2009

AEA Annual Report

Annual Report 09

Letter from the CEO & President of the BoardThank you for your interest in and support of the Adoption Exchange Association (AEA). We are proud to share with you our accomplishments for 2009.

In 2009, AEA continued to partner with and to bring important services, support, and collegial relationships to its member agencies across the United States. At the same time, AEA completed the second year of its second five year cooperative agreement with the Children’s Bureau to operate AdoptUsKids.

Children will always need families, and there is much remaining to be done to find adoptive families for all children who wait in foster care. AEA and its member agencies look forward to continuing our efforts in 2010.

Rachel A. Pratt Chief Executive Officer

Dixie van de Flier Davis President, Board of Directors

MISSION STATEMENT

Because all children need families, the Adoption Exchange Association

serves its members by stimulating innovative solutions, eliminating barriers, advocating, educating, and sharing excellent practice. Our central goal is to assist and encourage our members nationwide as they find adoptive families for all children and youth who wait in foster care.

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AEA’s approximately 60 members from across the United States continued to be actively engaged with the organization in 2009. The organization’s CEO also represented AEA and its member agencies at several conferences in the United States and Canada.

Member benefits include:Monthly electronic AEA newsletterOne copy of all AEA and AdoptUsKids publications Organization’s link on the AEA website Discounted registration at the AEA ConferenceOpportunities to author articles or submit information for the AEA newsletter The chance to participate in the planning of the AEA conference The opportunity to enroll first in new organizational support features as they are developedThe chance to test new interactive members-only features on the AEA website and social networking sites

AEA Membership NewsAEA sends a monthly newsletter electronically to its members. The newsletter is now an html document, making it easier to view and automatically archived to www.adoptea.org. Member feedback about the newsletter has been extremely positive, with several members stating that the format is easy to read and the information informative and useful for their work.

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Members-Only SiteIn 2009, AEA created a password-protected site accessible only to members. The site is housed in www.ning.com, which allows for the posting of video and photographs, and facilitates discussion among members and the posting of information relevant to all adoption exchanges. With the AEA website redesign in 2010, the www.ning.com features will be incorporated into the website.

Standards & Ethics for Member AgenciesIn January 2009, AEA finalized its Standards and Ethics for Adoption Exchanges. This document builds upon previous versions of the AEA Standards and is to be shared among member agencies to promote a high quality of services and develop common language and expectations. The Standards represent practices considered to be the most desirable in providing services to children, their families, and agencies. The new AEA Standards were distributed to AEA members, on disc and in printed copy, in early 2009.

2009 Premier MembersAdoption Advocacy of South CarolinaAdoption Resources of WisconsinAdoption Rhode IslandAdoptions Unlimited, Inc.Children Awaiting Parents Inc. (CAP)Georgia Department of Human ServicesHope for Families Adoption & Counseling Services

MEMBERservices

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Illien Adoptions International, Inc.Latino Family Institute, Inc.New York Council on Adoptable ChildrenNorthwest Adoption ExchangeThe Adoption ExchangeThree Rivers Adoption Council

2009 Organization MembersCatholic Charities JolietOne Church, One Child of OKAdopt America NetworkAdoption Center of Delaware ValleyAdoptions TogetherAdults Adopting Special KidsAspiranetBlack Adoption Placement & Research CenterCatholic CharitiesConnecticut Association of Foster & Adoptive ParentsDPW - Pennsylvania Adoption ExchangeFamily Support Services of North FloridaFlorida’s Adoption Information CenterIndiana Foster Care & Adoption AssociationLos Angeles County Department of Children & Family ServicesLutheran Family ServicesLutheran Social Service of MinnesotaMaryland Department of Human ResourcesMassachusetts Adoption Resource ExchangeMetropolitan Washington Council of GovernmentsMichigan Adoption Resource ExchangeMurray State UniversityNC Kids Adoption & Foster Care Network

North American Council on Adoptable ChildrenOhio Family Care AssociationSpaulding for ChildrenSpence-Chapin Services to Families & ChildrenWashington Children’s AdministrationYou Gotta’ BelieveA Family For Every ChildAsociación Puertorriqueña de Padres Adoptivos, Inc.Adoption Media, LLCFamilies Like Ours, Inc.Family Connections Christian AdoptionsFamily Design Resources, Inc.International Adoption Services Centre, Inc.LaFamilia, Inc.Sanctuary House of Chambersburg, Inc.South Carolina Council on Adoptable ChildrenSpecial Needs Adoptive Parent ServicesTexas Adoption Resource Exchange

