assist in recruitment activities and identifying possible matches for placement.
  • To share information with prospective families who are being considered to provide permanency for the child. This profile is not considered to be the sole source of information on the child.
  • To identify strengths and risk factors that might affect the placement adjustment period and permanence.
  • To maintain a history as described below for the child as a resource of information for his or her later life.

We will perform authorized child profile services for youth both within our system as well as others. This service includes the following:

  • Completion of the child profile document
  • Registration of the child with the Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange (PAE) by the custodial county caseworker; the FCCY case manager will collaborate with the custodial county caseworker to ensure the youth is registered on other exchanges provided by PAE.
  • A high-quality color photograph and a one-page written description of the child
  • Completion of an addendum upon request by a county agency during the first and/or second year following the completion of the original child profile in cases where the child is not placed with a family (i.e. the child profile may be used for a maximum of three years, which may include two addendums).
  • The custodial county may request an additional child profile unit of service only in cases where the child has not been placed for adoption within three years.

CHILD PREPARATION FOR PERMANENCY

It is understood that children in out-of-home placement have experienced varying degrees of trauma in their young lives. It is essential that adoption agency professionals maximize the child’s readiness for permanency and prevent permanency disruption by facilitating the transition from out-of-home placement to a permanent family.

The goals of child preparation are:

  • To enable the child to understand the reasons for being unable to return to his or her birth or legal family (clarification), accept the reality of being a member of several families (integration), and visualize him or herself becoming a member of another family (actualization).
  • To ensure the child has the opportunity to resolve losses in a safe atmosphere and go through a process of grieving, asking questions, and to finally feeling positively about a prospective family (attachment).
  • To help the child establish a more secure foundation for identity formulation by maintaining his or her biological and placement history.

FINALIZATION

Adoption finalization includes all services provided to the child, the pre-adoptive family, and the county agency.  Finalization services begin at the point of placement. They include the subsequent supervisory period and reports and may include, but are not limited to, supportive services, home visits, supervisory reports, and the work done with attorneys and courts in order to facilitate the adoption in a timely manner.  Research has shown that adequate post-placement supervision is essential for families to keep moving forward to finalization.

Our adoption finalization services include:

  • A minimum of three supervisory reports.
  • Filing of the adoption intent, petition, and actual finalization.
  • The review of the adoption assistance agreement including, but not limited to, the necessary post-permanency services needed to support the child and enhance permanency.

CHILD-SPECIFIC RECRUITMENT (CSR)

Children who have no pre-adoptive family identified for them can be considered for Child Specific Recruitment (CSR) activities. CSR includes, but is not limited to, all planned activities used to identify a pre-adoptive family who is interested in adopting a specific child from foster care. County agencies may make a referral to this program ONLY after PAE registration, routine recruitment activities, and other contacts have been completed.

Child-specific recruitment requires:

  • Registration with PAE, which automatically includes registrations with other exchanges including, but not limited to, The Collaboration to AdoptUSKids, adoptuskids.org, and Three Rivers Adoption Council photo listing books and websites.
  • The development of a written CSR plan that identifies activities and expectations.
  • Preparing the child for recruitment activities, including appearing on the website and working with the media.
  • Children without families will appear on adoptpakids.org.
  • The pursuance of other media opportunities.

POST-PERMANENCY SERVICES

Post-permanency services include case assessment, case advocacy/case management, respite, and support group.

Starting with an assessment of the current resource family, we are able to determine the need for formal post-permanency services. The post-permanency worker is there to ensure that the family can access services to meet any post-permanency needs in order to help that family function successfully and to prevent disruptions.

Post-permanency services are offered to all families in the state of Pennsylvania who provide permanency to youth. Permanent arrangements include formal kinship placement, permanent legal custodianship, and adoption.There is no fee for these services.

To request post-permanency services through Family Care for Children and Youth, please call the SWAN Helpline at 1-800-585-7926 or email them at SWANHelplilne@diakon-swan.org and ask for Family Care for Children and Youth to be your provider.

Reasons to utilize FCCY as a Post-Permanency Provider to Families:

  • FCCY has years of experience in providing on-going case management services.
  • FCCY has a network of resource families who can be utilized for post-permanency respite.
  • FCCY will create an individualized support plan to meet the potential diversity of needs experienced by each permanency family.