Adoption and Foster Care Services
Domestic and International Adoption
Catholic Charities of Central Florida's Adoption and Foster Care Services have had many inquiries from families wanting to adopt an orphaned child, from the recent earthquake in Haiti.
UNICEF has been identified to lead the adoption process for Haiti. Please go to their website at http://www.unicef.org/ for more information .
Steps to take if you want to Adopt:
Whether you want to adopt Domestically (within the United States of America) or Internationally, you will need to take the following steps:
1.) You will need to choose an agency that handles adoptions in the State or Country where you wish to adopt.
2.) You will need a Home Study performed by a professional adoption service like Catholic Charities of Central Florida
What is required in a home study and post placement visits. The home study requires attendance at our adoption orientation classes and the documentation necessary for adoption which would include; background checks and fingerprinting for criminal history, physicals, reference letters, autobiographies, financials, and marital records.
Post Placement: The post placement process includes visits that are required monthly from the time of placement until the finalization of the adoption.
Both home studies and post placement visits are required in order to adopt any child.
3.) You will need to make sure that you fit the criteria of the adoption agency.
4.) If adopting internationally, you need to check into the laws of the nation from which you wish to adopt.
For Haiti adoption information, please go to www.UNICEF.org, Unicef has been designated to handle all adoptions coming out of Haiti. Catholic Charities of Central Florida can assist in an International Adoption by:
A) Referring local families to International Adoption Agencies in Florida.
B) Providing the home study and post placement visits for families adopting internationally
Catholic Charities of Central Florida provides Domestic adoption services for American children
If you are interested in adopting a child or becoming a foster care family and would like more information about our adoption program,
Call 407-658-1818 for a phone assessment or sign up to attend an adoption orientation class.
You can also email cami.tarasewich@cflcc.org and place "adoption" in the subject line The Catholic Church has been active in the delivery of social services to children in Florida for many years dating back to the opening of St. Mary’s Home in Jacksonville in 1886. As licensed child-placing agencies, Catholic Charities in Florida has been a leader in the field since the first Florida office opened in Jacksonville in 1943. Catholic Charities has a rich heritage of sensitive professional counseling and casework. Thousands of clients of all races and religions have been served well with care and love. This rich heritage of skilled delivery of services to those in an unplanned pregnancy or who are seeking to adopt a child continues in the Diocese of Orlando area at the offices of Catholic Charities. Any unplanned pregnancy is a crisis. Our hope is to turn that crisis into a positive experience through private, confidential counseling. The counseling is directed not only to the pregnant mother but also includes the father of the child as available. The counselors are all trained professionals experienced with helping those facing a crisis pregnancy. We provide a caring judgment-free atmosphere that is totally confidential at no fee to the birth parents. The birth parents are provided help to explore the options of single parenting, marriage, and adoption. The focal point is to facilitate an informed decision that is right for the birth parents and the child. If a decision is made to place the child for adoption, Catholic Charities provides adoption services as a licensed child placing agency. The focal point of the adoption program is to find parents for needy children. Building a family through adoption is a complex socio-legal process. Process is the key term. It involves not only the well being of the child but the well being of a host of other persons including the adoptive parents, other siblings, birth parents, and birth grandparents. Adoption counselors provide home study services to parents seeking to adopt a child. The home study services include not only those mandated by state law but also those services required for competent adoption case work including education salient to parenting an adopted child. Families need to be educated and emotionally prepared for the unique tasks of adoptive parenting.
Catholic Charities has always considered post adoption assistance to be an integral part of the delivery of services to all members of the adoption triad. These services have included the careful preservation and maintenance of records and when necessary, facilitating the exchange of non-identifying information between the adoptive family and the birth families. Adoptees and birth parents often seek contact with one another once the adoptee is of age. Catholic Charities offers search/reunion services. Click Here for Locations. The Brevard Interfaith Coalition is a partnership of more than 253 active faith communities launched by Community Based Care of Brevard and Catholic Charities of Central Florida’s Southern Regional Office. Community Based Care is a nonprofit agency that works with the Florida Department of Children and Families to oversee children’s protective services, child abuse prevention, foster care, adoption and efforts to help young adults leave foster care and live independently. The need is great. As of October 2008, 848 children (infant – 17 years old) were living in foster care, 196 families (492 children) were in a prevention program and 84 in the young adult program (ages 18-25 years old).
The CBC philosophy is that faith groups are better prepared to “strengthen families,” and members of caring congregations will make excellent foster and adoptive parents, surrounded by their faith family for support. Catholic Charities of Central Florida was chosen by CBC in July 2008 to develop and oversee the Brevard Interfaith Coalition.
The purpose of the Brevard Interfaith Coalition is to unite and mobilize the more than 500 faith-based communities in Brevard County so that they may effectively reach beyond their churches, synagogues, mosques, or homes to tap into the rich
resources of the Faith Based Community. By uniting their
resources the goal is to prevent child abuse, recruit foster and adoptive parents, recruit mentors to support youth aging out of
foster care, and identify programs and resources that may be shared within the faith community to support the work of CBC.
Coalition members meet monthly to share and pool resources, strategize how to best meet the needs of Brevard’s vulnerable children and families; develop skills to assist congregations, and to learn about the local community resources available to help those in need. Program topics that have or will soon be covered at monthly meetings include: Working with families affected by Addiction and Alcoholism, Needs of Children in Foster Care, the “Aging Out” process for Foster Youth Moving into Adulthood, Public Speaking Skills, How to Identify the Community’s Needs.
Bi-Annual Seminars are held each Fall and Spring for active members, as well as interested organizations. Guest speakers address topics related to the Foster Care and Young Adult programs and break-out groups allow for continued discussion and learning.
CBC and Catholic Charities of Central Florida are partners with the Brevard County Department of Housing & Human Services, which seeks to fill gaps in all human services and oversees services for the homeless – including children and families served by CBC – and United Way of Brevard, which has worked with Brevard County to survey services provided by Brevard Interfaith Coalition members and list them on its Brevard 2-1-1 hotline for community access. |
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