2009 Individual MembersPeggy A. LynchValrie Y. AbrahamsJanet BaumgartnerTom HauberSusan HubbellCharles Lansberry, Jr.MaryJane LinkCarolyn SmithStephanie Burrus TurnerAda White

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2009 AEA Conference “Flourishing in a Downturn” was the theme for the 2009 AEA Conference. Held after the world’s economic crisis began, this conference was planned to bring hope and ideas to everyone in the child welfare adoption field. AEA was able to hold its conference in the historic Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago, the oldest continuously operating hotel in the United States. Highlights of the conference included:

A welcome to Chicago opening to the conference by US Congressman Danny K. Davis, a longtime advocate of child welfare issuesExciting opening sessions each day featuring foster and adoptive families and non-profit leaders

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AEA PROGRAMS &initiatives

18 break-out workshops with topics ranging from How to Thrive in a Changing World to Using Video to Convey Your Message and from Current Status of the Hague Convention to Lessons Learned from Research-Based Foster Parent Recruitment CampaignsA Theatre Performance by The Unheard, a group of young adult alumni of the Illinois child welfare systemAn awards luncheon with Chicago’s own Roe Conn (WLS AM & FM) as Master of Ceremonies

Riding the wave from the 2009 Conference, a 2011 AEA Conference is being planned now, with a Florida location.

Ellen W. Carey Scholarship AwardEllen W. Carey was a remarkable advocate for children, friend, mentor, and colleague to many in the field of child welfare and adoption. Throughout her thirty-eight year career, Ellen W. Carey worked on behalf of children in the child welfare system, serving as case manager and Resource Recruitment Coordinator for several Maryland Counties, and as Coordinator of the Consortium for Child Welfare in Washington, D.C. Those who worked with Ellen Carey considered her to be a lifelong mentor and feel a debt of gratitude for knowing her. She was considered one of the field’s “wise elders” who had enormous national responsibility and prestige but never forgot the reason for her work: to achieve permanency and safety for the nation’s children. Ellen took a

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creative approach to recruitment and was truly committed to children of color and children with special needs.

In tribute to Ellen W. Carey, the Adoption Exchange Association created an annual scholarship award. The award honors Ellen’s life and gives hope and assistance to a promising young Howard University MSW student entering the child welfare field.

The recipient of the 2009 Ellen W. Carey Scholarship was Alondra Jones. Ms. Jones is insuring that, in her case, history doesn’t repeat itself. Her family’s history includes substance abuse, schizophrenia, alcoholism, and AIDS, and she personally has experienced homelessness and abuse. Alondra was the first high school graduate in her family. More impressive even than that, she received scholarship offers from several universities and received her BA in 2007 from Howard University. After graduation, Alondra thought long and

hard about where she wanted to devote her energy and talent, leading her to begin working toward her master’s degree in social work, with a focus on child welfare, at Howard University School of Social Work. Looking forward to her 2010 graduation, Alondra says, “I’ve always known that my compassionate spirit and personal perseverance would take me places—it’s what will allow me to rebuild my community in conjunction with working for children’s rights.”In September 2009, Alondra entered her second year at Howard with a GPA of 3.8. In addition to school, her extracurricular activities include mentoring, teaching part time in an after school enrichment program, and working full time as a Night Time Resident Advisor. It is Alondra’s desire to work with, for, and on behalf of children in foster care.

Lillian Brooks Lansberry Award for Excellence in AdoptionThe Lillian Brooks Lansberry Award for Excellence in Adoption was established by AEA to honor the life of this staunch adoption advocate. Charles Lansberry, Lillian’s husband, is also a social worker and advocate for children and he joined AEA in establishing this award in his wife’s memory. The award is given bi-annually to an adoption worker who each day makes extraordinary efforts to connect waiting children with families. Each award recipient receives a $1,000 scholarship to do something special—something that can’t be done without the award—for children in need of permanent families.

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Lillian Brooks Lansberry devoted her life to the tireless effort to place waiting children into permanent adoptive families. Her vision of loving homes for all children stemmed from a 30-year career as a line worker, supervisor, trainer, administrator, board member, and author. The Adoption Exchange Associate was fortunate to have Lillian Brooks Lansberry as a long-time member, Board Member, and Vice President. On December 15, 1997 Lillian died unexpectedly while conducting adoption research with a colleague in Atlanta, Georgia.

