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Capacity Building

CENTER FOR STATES

Listen to the stories of foster parents and kinship caregivers who adopted children when reunification wasn’t possible. Hear from youth and young adults whose adoptions were successful and from others who returned to foster care. These stories reveal how caregivers, youth, and young adults made decisions, coped with the trauma intrinsic to childhood abuse or neglect, navigated the uncertainties of foster care, and negotiated boundaries, communication, support, and normalcy as families.

Find adoption stories that best meet your needs by selecting filters on the left and use them with activities from the discussion guide to build understanding and foster connections as you advocate, inspire, support, recruit, train, and coach individuals and teams.

Showing 1 - 4 of 4 Voices of Lived Experience Stories
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Hear a foster and adoptive father of African American boys talk about fighting cultural biases to support his sons’ well-being.

Video

Demonstrates how showing up and listening are foundational to developing a nourishing relationship with youth.

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Learn about negotiating boundaries, communication, support, and normalcy from a young person formally in foster care and her adoptive parents.

Video

Frankie is 14 years old and lives with his sister, brothers, and moms. He and his sister were adopted when they were 2 years old and 4 years old, respectively.