The Village Family Services partners with RaiseAChild.US
Child services agency signs on with foster and adoption recruitment campaign targeting LGBT prospective parents.
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Children & Families, over 107,000 children in the foster care system are available and waiting to be adopted. Beyond that number, there are 300,000 more children in need of immediate foster placement. Certified families are in short supply.
Today, The Village Family Services signed on as a “Community Friend” partner of RaiseAChild.US, a non-profit organization that encourages LGBT people to build their families through fostering and adoption. Its campaigns recruit and support prospective LGBT parents while putting images of LGBT families into public spaces through outdoor advertising and PSAs on television and radio.
Over the past 18 months, RaiseAChild.US has run three campaigns in Los Angeles, engaging over 350 prospective parents, with 250 attending recruitment events. The Village Family Services will train and certify recruits from the upcoming campaign in November, National Adoption Awareness Month.
“One of our main goals is always to ensure the safety and permanency for the children in our programs,” says Hugo Villa, CEO of The Village Family Services. “We are certain that this goal will come to fruition as we work to strengthen the numbers of LGBT resource parents through this partnership with RaiseAChild.US.”
The Village Family Services is Southern California’s leading bilingual family wellness agency providing safety and permanency to children and youth.
“As one of the partnering agencies, The Village realizes that we are all in this together,” says Charles Robbins, its Vice President of Communications & Development. “Making this kind of investment in a larger collaborative effort is the most cost effective method to communicate our commitment to the LGBT community. Plus, it fits well within the collaborative spirit of the RaiseAChild.US campaign.”
RaiseAChild.US is working closely with Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s “All Children—All Families” (ACAF) initiative, which provides professional training and technical assistance for implementing inclusive policies and best practices for working with LGBT foster-adoptive parents. The Village Family Services earned its seal in February.
“The child welfare professionals at the Village have shown us shining examples of putting the best interests of the children first in the adoption and foster care process,” says Ellen Kahn, Family Project Director for Human Rights Campaign. “They are truly committed to creating more loving families by removing barriers to qualified LGBT adoptive parents.”
To date, ACAF has over 50 participating agencies across the country and has awarded 18 seals of recognition. Last year HRC launched a “50 state strategy,” with the goal of securing at least one ACAF-recognized adoption agency dedicated to working with LGBT families in every state. More information about the initiative can be found at www.hrc.org/acaf