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We believe all children need the love and nurturing of a family of their own  to acheive their full potential.

For children growing up in the foster care system, the stability and security of knowing they have a family to count on is missing.  It is our mission to bring together potential families and child welfare professionals to find permanent connections for children with caring adults.  Through the Adoption Opportunities grant, the Children’s Division of Missouri and partner organizations have joined together to initiate a creative new approach based on experience, knowledge and a commitment to making the lives of Missouri’s foster children better.

Vision: All children shall have healthy, adult, permanent connections in order to realize their full potential.

Mission: To develop, demonstrate, evaluate and share the results of a collaborative, multi-faceted, diligent recruitment program for resource families, including kinship, foster, concurrent and adoptive families, to improve permanency outcomes for children and youth served by public and private child welfare agencies, by preparing children for permanency, adequately training prospective parents to work with specific child populations, and wrapping supports around the foster/adoptive/kinship  parents to stabilize the children/youth.  

 

 Announcements

Outcomes and Lessons Learned from CB Discretionary Grants

Find information on Children's Bureau Discretionary Grant project outcomes, products, keys to success and lessons learned here

You'll find links to grantee findings in specific research, practices, and training areas. Site visit reports and syntheses summarize successes, challenges, and resources used and created.

read more...
Keeping the Promise: The Critical Need for Post-Adoption Services to Enable Children and Families to Suceed - October 2001 read more...
Foster Club's Transition Toolkit - Thursday, September 23, 2010
Welcome to FosterClub's Transition Toolkit, designed to help you and your team of adult supporters take inventory of your current assets, identify your resources, and map out a plan for the challenges after foster care. read more ...
The foster child thought she had nobody left to love her, but she was wrong - Thursday, June 17, 2010

For generations, finding permanent homes for many teenage foster children such as Lisa has been largely a futile exercise because few are willing to adopt older children. So caseworkers often settle for a hodgepodge of foster care placements.  read more ...
What's Working in Foster Parent Recruitment: Stories from the Field - Friday, June 04, 2010

Now, in honor of National Foster Care Month, just celebrated in May,2 NCFA will highlight parent recruitment strategies from across the country that appear to be working. read more ...

 

Missouri Department of Social Services

View photos of children available for Adoption, Adoption Events, the Foster/Adopt newsletter "Family Connections" or other Adoption Resources at the Missouri Department of Social Services.
Presentations

These two presentatios were made on April 21st to the Children's Division's Performance Based Contractors  meeting in Jefferson City.

Hile, M (2009, Apr) Diligent Recruitment web site. Presented to the Children's Division's Performance Based Contractors. Jefferson City, MO.

Zand, D. (2009, Apr). Extreme evaluation: A process and outcome evaluation of the Diligent Recruitment Project. Presented to the Children's Division's Performance Based Contractors. Jefferson City, MO.