ADOPTION
Providing Loving Homes for Over 140 Years
Our goal is to always try and reunite foster children with their families, something we’ve been doing since 1884 when we were started as an orphanage. However, if this is not possible; we are able to seamlessly transition the child into an adoption setting within our own agency.
When Adoption is an Option…
We teach all of our foster families to be resource families by providing free information sessions, pre-services training on foster parenting, and adoptive parenting. This results in a smoother transition for a foster child and their resource family, should adoption become an option.
As a Statewide Adoption Network (SWAN) affiliate, our staff is trained to provide services to children and families with diverse needs and backgrounds. Our Foster and Adoption Staff are accomplished and experienced to understand that the needs of children are unique and are required to be matched with the right families.
FEATURED ADOPTION STORY
Meet Matthew…
When Matthew was a young child, his birth father had abandoned him and his siblings. As the eldest kin, he had no choice but to parent himself and his younger brothers, while being placed in the foster care system. When Jennifer and Michael adopted Matthew, he was introduced back into having a family, but this time, his new family loved, cared for, and supported him. Additionally, both Jennifer and Michael’s real-time experiences working with youth and children helped Matthew seamlessly settle into his new home.
“One of the most striking moments for me in CHOR’s Foster Care and Adoption Program is knowing about the alarming rate of children placed in the foster care systems,” Mr. O’Neil said.
Adopt a child and help them become the best versions of themselves.
To learn more about Foster Care and Adoption, call Jen: 610-655-5555.
Adoption and Post Permancy Services
A review and assessment of a child’s life. A child profile contains a comprehensive summary of a child’s life history, current functioning, and special needs in one document.
Helps children work through the difficulties that can often become barriers for them in finding a permanent home. This process involves an intense preparation that helps children and youth transition from foster care to the permanency option (reunification, adoption, permanent legal custodianship, fit and willing relative, or another planned permanent living arrangement) selected for them.
Includes all activities used to identify an individual or family who is interested in adopting or providing permanency to a specific child, whose qualifications match the specific needs of the child. Client Specific Recruitment is requested for children who have no identified family resource or permanency connections.
This service is available to any family who is willing to be considered as a permanency resource to a child in the custody of a children and youth services agency. Some of the components of the Family Profile are: orientation, family preparation(training), pre-placement continuing education to keep families supported through the process, annual updates, professional updates and matching referrals.
This service is available to any child in the custody of a child and youth agency with a goal of adoption. Placement services are referred when a child or youth is ready to be placed into an approved adoptive home.
These services begin after the placement of a child, sibling group, or older youth into a pre-adoptive home. This unit of service cover the development of an Individual Permanency Service Plan, supervision of the placement by an affiliate, as well as a minimum of 3 home supervisory visits with the family and the child or youth.
These services are available to any family who has adopted and lives in Pennsylvania, whether or not they adopted their child from foster care, and to those families who are providing permanency to children from the foster care system through legal permanent custodianship or former kinship care. Families self-refer by calling the SWAN Hotline at 1 (800) 585-SWAN to request these services, which can include Assessment, Case Advocacy, Respite and Support Group. The services are part of a continuum of services that strengthen and support families.
It is the policy of The Children’s Home of Reading to respect and inform each client and their families about client rights while receiving services through the agency’s programs. Clients/families will be informed of these rights in a manner that they can understand.
ADOPTION CHILD RIGHTS
NATURAL FAMILY RIGHTS
ADOPTION FAMILY RIGHTS