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|The Idea| |The
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| The Idea | During 1997 four local child welfare agency directors were
appointees or participants in the Governor's Adoption Initiative Council; an ad hoc
group of experts who cooperated to improve the opportunity for
adoption for our State's foster children. Increasingly it had
become obvious that the lack of services after an adoption was a
significant factor preventing more new parents coming forward to
adopt, and foster parents from making their commitment to the child
legally permanent. Given the histories that many of the children bring
with them, this hesitancy was entirely understandable. The four
directors began looking at what might be done for post-adoption
locally because they knew that many children had already been placed
without enough support services being available, and many more will
soon be placed thereby increasing demand even further.
The collaboration now known as AFTER was formed and foundation funding was received to research the need for local post-adoption services. In 1998 AFTER was awarded a three year federal grant and a second foundation grant to begin providing and coordinating services. In 2000 an additional grant is supporting the development of the nation's first Adoptive Family Wraparound process.
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| The Agencies: | Today, three of the original founding agencies collaborate to
provide AFTER services (click the
hyperlinks to learn more).
FAIR: CHILD ADVOCATES: |
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| The Staff | AFTER's San Jose Office: Louise McCarthy is AFTER's Senior Parent Partner. She is an experienced adoptive parents with lots of practical advice for you, along with understanding ears and shoulders to lean on every now and then! Louise is likely to be the first staff member that you will have contact with. Judy Earl MSW is our Senior Social Worker, in charge of services and support for the South Bay and the San Jose office. Judy has lots of experience as a Team Leader and Adoption Practitioner. Prior to joining Kinship Center she worked at Future Families for six years. and in 1994 Judy worked for Children's Home Society in San Jose. Graham Wright M.Phil., M.S.W. is AFTER's co-founder and Program Director. Graham has 29 years of child welfare experience, as a social worker, therapist, policymaker, and agency director. He has represented the interests of children and families at the local, state and national policy levels. From 1984 to 2000 he was founding Director and CEO of Future Families, an adoption and foster care agency in San Jose and San Francisco. Other Locations: Carol Bishop LMFCC is the Deputy Director and co-founder of Kinship Center. She has responsibility for direct services of the Centers in both Northern and Southern California, Including AFTER. Lansing Wood MA is President of the FAIR Board of Directors, and a State Representative of the North American Council on Adoptable Children. She she is an adoptive parent, and is a founder of AFTER and a member of the Steering Committee. Nancy Ng LMFCC is the founder
of FAIR, which was awarded the North American Council for Adoptable
Children's award as "Parent Group of the Year" for 1999.
Previously she and her husband, Harven, were honored by the same
national organization as "Adoptive Parents of the Year". Nancy
is an AFTER Clinical Trainer, serves on the County of Santa Clara
Adoption Wraparound Community Team, and is a parent advisor to the
AFTER Wraparound process. |
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| The support of The David
and Lucile Packard Foundation has been essential to AFTER's
creation. The Foundation has a special interest in children's services
in our four counties, and in promoting efforts that result in systemic
change for children. An initial grant to Future Families in
1997 enabled the AFTER Planning Committee to conduct the research
necessary to firmly establish the need for post-adoption services, and
to indicate directions that could be pursued to develop those
services. A second grant from the Foundation in 1999 provided the
resources necessary to open an office, hire staff and carry out the
advocacy necessary to develop new funding sources for the services. As
a part of the Foundation's initial grant activities, a grant
application was made to the Department of Health and Human Services in
Washington DC to fund adoptive family support services, and training
for both adoptive families and local clinicians. We were successful in
this highly competitive process and received a three year grant to
implement those services. Finally, in 1999, AFTER applied to the State
of California, on behalf of the County of Santa Clara, for new funds
to provide intensive training to foster parents who will be adopting
children who are drug-exposed or HIV Positive. We were awarded those
funds and the training was completed in September.
In 2000 we are thankful for the sustaining support of The Stuart Foundation which is providing AFTER with the ability to implement the Adoptive Family Wraparound process, to be known as the AAP PACT (Adoption Assistance Program Parents Adopting Children Together). Stuart Foundation's support also helps us work on new fund development at the local, state and national levels. We continue to work on the development of new funding sources. Our direct services and the survival of post-adoption for our region depends on it. We are fortunate and grateful to have the support of the Department of Social Services, County of San Mateo; Department of Family and Children's Services, County of Santa Clara; Department of Social Services, County of Monterey and Department of Human Resources, County of Santa Cruz, the State of California, the Federal Government, and most especially, the Stuart Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. If you want to know more about the funding picture drop us an eline! |
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