The 2009 Lillian Brooks Lansberry Award was presented at the AEA Conference in Chicago to Margaret “Peggy” Franklin, an adoption professional who was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas but has lived in Illinois since 1972. Peggy has a Bachelor’s Degree in elementary education with a minor in social work from Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio and a Master’s of Science Degree in Applied Child and Family Studies from Northern Illinois University. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and maintains a part-time private counseling practice in her home. Peggy Franklin has worked in the adoption field with Children’s Home and Aid in Chicago since 1986, and is currently the Program Manager for Illinois’s Northern Region’s Adoption, Foster Home Licensing, Adoptive Families Together, and Pregnancy Counseling programs. Of her work, Peggy states, “I love the joys and challenges that the job brings. We are all in this profession for the sake of the children. I love meeting the families and helping them to meet their goals.”

Following her receipt of the Lillian Brooks Lansberry Award, Peggy Franklin sent AEA additional information about how this scholarship made a difference in the life of a family. Two siblings from Arkansas were placed in a family’s home in December 2008. The family also had two biological children around the same ages. The family finalized the adoptions in early July, so the gift of the $1,000 couldn’t have come at a better time. Through this award, Peggy Franklin helped the family purchase a large camping tent, a trailer to carry camping equipment, and tickets to Great America and Magic Waters to celebrate their adoptions!

Wednesday’s Child AwardAEA established the Wednesday’s Child award that, every two years, views and selects the best waiting child segment in the country. Segments are submitted by AEA members and are judged on technical quality and sensitivity to the subject. Winning segments are housed in the Museum of Broadcasting in New York City.

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The 2009 Wednesday’s Child Award was given at the 2009 AEA Conference in Chicago. AEA received 17 nominations from AEA members across the United States. The segments were judged by a panel including media experts and adoption professionals. The segments from two runners-up and one winner were shown at the AEA Conference. As an award, the winner received an original framed piece of art from a child in foster care in Illinois.

Runners-UpTitle: JuiaraAgency and Station: National Adoption Center and NBC 10 (PA)

Title: Moses Hopes ScienceAgency and Station: Washington, DC Metropolitan Council on Governments and WRC/NBC4 (Washington, DC)

2009 WinnerTitle: DanielAgency and Station: Family Support Services of North Florida and CBS 47 “Jacksonville’s Children”Host: Dawn Lopez, Anchor

Generosity of Spirit AwardThe AEA Board of Directors created the Generosity of Spirit Award in 2008 to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to AEA, and to acknowledge that the organization’s success is shared by many people, past and present.

AEA’s first Generosity of Spirit Award was given at the 2009 AEA Conference. Honored were Ada White and Susan

Cox, co-authors, along with Dixie van de Flier Davis, of AEA’s first proposal to the Children’s Bureau for AdoptUsKids. The hard work, creativity, and dedication of Ms. Cox, Ms. White, and Ms. Davis resulted in a wonderful collaboration, now in its seventh year, that has helped us to impact states, tribes, and territories, and thousands of waiting children and prospective adoptive families nationwide.

Caseworker of the Month

AEA continued to honor caseworkers in 2009 through its Caseworker of the Month initiative. Nominations were received from families all over the country. Recipients received a CWOM certificate and recognition on the www.adoptuskids.org website and in local press in the caseworker’s hometown.

2009 RecipientsJanuary Julie Goncalves (MA)February Valeska Garay (PA)March Aura Duque (FL)April Leslie Calloway (LA)May Amy Tedesco (CO)June Robin Gibson (OK)July Cile Cogburn (NV)August Danielle Warren (TX)

Marie Rudison, September 2009

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September Marie Rudison (LA)October Shellee Amarillas (AZ)November Anne Ashton (AK)December Pamela Eller (MD)

Voice for AdoptionAEA serves as a founding Board member for Voice For Adoption whose mission is “Speaking out for our nation’s forgotten children.” In late 2009, AEA’s CEO was elected as VFA Treasurer for one year.

