Adoption | Foster Care | Kinship Care | Post Adoption Support

Adoption
To fulfill its mission, first service to the community was adoption.
The basic requirements for adoption applicants are:

Adoptive Applications Must:

Be at least 25 years old. Be able to meet their own basic financial needs and those of the children they adopt. Be able to provide separate sleeping spaces for male and female children in the home. Be able to document their health and financial status. Not have committed crimes against children or other violent crimes.

Adoptive Applicants Can:

Live in an apartment or their own home. Be single male or female, married or widowed. Have children or be childless. Have a modest family income. Not have committed crimes against children or other violent crimes.

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Phases to becoming an adoptive parent:

Phase 1 The first step is to attend a mandatory orientation session where applicants learn about adoption and the Roots process in detail. Staff members will be available to answer any questions and to help applicants understand the adoption process and complete a formal application.

Phase 2 Roots provides adoptive parent preparation sessions called MAPP (Model Approach to Partnership in Parenting). Here, applicants participate in a 10- week program with up to 20 people. MAPP is mandatory for all applicants. MAPP helps applicants prepare themselves to meet the needs of children and learn more about child development and the impact of adoption on their lives. If married, both spouses must participate in MAPP. During the 10 sessions, an adoption worker will meet with applicants individually in their home at least three times.

Phase 3 As part of the adoption process, Georgia law and Roots require proof of marriage, divorce, or widowhood for all applicants who are not single. Applicants who are separated, but not divorced, cannot adopt. As a result of Phase II, a written summary (a home study) of the applicant’s strengths and needs is prepared. The home study is made available to agencies that have custody of the child(ren) the applicant seeks to adopt.

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Foster Care

Foster Care is different from adoption in that it is designed to be a temporary service for children while courts and agencies work together to either return them to their birth families or to terminate their parental rights so that they can become eligible to be adopted.

The basic requirements for foster care are the same as adoption, with a few exceptions. Foster parents are required to complete 20 hours of training each year and they must support any visits that are arranged between the child and their birth parents.

Since foster care is a temporary placement, a child remains with a foster family for as little as a few days, to a few years. Over the years courts and agencies have focused on reducing the amount of time children spend in foster care and reducing the number of moves they make. So foster parents are needed who are willing to work in partnership with birth families, agencies and the courts, to help children return home or be adopted.

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Kinship Care

has a fundamental belief that relatives are a viable placement resource for many of the children in foster care. So in 2000, developed its kinship care program and received a 5-year federal grant in 2003 to support it. When the grant ended on September 30, 2008, All Our Kin (AOK) program had worked with several metropolitan Atlanta public county agencies to place over 600 children who had been in foster care with relatives who became their legal kinship caregivers, as legal guardians and as adoptive parents. The AOK program helped grandparents, aunts and uncles to gain legal custody the children; to get supportive services they needed and to become licensed and approved relative caregivers by Georgia’s Division of Children and Family Services (DFCS).

Even though the federal grant has ended, people who are interested in becoming relative caregivers of children in foster care can contact to find out about eligibility requirements and what types of services and supports are available to them.

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Post Adoption Support

is committed to being involved with families for the life of the placement. Direct services and referrals are provided to families at no charge, regardless of when they adopted. Similar services are available to relative caregivers.

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