Please join us Thursday for our live question-and-answer session with adoption experts on Twitter. This will be a safe and open informational chat about the benefits of adoption with a focus on adoption from foster care. We welcome you to this online community and look forward to your questions about how you can make the difference of a lifetime for the 115,000 children in foster care who are available for adoption.
When: Thursday, November 4th from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET
Where: The #AdoptUsKids hashtag on Twitter
How: Follow @AdoptUsKids and @ResourcefulMom in order to participate
Prizes:
– Ten participants which each receive a prize pack and one grand prize winner will receive an Adopt Us Kid folding camping chair!
Guest Expert Kathy Ledesma
Kathy Ledesma is the National Project Director for AdoptUsKids, which is administered by the Adoption Exchange Association (AEA) through a cooperative agreement with the Children’s Bureau. The objectives of the AdoptUsKids project are to raise public awareness about the need for foster and adoptive parents for children in the U.S. public child welfare system, and to assist U.S. States, Territories and Tribes in their efforts to recruit, retain and connect prospective foster and adoptive parents with children needing care.
Prior to coming to AdoptUsKids in June 2008, Kathy worked for 20 years for the public child welfare system in the State of Oregon. She served as Oregon’s statewide Adoption Manager for seven of those years and was on loan to the Children’s Bureau as the Acting National Adoption Specialist from 2005 to 2007.
Kathy’s professional work in child welfare dates back to 1973. It includes seven years with the State of Washington, 17 years with the State of Oregon, positions with two private adoption agencies, and two years as the onsite director for a 100-bed facility in Chiapas, Mexico, for orphaned, abandoned, abused and neglected children and youth.
Kathy has served as President of the National Association of State Adoption Program Managers (NASAP) and on the Executive Committee of the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (AAICAMA). She received her BA from Kalamazoo College and her MSW from Portland State University.
About Adopt Us Kids
Their Mission
The mission of AdoptUsKids is two-fold: to raise public awareness about the need for foster and adoptive families for children in the public child welfare system; and to assist U.S. States, Territories and Tribes to recruit and retain foster and adoptive families and connect them with children.
Their Work
National Resource Center for Recruitment and Retention of Foster and Adoptive Parents at AdoptUsKids (NRCRRFAP)
Love getting the word out, and when my own home grown 8 get bigger we will grow our family with hand picked from foster care!
I adopted my two youngest children during national adoption month 2007! It has been a very rewarding experience!
SO many kids out there waiting and needing to be loved!! Sadly, most kids age out of the foster care system!! I’ll be there to show my support:)
Oh hurray. I was looking for some adoption month events and I found one here. I will be there on the 4th.
Adoptive parent and educator who often writes about adoption. Thanks.
Paula
I am an adopted child, and looking forward to participating in the chat, as well as getting the word out. So many children in the US are waiting for a loving family…
i will be there! @momtodanielle
Looking forward to hearing other adoption stories.
I’ll be there to support this worthy cause! (@anniemos)