Website PartnershipsAEA has agreements with 14 states to host their photolisting sites on www.adoptuskids.org. All child cases registered on www.adoptuskids.org are simultaneously posted to pages that have the look and feel of each state’s website while, in fact, being hosted on www.adoptuskids.org servers. This saves state and worker time and money in duplicative data entry. This AEA service benefits states—and children and families—in many ways:

Allows visitors to the state site to search for children based on the same search criteria used for the public “Meet the Children” search on www.adoptuskids.org. Search criteria includes: gender, minimum and maximum age, minimum and maximum number of children, and race/racial compositionGives visitor to the state site the experience of being on the state’s site because the graphics replicate the look and feel of the rest of these pagesReduces worker caseload because, when a worker updates case

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information on www.adoptuskids.org, the changes automatically apply to the data posted on the state siteStates receive all technical support from AdoptUsKids via email and phone, eliminating the need for in-house database support and maintenanceAEA posts links from www.adoptuskids.org to the state’s Partner Photolisting in order to encourage traffic between sites Partnership may reduce the cost of photolisting by removing technical development costs, the cost of server space, maintenance, monitoring and hostingPartnership may reduce staff time required to register child cases: data is input once and posts simultaneously on both the national and state photolisting

Presentations at ConferencesAEA staff were out and about again in 2009 providing workshops and keynote presentations at national, state, and local adoption and foster care conferences in many locations around the country.

The Collaboration to AdoptUsKidsOur first five-year cooperative agreement with the Children’s Bureau to operate AdoptUsKids ended on September 30, 2007. The Children’s Bureau released an RFP in late March 2007, inviting proposals for the continuation of the project for another five years. AEA and its collaborative partners – some of them different from the original partners

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-- submitted our proposal, and were delighted to be again chosen to continue our work on AdoptUsKids for another five years. Our collaborative partners for this second cooperative agreement, which runs through September 2012, include The Adoption Exchange (training and technical assistance), Northwest Resource Associates (website and social networking media), North American Council on Adoptable Children (parent support), and the University of Texas at Austin (evaluation). During this second cooperative agreement, the Ad Council, which produces the AdoptUsKids public service announcements, is an external partner with AEA; as it now has its own cooperative agreement with the Children’s Bureau, but we continue to work closely together. During 2009, AEA operated the second year of work in this new collaborative agreement and began the third year in October 2009.

National Media CampaignDuring 2009, the highly successful AdoptUsKids National Media Campaigns continued to use the tagline, “You don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent.” The teen campaign, which launched in November 2008, added a second line, “There are thousands of teens in foster care who would love to put up with you.” The campaign seeks to raise public awareness about the critical need for adoptive families for older youth who continue to age out of foster care at a rate of more than 20,000 each year.

One measure used by the Ad Council to report the relative success of media campaigns is the dollar value of donated media time and space. One new campaign has been launched each year since 2004. Combined, all of the campaigns, including two Spanish language campaigns, received more than $242 million in donated media between June 2004 and September 2009, the last period for which data is available.

In its first three quarters in the market, the AdoptUsKids Teen Campaign ranked among the top ten in donated media of all Ad Council campaigns for the following categories:

#1 in Broadcast TV with $1,455,043. #1 in Network Cable TV with $2,706,751. #3 in English TV with $1,164,523. #3 in Spanish TV with $290,520. #3 in Newspaper with $285,314.

In late October 2009, a new AdoptUsKids National Media Campaign was launched using the same, now familiar, tagline, but this time focusing on the recruitment of African American families. African American children in foster care and those waiting for adoption are represented roughly double their representation in the general U.S. under-18 population. Federal law requires that jurisdictions make diligent efforts to recruit foster and

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adoptive families that reflect the race and ethnicity of the children in care and likely to need care. In the spring of 2009, AdoptUsKids assisted the Ad Council in identifying African American prospective adoptive families who had contacted AdoptUsKids for focus groups. Three focus groups were held in Charlotte, NC and three in Detroit, MI in May to help to shape the 2009 National Adoption Media Campaign to appeal to African American families.

AdoptUsKids also supported the 2009 ad campaign with a comprehensive analysis of data (including federal data and data from the AdoptUsKids website) regarding the demographics of African American children and African American families. This data was released to the press when the campaign launched. It is still too early to report on the value of donated media for the AdoptUsKids African American National Media Campaign, however, in early 2010, AEA will disseminate PSA site kits and information to promote and support efforts to recruit African American foster and adoptive families to African American specializing agencies and State child welfare directors, adoption and foster care program managers as part of its capacity building activities with African American communities that it launched in October 2009.

