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.
THE CHILDREN’S HOME SOCIETY OF NEW JERSEY
CHS of NJ is a licensed, non-profit adoption agency in NJ and PA. With more than a century of experience and expertise in the field, The Children’s Home Society of New Jersey offers many paths to building a family through adoption.
Contact information: Kimberly Thompson, Adoption Specialist, 609-695-6274 Ext. 176 or kthompson@chsofnj.org.

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.
CRITTENTON SERVICES FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Crittenton Services for Children and Families is a nationally accredited behavioral health and child welfare nonprofit with more than 50 years of experience serving the most vulnerable system-involved children, teens, and families. We are based in Orange County, California, and provide services throughout most of Southern California. Our treatment philosophy is one of being trauma-responsive and is at the core of all our programming efforts in order to best address childhood trauma in a holistic and culturally sensitive manner.
We believe that every child and teen should have a safe, secure, and stable home. We work not only to provide a child or teen with a place to live but also with a caring, supportive Foster/Resource Family. Our Foster Care Team provides around-the-clock supportive services and trauma-informed care to the children and teens we serve. The services we provide include but are not limited to training for Foster/Resource Parents, licensing for Foster/Resource Parents, 24/7 support services for our Foster/Resource Families, Masters Level Social Worker case management, mental health services, linkage to extracurricular activities, cultural and linguistic supports, mentors, and tutoring services to support academic needs.
Our vision statement is, “We seek a world where every person is connected to safe and healthy relationships.” Are you interested in positively impacting a child’s life? Can you be a healthy connection for a child or teen?
To learn the benefits of fostering a child or teen, please contact us at: info@crittentonsocal.org or 714-680-9000 ext. 9033.
FAMILY LEGAL ADVOCACY GROUP, LLC (FLAG)
(410) 884-0400
flagfamilylaw.com
With changes in the law, LGBTQ individuals and families in Maryland still face unique legal issues. Family Legal Advocacy Group, LLC (FLAG) can assist you with your legal issues.
As the legal landscape for LGBTQ families continues to evolve, having an attorney who is knowledgeable about the best and most current ways to secure family rights is extremely important.
FLAG can assist you with:
Reproductive Rights and Protection
Estate and Medical Care Planning
Marriage and Divorce Issues
Name and Gender Changes
FLAG believes in supporting all individuals with family-related legal issues. Whether your family consists of a single individual or many members, our attorneys understand how to assist clients in getting the appropriate legal protections for their families. Although we often work with parents who are separating, one of the most rewarding areas of our practice is helping to protect families as they are newly forming.
Contact FLAG at 410-884-0400 for assistance with any LGBTQ legal issues.

GREENLIGHT FAMILY SERVICES
www.greenlightfamilyservices.org
Greenlight Family Services has been preserving families, providing hope and protecting lives throughout the State of Illinois since 2003. Our mission is to achieve the best outcomes for families, young adults, and children by providing the highest quality services. In the beginning, Greenlight focused on providing legal assistance for the growing population of grandparents raising grandchildren. Each year, Greenlight strategically expanded its legal and social services, including a focus on LGBTQ+ parents with our second-parent adoption services.
In 2019, Greenlight expanded its reach with offices in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois to best serve the entire state. Today, Greenlight manages the Heart Gallery of Illinois and Adoption Listing Service for the state of Illinois and provides relative, non-relative, second-parent, and step-parent adoption services as well as DCFS foster parent adoption and post-adoption services. Greenlight provides services for more than 7,000 families and young adults each year.
In 2023, Greenlight was recognized as one of Chicago’s Best & Brightest Companies to Work For. We are proud of our inclusive, encouraging, and family-oriented work environment and the more than 30 members of Team Greenlight who define our award-winning culture.
Greenlight can be reached by phone at 773-728-7800 or 800-572-2390, or by email at info@greenlightfamilyservices.org.
New Jersey Department of Children and Families
The New Jersey Department of Children Families, Division of Child Protection and Permanency, is New Jersey’s child protection and child welfare agency. Its mission is to ensure the safety, permanency and well-being of children and to support families. Our agency is a proud HRC All Children – All Families Recognized Leader in supporting and serving LGBT Youth and Families. There are children in your community who need the warmth and guidance of a family. You can make a difference, be a foster or adoptive parent. You Can Do This! You can provide a home where a child can feel safe, offer guidance, understanding and help a child heal. For more information about becoming and foster or adoptive parent, please visit us at, www.njfoster.org.
OLEAGA LAW, LLC
Janene Oleaga, Esq.
janene@mainereproductionlawyer.com
https://www.mainereproductionlawyer.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. Janene's mission is to guide and protect your family as you navigate the world of assisted reproduction and adoption. Janene is experienced in all ART and adoption matters, including gestational carrier agreements, egg donation, sperm donation, embryo disposition, embryo donation, stepparent or second-parent adoption, and domestic adoption. Oleaga Law LLC serves clients in New York, Maine, and New Hampshire.info@giampololaw.com.
SPENCE-CHAPIN
212-400-8150
www.spence-chapin.org
Spence-Chapin is a licensed and accredited nonprofit organization that has been 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.
VISHNICK MCGOVERN MILIZIO LLP
Comprehensive Legal Service Tailored to All Your Personal and Business Needs
For over 50 years, Vishnick McGovern Milizio LLP has been providing dedicated and compassionate legal support for all people.
One of the first law firms in the U.S. to establish an LGBTQ Representation practice, we continue to advocate tirelessly on behalf of our clients.
The legal landscape of LGBTQ rights is constantly changing. Our seasoned attorneys are at the forefront of both the state and federal levels, with a strong track record in small personal matters as well as landmark cases.
Whichever your case, we provide dedicated, passionate, and resourceful representation strategically tailored to all your personal and business needs.
Our Services
• Workplace discrimination and harassment
• Spousal and domestic partner rights
• Prenuptial and post-nuptial agreements
• Separation, divorce, and custody
• Surrogacy, adoption, and assisted reproduction
• Estate planning
• Estate distribution and inheritance
• Customized trusts and probate alternatives
• Healthcare proxies, living wills, and powers of attorney
• Fiduciary appointments
• Elder law
• Name changes and gender marker changes
• Real estate transactions and litigation
• Co-owner agreements
• Pro bono legal training for organizations and groups
ZAMANI & ASSOCIATES, PLLC
https://www.zamaniassociates.com
Sogand Zamani is the founding principal of the firm. She is a strong and persistent advocate of her client’s interests in all aspects of family and domestic relations law, which includes: adoption, assisted reproductive technology (ART), child custody, divorce, division of businesses and complex assets, Hague abduction matters, relocation, child support, spousal support, domestic violence protection orders, premarital or cohabitation agreements, and parenting agreements. In her family formation practice, she partners with adoptive parents and birth parents in independent, agency, foster parent, second-parent, and stepparent adoptions, break the seal petitions, and guides intended parents engaging in ART, such as gestational carrier (surrogacy) arrangements and donor egg and/or embryo arrangements to create or expand their family.