Adoption and Foster Care Resources

The following are descriptions of gay-friendly adoption & foster care agencies and businesses that can assist you in building or nurturing your family.

ADOPTION STAR

www.adoptionstar.com

Adoption STAR (Support, Training, Advocacy & Resources) is a compassionate and unique agency. We are New York State authorized, Florida and Ohio licensed, and we’ve secured the Human Rights Campaign’s “All Children, All Families” Seal of Approval for LGBTQ+ cultural competency. Adoption STAR takes a strong stand on adoption education and believes no one can make a decision to adopt or place a child for adoption without fully educating themselves on adoption and its many options. Adoption STAR is an agency committed to the best interests of children and will offer all birth families regardless of race, health, circumstances, or disability, the option of adoption for their child. Adoption STAR is an agency dedicated to maintaining connections between adoptive families and birth families and offers education and support with an adoption plan. Regardless of whether you’re interested in adopting an infant or an older child, we have a program for you!

For more information about Adoption STAR and its services, visit our website: www.adoptionstar.com.


THE BARKER ADOPTION FOUNDATION

301-664-9664
www.barkeradoptionfoundation.org

The Barker Adoption Foundation is a non-profit adoption agency licensed in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Since 1945, we have been providing comprehensive adoption services and have placed over 7,000 children into loving families. Our mission is to serve all members of the adoption community including – persons who have been adopted, birth parents, adoptive parents and adoption professionals. 

Barker is actively seeking prospective adoptive parents for our older child adoption program, our dual program (for those open to both infant and older child adoption) and our inter-country adoption programs for children with specialized needs. Our comprehensive adoption programs will work with couples and single individuals regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and marital status to assist them with identifying the right program. Currently there are estimated to be over 100,000 children in the US foster care system who are eligible for adoption, most of them between the ages of 10 –17.

If you or someone you know might be the right family for a waiting child, please reach out to us, or visit our website to learn more.

Website: www.barkeradoptionfoundation.org
Phone: 301-664-9664
E-Mail For Inquiries: tlusane@barkerfoundation.org


CHILDREN’S HOME SOCIETY OF VIRGINIA

https://chsva.org

Children’s Home Society of Virginia is a full-service, private, nonprofit 501(c)(3), non-sectarian licensed child-placing agency. Established in 1900, CHS has been guided by the fundamental belief that every child deserves a home. CHS welcomes, values and serves multicultural and multiracial individuals and families, LGBTQ individuals and families, single parents, married and unmarried couples, and families with children that can provide a loving and caring home environment.

Our program, My Path Forward, provides housing, life skills training, counseling and case management for youth who have aged out of the foster care system in Virginia at 18 years of age. Developed in collaboration with our partner The Better Housing Coalition, this program delivers on our goal of offering a continuum of services to provide permanence for all of Virginia’s at-risk youth.

In addition, CHS offers family support groups, activities for adoptive families and children, and heritage and search services for adult adoptees. CHS is also proud to be one of only three Virginia recruiters for Wendy’s Wonderful Kids®, a signature program of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption® – a national, nonprofit public charity dedicated exclusively to finding permanent homes for the more than 150,000 children waiting in North America’s foster care systems.


COALITION FOR HISPANIC FAMILY SERVICES

(718) 497-6090 ext. 750
https://www.hispanicfamilyservicesny.org

Established in 1990, Coalition for Hispanic Family Services (CHFS) is the only licensed foster care and adoption agency of color in New York City. CHFS’ mission is to strengthen families of color by providing them with culturally competent services that build upon the strengths of their culture and lead them towards a greater degree of self-reliance. In addition to foster care and adoption CHFS offers an array of services that include family support, mental health, education and youth development.

CHFS’s Enhanced Family Foster Care program works with children in care ages birth to 23, their birth families and foster family to achieve permanency in the form of reunification, discharge to kin, or adoption.

CHFS’s home finders recruit, certify and support foster parents who keep children safe while offering nurturance and guidance to promote their well-being. LGBTQIA2S+ persons are valued resources to our foster parenting community and are encouraged to learn more about becoming a foster parent. Every child deserves to have caring, accepting adults in their lives. Please consider helping a child in need by offering them love and acceptance in your home. CHFS holds bilingual Foster Parent Orientations on a regular basis with One-on-One orientations available upon request.

To learn more about how to become a foster parent, attend an orientation, or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website Become a Foster Parent - Home (hispanicfamilyservicesny.org) or dial (718) 497-6090 ext. 750 to speak with a home finder.