In addition to the continuing efforts to raise public awareness of the need for foster and adoptive families through the traditional media trio of TV, radio, and print ads, AEA and its AdoptUsKids partners along with the Ad Council and the Children’s Bureau entered the world of social networking media. AEA had already tested the waters beginning in July 2008, with the launch of e-blasts, 30 Seconds from AdoptUsKids, which began to push the adoption awareness message out to large numbers of individual email subscribers. By the end of 2009, AEA’s e-blasts had grown from a monthly to a weekly push to a variety of both family and professional groups totaling over 40,000 subscribers, with a steadily increasing number of click-throughs to the AdoptUsKids website and relative few persons who unsubscribe.

Also in 2009, AEA and its AdoptUsKids Partners developed, with the Ad Council and the Children’s Bureau, a YouTube channel, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account, including two Twitter Parties hosted by AdoptUsKids in 2009. AdoptUsKids is responsible for keeping the content fresh and relevant, and thanks to Google Metrics, we are able to track how many visits to the AdoptUsKids websites come via these social networking media.

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AUsK Websiteswww.adoptuskids.org andwww.adopte1.orgAdoptUsKids, through its partner, Northwest Resource Associates, continues to operate national photolisting websites in English and Spanish. Use of the websites continued to grow in 2009. Between October 2003 and December 2009:

28,000 waiting children have been photolisted on the AdoptUsKids website. Nearly 12,000 of these children are reported to have been placed into adoptive families More than 23,000 prospective adoptive families with approved home studies have registered on the site and have used AdoptUsKids services to learn more about and help locate and connect with children that they are interested in adopting Just under 1,000 public and private agencies have become registered users of the AdoptUsKids website to register waiting children, register approved families, and to search for children for families and families for children

Currently, approximately 285,000 daily unique visitors go on the AdoptUsKids website each month, viewing an average of 4 million pages per month. The Spanish-language website, www.adopte1.org, gets an

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average of 3,000 daily unique visitors each month, viewing about 8,500 pages on the site.

Parent Support AdoptUsKids, through its partner NACAC, provided mini-grants and hands-on assistance to a total of 53 adoptive parent support groups throughout the United States in 2009 (20 in FY 2008 and 33 in FY 2009). The objective of this initiative is for the support groups to develop, in collaboration with their public agency partner, respite care programs for foster and adoptive parents. Evaluations administered by AdoptUsKids partner UTA to the FY 2008 grantees have demonstrated a high degree of satisfaction and effectiveness.

Answering the Call Publications English Family Pocket Guide (2003)

Spanish Family Pocket Guide (2004)

Barriers & Success Factors in Adoption from Foster Care: Perspectives of Families & Staff (2007)

Dollars and Sense: A Guide to Achieving

Adoptions Through Public-Private Contracting (2007)

Finding a Fit That Will Last a Lifetime: A Guide to Connecting Adoptive Families with Waiting Children (2006)

Finding Common Ground: A Guide for Child Welfare Agencies Working with Communities of Faith (2004)

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Improving Adoption Practices: Parents & Caseworkers Talk About Barriers & Success Factors in Adoption and Foster Care (Video) (2007)

ICPC Receiving State Checklist (2007) ICPC Sending State Checklist (2007) Lasting Impressions: A Guide for Photolisting Children (2004)

Nuestra Familia, Nuestra Cultura (Our Family, Our Culture): Promoting & Supporting Latino Families in Adoption and Foster Care (2008)

Practitioner’s Guide: Getting More Parents for Children from Your Recruitment Efforts (2003)

Recruitment Work Plan for Adoption & Foster Care Program Managers (2003)

Taking a Break: Creating Foster, Adoptive and Kinship Respite Care in Your Community (2008)

Wherever My Family Is: That’s Home - Adoption Services for Military Families (2006)

Training & Technical AssistanceAdoptUsKids, through its training and technical assistance (T/TA) arm, the National Resource Center for Recruitment and Retention of Foster and Adoptive Parents at AdoptUsKids (NRCRRFAP) operated by The Adoption Exchange, provided more than seventy days of onsite T/TA and, together with the other AdoptUsKids

partners, more than twice that many days of off-site T/TA to States, Territories, and Tribes (STOs) in 2009. Among the T/TA provided are: market segmentation, diligent recruitment, customer service, targeted recruitment, placement stability, interjurisdictional placement, and assistance with states’ Child and Family Services Review Program Improvement Plans (PIPs), and IV-B recruitment and retention plans. The NRCRRFAP was an active participant in the Children’s Bureau’s Training and Technical Assistance Network throughout 2009, and it collaborated with other NRCs with much of the T/TA provided to STOs. In 2009, the NRCRRFAP began planning the redesign of the professional user pages on the AdoptUsKids website.

National Work GroupIn October 2009, AdoptUsKids hosted a second national workgroup that focused on interjurisdictional placements of children for foster care and adoption. Over two days, representatives from private adoption agencies, adoption exchanges, judges, federal and state agencies and national resource centers dialogued and designed solutions to the interjurisdictional challenges that were identified at the previous

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interjurisdictional work group, which was held in July 2008. The findings from this workgroup will become part of the interjurisdictional placement curriculum that is being developed by AdoptUsKids through its National Resource Center on Recruitment and Retention of Foster and Adoptive Parents. The curriculum, to be completed in 2010, will include videotaped interjurisdictional success stories told by workgroup members and other child welfare and adoption professionals, as well as foster and adoptive families, to Rich Newman a Disney videographer. This is a follow-up to Mr. Newman’s work donated to AdoptUsKids in 2008-2009 to produce

the highly successful DVD, The Road to Adoption and Foster Care, which was recognized with a 2009 Children’s Bureau Adoption Excellence Award.

Media SpokesfamiliesAssisting AdoptUsKids with raising public awareness is a cadre of approximately 250 AdoptUsKids-screened and trained media spokesfamilies. They are families who have adopted children from foster care, but not necessarily with the direct involvement of AdoptUsKids. When a national or local media outlet asks AdoptUsKids for a family that exemplifies a certain kind of adoption (e.g. across State lines, of a sibling

Dixie van de Flier Davis, PresidentThe Adoption Exchange, CO

Ernesto Loperena, Vice PresidentNew York Council on Adoptable Children, NY

Marilyn Panichi, TreasurerAdoptions Unlimited, IL

Jacqueline Wilson, SecretaryThree Rivers Adoption Council, PA

Darlene AllenAdoption Rhode Island, RI

Colleen EllingsonAdoption Resources of Wisconsin, WI

Janice GoldwaterAdoptions Together, MD

Joseph HaynesAdoption Advocacy of South Carolina, SC

Barbara PearsonNorthwest Adoption Exchange, WA

Maria QuintanillaLatino Family Institute, Inc., CA

Bob RooksFlorida’s Adoption Information Center, FL

David Wing-KovarikFamilies Like Ours, WA

Board of Directors

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group, or of older children), these families are interview-ready. In late 2009, AdoptUsKids streamlined the process and increased the velocity with which AdoptUsKids can readily identify and provide specific kinds of media spokesfamilies for the press.

Support for Diligent Recruitment GranteesAdoptUsKids provides technical support to a cluster of nine Diligent Recruitment (DR) grantees that are funded by the Children’s Bureau. This support includes: building and hosting the cluster’s website pages on www.adoptuskids.org, hosting monthly teleconferences, and initiating and providing on-site and off-site technical assistance. Some of the off-site technical assistance in 2009 was provided by AEA Fulfillment Team staff in Baltimore and NWRA staff in Seattle. The objectives of this T/TA was to increase the use of the AdoptUsKids photolisting services, reduce the number of inactive photolisted children in the DR jurisdictions, and to increase the responsiveness of the jurisdiction to families inquiring about the jurisdiction’s photolisted children.

Recruitment Response Teams (RRTs) and Capacity Building

Activities with Specialized CommunitiesIn the spring of 2009, AdoptUsKids began a phase-out of the Recruitment Response Teams which it had funded since 2005, to help retain and connect inquiring families with local services. Through both quantitative and qualitative data gathered over the five years that the RRTs were in operation, AdoptUsKids identified four populations of prospective foster and adoptive families that are at special risk of encountering cultural challenges that discourage their completion of the application, preparation, approval and placement processes. In consultation with the Children’s Bureau, AdoptUsKids began strategizing for extending the direct provision of retention services for inquiring families who self-identify as African American, Native American, military/global, and/or lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or trans-gendered (LGBT), while at the same time building tools and supports for STOs to build their capacity to retain and connect these families with children in foster care. At the end of 2009, services for military/global and Native American families were in place, and those for African American and LGBT families were in the planning stage to launch in 2010.

out of the Baltimore office, Shannon brings with her a wealth of non-profit experience and tremendous energy. She is a 2007 graduate from the University of South Carolina. Before coming to AEA, Shannon was Administrative Assistant with the Brain Injury Association of Washington in Tacoma, WA. To AEA, Shannon brings her administrative experience and skills to support both AEA’s member services and AdoptUsKids.

