Everyone has their favorite podcasts, blogs, shows, and books that they’re eager to share with others. Well, we’re no different! We have favorite resources that we think are so important that we want every adoptive family to know about them. These are the authors, speakers, and experts that we learn from every day.
Creating a Family: This nonprofit based in North Carolina is focused on strengthening families – adoptive, foster, kinship – by offering expert resources and opportunities for learning. Their website hosts an impressive collection of trauma-informed, expert resources.
A few to start with:
The Post Institute: Founded about 25 years ago by Bryan Post and Kristi Saul, The Post Institute focuses on helping families raise children who have experienced early trauma. They’ve developed a parenting model that many foster and adoption agencies, treatment centers, and families utilize. Bryan Post is a leading child behavior expert, and has focused his career on “researching child behavior and finding solutions for a small niche of kids ‘with whom nothing works.'”
Some Resources To Start With:
AdoptUSKids: AdoptUSKids hosts a national photolisting for youth in need of adoptive families, many of whom have special needs or are at risk of aging out of foster care. Beyond the photolisting, AdoptUSKids has an easy-to-understand section on the ins and outs of adoption: who can adopt, why adopt, what each state’s process and requirements are. Their blog posts are both informational and inspirational. A few of our adoptive families have even been featured in their blog!
Resources to start with:
Beyond Consequences Institute: This organization’s mission is “to provide every child and student the opportunity to be parented and taught from a place of love, ending the myth that children can only respond, learn, and bond through fear-based techniques.” Led by Heather Forbes, an expert on children with difficult behaviors and the impact that trauma can have on children, Beyond Consequences offers resources for families, schools, and child welfare professionals.
Some Resources to Start With:
The Child Mind Institute: This organization isn’t specifically focused on raising children with trauma histories, but it’s full of so many well-researched, expert resources that we can’t help but consider it a “Go-To!”
CMI offers mental health services, support groups, and evidence-based treatment in some parts of the country. For those of us not living in New York City or San Francisco, though, there’s an extensive resource library on everything from anxiety to autism, mood disorders to trauma and grief.
Start with these resources: