Hi Laurie,
I'd love to hear more about how your "matching parties" work and what's involved in becoming a "forever family". Perhaps these ideas, if easily replicable, could be used more regularly in assisting with adoptions or placements.
Thanks,
Alexis
The Matching Parties are one of my most favorite events that we do at Heart Gallery NYC. We work to make them fun for the kids and prospective families who attend. The goal, of course, is to match the children with adoptive families...but the parties are so much fun that even if a child doesn't find their "forever family" at the event, they still have a special time.
For example, our 2009 Match party took place at the Times Square Information Center. It was a big party! Working with our partnering foster provider agencies, we identified around 35-40 kids who were in need of families. Almost all of them had been previously photographed by the Heart Gallery. We then reached out to our pool of certified prospective adoptive families, and invited them to the party. Approximately 45-50 certified families attended. Certified families are those who have attended 30 hours of MAPP (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) training, which is required by most states in order to adopt or foster a child from foster care. These parents have also had background checks, been fingerprinted and have had a social worker go to their home, and complete a home study to make sure that it is a safe place for a child.
Many of our volunteers participated, and we had wonderful refreshments donated by the local Times Square restaurants, great gift bags for the kids, great dance music and super raffle items for the adults. The kids had fun using the mike to try out their singing skills!
We also hired a comedian/actress to do improvisational theater games with the kids and adults in order to encourage interaction.
Working in tandem with the children's caseworkers, our recruitment team followed up with any requests and questions from the prospective families about the children.
Everyone had a great time! And most importantly, matches were made! As a result of this party, both Cieara, age 9 and Bianca, age 13 are now living in adoptive homes, and other children are visiting with prospective families. That's the best part of all!
This is a wonderful idea. Could you expand a bit more on the impact of your project? How many children have you worked with? Also, the mentorship program sounds extremely compelling. How has that program made an impact on people's lives. Any numbers or success stories would be great to learn about. Thanks!
Here in NYC, there are nearly 17,000 children in foster care. Our work impacts all of them directly and indirectly.
Specifically, we have photographed over 100 children (and continue to do so on an ongoing basis) who are legally freed for adoption, but our Heart Gallery Exhibit sites raise awareness of all of the children in the foster care system.
We include a staffed Information Table at all of our exhibit sites(exhibit sites are well trafficked venues such as Penn Station, LaGuardia Airport, malls etc), and sign up prospective families who are interested in learning more about adoption, fostering or mentoring the children.
We follow up with all of these inquiries, and refer them to our partnering foster care provider agencies (over 30 of them throughout the 5 boroughs of NYC). The goal is to have the interested families attend free orientations and then sign up for the MAPP (no charge) training program so that they can become certified and ready to adopt or foster.
Over 50 % of foster families actually end up adopting the children that they foster!
Since we began traveling with the Heart Gallery Exhibit in late 2007, we have referred over 5,000 inquiries from prospective families back to our partners at the Administration for Children's Services, and the 30 + foster care agencies.
We also receive hundreds of inquiries through our website www.heartgallerynyc.org from certified parents interested in the children that we have photographed, and we work with them directly and the children's caseworkers to facilitate matching them with the children.
Currently, nearly half of the children that we have photographed for the Heart Gallery have been placed in adoptive homes, and many others are visiting with prospective families.
Our mentorship program was a pilot program that worked with 10 Heart Gallery youth at risk of aging out of the foster care system , and 10 Heart Gallery volunteers. We partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City who provided the training for the mentors, and support services throughout the mentorship period.
The pilot program ran for a year as planned, and the mentors have stayed in touch with their mentees(the kids) even after the pilot program was completed. The pilot Mentor Program was a success, and we learned so much from the experience, and would love to continue it to be ongoing, but currently, we need to raise additional funds for our Heart Gallery Mentor Program. However we do refer hundreds of potential mentors back to our foster provider agency partners for their mentor programs, and assist in finding mentors for the children.
Every month we hold volunteer meetings in our office to meet with the prospective mentors/volunteers to give them more information about mentoring, and how they can help Heart Gallery help the kids!
At our 2009 Bronx recruitment initiative, we referred over 250 foster/adoption referrals, and 156 mentor referrals from our exhibit site in a month period!
The Heart Gallery continues to raise awareness, and recruit adoptive, foster parents as well as mentors on an ongoing basis.
Comments
Hi Laurie,
I'd love to hear more about how your "matching parties" work and what's involved in becoming a "forever family". Perhaps these ideas, if easily replicable, could be used more regularly in assisting with adoptions or placements.
Thanks,
Alexis
Hi Alexis,
The Matching Parties are one of my most favorite events that we do at Heart Gallery NYC. We work to make them fun for the kids and prospective families who attend. The goal, of course, is to match the children with adoptive families...but the parties are so much fun that even if a child doesn't find their "forever family" at the event, they still have a special time.
For example, our 2009 Match party took place at the Times Square Information Center. It was a big party! Working with our partnering foster provider agencies, we identified around 35-40 kids who were in need of families. Almost all of them had been previously photographed by the Heart Gallery. We then reached out to our pool of certified prospective adoptive families, and invited them to the party. Approximately 45-50 certified families attended. Certified families are those who have attended 30 hours of MAPP (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) training, which is required by most states in order to adopt or foster a child from foster care. These parents have also had background checks, been fingerprinted and have had a social worker go to their home, and complete a home study to make sure that it is a safe place for a child.
Many of our volunteers participated, and we had wonderful refreshments donated by the local Times Square restaurants, great gift bags for the kids, great dance music and super raffle items for the adults. The kids had fun using the mike to try out their singing skills!
We also hired a comedian/actress to do improvisational theater games with the kids and adults in order to encourage interaction.
Working in tandem with the children's caseworkers, our recruitment team followed up with any requests and questions from the prospective families about the children.
Everyone had a great time! And most importantly, matches were made! As a result of this party, both Cieara, age 9 and Bianca, age 13 are now living in adoptive homes, and other children are visiting with prospective families. That's the best part of all!
Hi Laurie,
This is a wonderful idea. Could you expand a bit more on the impact of your project? How many children have you worked with? Also, the mentorship program sounds extremely compelling. How has that program made an impact on people's lives. Any numbers or success stories would be great to learn about. Thanks!
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for your question.
Here in NYC, there are nearly 17,000 children in foster care. Our work impacts all of them directly and indirectly.
Specifically, we have photographed over 100 children (and continue to do so on an ongoing basis) who are legally freed for adoption, but our Heart Gallery Exhibit sites raise awareness of all of the children in the foster care system.
We include a staffed Information Table at all of our exhibit sites(exhibit sites are well trafficked venues such as Penn Station, LaGuardia Airport, malls etc), and sign up prospective families who are interested in learning more about adoption, fostering or mentoring the children.
We follow up with all of these inquiries, and refer them to our partnering foster care provider agencies (over 30 of them throughout the 5 boroughs of NYC). The goal is to have the interested families attend free orientations and then sign up for the MAPP (no charge) training program so that they can become certified and ready to adopt or foster.
Over 50 % of foster families actually end up adopting the children that they foster!
Since we began traveling with the Heart Gallery Exhibit in late 2007, we have referred over 5,000 inquiries from prospective families back to our partners at the Administration for Children's Services, and the 30 + foster care agencies.
We also receive hundreds of inquiries through our website www.heartgallerynyc.org from certified parents interested in the children that we have photographed, and we work with them directly and the children's caseworkers to facilitate matching them with the children.
Currently, nearly half of the children that we have photographed for the Heart Gallery have been placed in adoptive homes, and many others are visiting with prospective families.
Our mentorship program was a pilot program that worked with 10 Heart Gallery youth at risk of aging out of the foster care system , and 10 Heart Gallery volunteers. We partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City who provided the training for the mentors, and support services throughout the mentorship period.
The pilot program ran for a year as planned, and the mentors have stayed in touch with their mentees(the kids) even after the pilot program was completed. The pilot Mentor Program was a success, and we learned so much from the experience, and would love to continue it to be ongoing, but currently, we need to raise additional funds for our Heart Gallery Mentor Program. However we do refer hundreds of potential mentors back to our foster provider agency partners for their mentor programs, and assist in finding mentors for the children.
Every month we hold volunteer meetings in our office to meet with the prospective mentors/volunteers to give them more information about mentoring, and how they can help Heart Gallery help the kids!
At our 2009 Bronx recruitment initiative, we referred over 250 foster/adoption referrals, and 156 mentor referrals from our exhibit site in a month period!
The Heart Gallery continues to raise awareness, and recruit adoptive, foster parents as well as mentors on an ongoing basis.