Cherron Holmes joined AdoptUsKids as a Child and Family Liaison and Retention Specialist in October 2009. A native New Yorker, Ms. Holmes holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. She has been working in the child welfare field since 2001 as a Foster Care Case Manager with the State of Maryland and an Adoption Support Group Coordinator with Diakon Adoption Services. Her other experiences include working with at-risk teenagers in New York City and Baltimore City as well as working in residential treatment centers.

SUPPORTERS & financesWhile funds are still needed to continue its programming, in 2009 AEA continued to slowly diversify its funding base, raising more dollars than ever before from foundations, corporations, individuals, and the combined federal campaign.

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GOVERNANCE & administrationThe AEA Board of Directors continued to meet quarterly in 2009. More frequent meetings were held by sub-committees, including the Executive, Conference, and Finance Committees. In accordance with its by-laws, AEA maintained a Board of Directors—entirely composed of representatives from member agencies—that reflects the geographic, racial, and cultural diversity of the United States.

Staff ChangesThree new staff joined AEA in 2009, two to fill vacancies from late in 2008 and the third in a newly created position, as an additional first responder for AdoptUsKids.

Stephanie Johnson Pettaway joined AEA as the National Recruitment Campaign Fulfillment Director for AdoptUsKids in January 2009 following a national search. Stephanie comes to AEA after working over 40 years in the public child welfare arena. She began her work in child welfare in 1975 as an adoption worker for the Baltimore City Department of Social Services. During her career, Stephanie has worked with all parties of the adoption process. She retired from the Maryland Department of Human Resources as the Director of Child Welfare Policy and Practice effective July 1, 2008.

In March 2009, Shannon Fountain joined AEA as Administrative Assistant. Based

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GovernmentThe Children’s Bureau of the US Department of Health and Human Services

Foundations and CorporationsChesapeake Telephone Systems, Inc.Freddie Mac FoundationJockey InternationalPrinting MattersSite Solutions WorldwideWeberMessick

Individuals and Workplace CampaignsDarlene AllenJohn Bowman & Sandra RobishawManfred BoeckElizabeth BresciaEric BrettschneiderRobert DanzigDixie DavisJeff DayAlison DuraVesper Edwards

Elizabeth EissColleen EllingsonJanice GoldwaterDavid J. GoodmanThomas HauberJoe HaynesJeany HellerChristine HolmesRoberta & James Hopkins Deanna KastelloMary KuryloKiran LenzOneida Little Ernesto LoperenaElizabeth MacAveryJackie Miller & Robert MecariniTomas NochtaBarbara PearsonStephanie PettawayRachel PrattMaria PuglisiMaria QuintanillaAdam RobeLuis RojasBob RooksCarol Spigner John & Jane Uecke Jacqueline WilsonDavid Wing-KovarakNancy Rauch Yachnes

Combined Federal Campaign

AEA is grateful to its supporters. Please

consider joining them and helping to make AEA’s work possible. To make a tax-deductible gift on-line with a credit card, visit www.adoptea.org/donate or send your check to the Adoption Exchange Association, 8015 Corporate Drive, Suite C, Baltimore, MD 21236.

Revenue Amount %Federal Cooperative Agreement $3,616,055 81.73In-Kind Match from Cooperative Partners 658,122 14.88Direct and Indirect Contibutions 21,907 0.50

AEA Conference & Program Fees 116,023 2.62

Dues from AEA Members 10,357 0.23

Other 1,806 0.04

Total $4,424,2�0 �00

Expenses Amount %AdoptUsKids Program Services $4,274,177 95.58

AEA Member Services 169,482 3.79

Management & General 28,294 0.63

Total $4,4��,9�� �00

2009 Financial Information

Adoption Exchange Association8015 Corporate Drive, Suite CBaltimore, MD 212361.888.200.4005 Ph 410.933.5700www.adoptea.org