THE CRADLE

www.cradle.org

The Cradle is a nonprofit, licensed adoption agency providing adoption services, counseling and educational support. Since opening in 1923, The Cradle has facilitated more than 16,000 domestic and international adoptions and has been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ placements and African American infant adoption. Our team of social workers, counselors, and education and outreach staff offer ethical, inclusive and lifelong support to tens of thousands of people touched by adoption, including birth parents, adopted persons, and adoptive parents. Headquartered in Evanston, Illinois, The Cradle provides expectant parent services for those living in Illinois and Indiana. We are licensed to work with adoptive parents who live in Illinois. Our therapists offer adoption expertise and can work with all members of birth or adoptive families at any stage of life — whether the adoption was through The Cradle or not, and however the placement was made, through agencies, attorneys, foster care or kinship.

For more information, visit our website at www.cradle.org or call us at 847-475-5800.


HEPHZIBAH CHILDREN’S ASSOCIATION

www.hephzibahhome.org

Founded in 1897, Hephzibah Children's Association is a child welfare agency in Oak Park, IL offering a residential treatment program, foster care, intact family services and day care programs.

On any given day in Illinois, there are nearly 20,000 children in foster care. Foster care is a temporary arrangement while parents and children receive the services and support they need to succeed as a family unit. Hephzibah’s foster care program helps ensure there are licensed families in the Chicagoland area available to provide a safe and nurturing environment during this time. If reunification cannot be achieved, foster parents may be asked to consider becoming a child’s forever family through adoption.

As a licensed Hephzibah foster parent, you’ll never feel alone. We provide a variety of services to help you create a safe and nurturing environment for a child. Services include:

• Foster parent training, mentoring and support groups
• A 24-hour crisis hotline
• Family events and activities
• A summer camp experience for siblings living in different foster homes

If you would like to learn more about opening your HEART and HOME to a child in need, please contact our Foster Care Specialist, Nancy Silver at nsilver@hephzibahhome.org or call 708-649-7184.


KIDSAVE

310-642-7283 (SAVE)
info@kidsave.org
Kidsave.org

Kidsave is dedicated to helping older kids in foster care—who are often overlooked and forgotten by society—be seen, find family, and thrive. For 25 years now, Kidsave’s innovative Family Visit Model gives these kids a voice and choice in who they get to know. Through our Weekend Miracles program in Los Angeles, Houston and Virginia, and our national Summer Miracles program, you can host a child in your home and get to know them before deciding on adoption.

Hosting gives these kids an opportunity to experience family life and build relationships with caring, consistent adults. The kids in our program have often experienced loneliness and trauma that is hard to imagine. At Kidsave, we believe their journey doesn’t stop there. We know that dedication to an older child can single-handedly change the course of their future and will introduce them to a love they’ve often never known, but desperately long for.

Once you meet the kids, it becomes easy to be their champions — or to become so connected adoption is a natural choice. Our goal is to help you walk through the process of making a difference in the life of a child.


OLEAGA LAW, LLC

Janene Oleaga, Esq.
Janene@NYreproductionlawyer.com
www.NYreproductionlawyer.com

Offices in Huntington, New York and Portland, Maine

254 Commercial Street, Suite 245, Portland, ME 04101 - (207) 200-6780
133 New York Avenue, Suite C, Huntington, NY 11743 - (631) 840-7967

Oleaga Law LLC is a boutique law firm dedicated to all aspects of family formation law. Representing LGBTQ individuals, intended parents, egg donors, sperm donors, and embryo donors, Janene's mission is to guide and protect your family as you navigate the world of assisted reproduction and adoption.

Janene is experienced with gestational carrier agreements, egg donation/sperm donation agreements, embryo disposition, embryo donation, and all methods of securing legal parentage including confirmatory adoptions, pre-birth/post-birth orders, and judgments of parentage.

Oleaga Law LLC serves clients in New York, Maine, and New Hampshire and international.


SPENCE-CHAPIN

212-400-8150
www.spence-chapin.org

Spence-Chapin is a licensed and accredited nonprofit organization offering quality adoption services for more than 100 years. Our mission is to help find loving families for children whatever their needs or circumstances and provide counseling and support for all children and the families to whom they have been born or entrusted. Our mission is driven by the belief that every child deserves a family.

Spence-Chapin focuses on finding permanent homes for children who need families; promoting the understanding of adoption through counseling and public education; and improving adoption's image and practice. Through our post-adoption support services and community programs, we help each family member navigate their individual adoption stories with clarity and confidence. Spence-Chapin's roots can be traced to the early 1900s and the pioneering work of Clara Spence, and Dr. and Mrs. Henry Chapin, who independently established nurseries out of concern for homeless infants abandoned in hospitals and shelters.

Today, Spence-Chapin is proud of our role as a prominent voice and leading advocate for adoption, and of our commitment to the well-being of birth parents, adoptive parents, and their children.

To learn more about adoption programs as well as post-adoption support, visit our website at www.spence-chapin.org or call us at 212-400-8150.