FAM featured in 5-Part Series With Host Kelly Cordes of WJON/TSM St. Cloud
November, 2024
St. Cloud, Minnesota –Foster Adopt Minnesota was able to take part in a 5-part radio series with WJON/TSM St. Cloud to spread the word about our work and the need for adoptive and foster care parents. Listen in and thanks to WJON/TSM St. Cloud!
Episode 1 Need for Families and Supports – Rachel Walstad, FAM Executive Director
Episode 2 Education Program – Bridget Leonard, Education Coordinator
Episode 3 The Foster Care and Adoption Process for Families- Hailey Wiesman, Information & Referral Manager
Episode 4 Finding Homes for Kids – Kim Sacay, Outreach & Recruitment Manager
Episode 5 Family Supports – Heather Van Brunt, Permanency Services Director
With Minnesota law change in effect, adoptees can access original birth records
July 1, 2024
St. Paul, Minnesota – Adoptees born in Minnesota will be able to access their birth records starting Monday. Last year, the state passed legislation allowing adopted adults access to those records held by the state. Until now, those records have not been available to adoptees.
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Foster Adopt Minnesota, HRC Join Record Number of Partners Working on LGBTQ+ Inclusivity
December, 2023
St. Paul, Minnesota – Foster Adopt Minnesota is proud to be one of 172 child welfare organizations joining the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s All Children – All Families (ACAF) program in 2023, as highlighted in a new report. Together, these organizations work to improve the services provided to the LGBTQ+ community, including children in foster care and prospective foster and adoptive parents who are LGBTQ+. This year alone, this multi-organization partnership assessed 9,500+ policies and practices within child welfare organizations to ensure they meet ACAF best practices criteria — approximately 6,000 more than were assessed when this report was first released in 2019. This allowed for over 1.4 million children, youth, and families across 43 states to benefit from these LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and affirming practices.
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Event encourages more Minnesotans to adopt
November, 2023
Families across Minnesota came together Saturday to celebrate adoption while advocating the need for more people to get involved.The Minnesota Department Of Human Services hosted its 26th annual “Circus Of The Heart” event at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.
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MN Adopt changes to Foster Adopt Minnesota
January 30, 2023
Reporter Kelli Hanson introduces us to MN Adopt’s new name, Foster Adopt Minnesota, and shares a bit about how the organization helps to provide resources for adopting and fostering in Minnesota.
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MN ADOPT undergoes name change, now Foster Adopt Minnesota
February 9, 2023
MN ADOPT, a Minnesota nonprofit providing statewide services to the adoption, foster and kinship communities, announced Jan. 24 that it has changed its name to Foster Adopt Minnesota. The name change comes after expansion of services to provide support services to the Minnesota foster and kinship communities.
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Cities Speak Podcast Ep. 67 – Rachel Walstad
May 5, 2021
Dana talks with Rachel Walstad, Executive Director of MN Adopt in this episode of Cities Speak.
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Brooklyn Park Couple Share Story to Highlight Foster Care Shortage
March 21, 2021
A shortage of foster care parents has been a problem in Hennepin County for years. According to the latest report in 2019, about 1,300 Hennepin County kids were in foster care. That same report shows that on any given day there were an average of 9,300 kids in foster care across the state. More than 700 of those youths need adoptive families.
For 34 years, Brooklyn Park residents Curtis and Darlene Bell have lived out their calling of being foster parents.
(read full article or watch segment)
A Candle of hope For Children
January 8, 2021
In a year that has devastated our families and economies, the vulnerable paid a heavy price. For many of us finding a way to combat the virus was “the” concern in 2020, a circle-the-wagons kind of response.
Yet there were many of you, our readers, who also helped bring light to hundreds of Minnesota children who lacked family connections and a place where they could belong. You cut through the fear and replaced it with hope.
Just more than one year ago, Adams Publishing Group of East Central Minnesota, as well as our sister papers in northern and southern Minnesota, developed a relationship with MN ADOPT, an organization dedicated to helping families who adopt Minnesota’s waiting children by providing online resources and referrals to therapeutic and crisis services, support groups, adoption information and comprehensive training opportunities.
COVID-19 hasn’t stopped adoption journeys
December 8, 2020
Adoptions and foster care placements have continued throughout the COVID-19 crisis, but both children and families are facing additional challenges due to the ongoing pandemic. Thankfully, in Minnesota there are many organizations with resources to help them navigate such challenges.
(read full article)
Event at Minnesota Zoo celebrates children adopted from foster care
November 10, 2019
Families who adopted children from foster care enjoyed a day at the Minnesota Zoo for Celebrate Adoption: Circus of the Heart on Nov. 3 that included music, mascots, games, prizes, face and nail painting, henna art and family photos.
(read full article)
As adoptions fall nationwide, nonprofits say the number of Minnesota children in need of foster care is soaring
Sept 1, 2019
GRAND MARAIS, Minn. — Adoptions in Minnesota are plummeting, and Tim Young doesn’t know why.
Young is in the process of adopting three teenagers as a single parent. But he’s bucking a trend of fewer people adopting in Minnesota and nationwide.
Especially notable are international adoptions, which peaked in 2004 and have dropped 82% to 4,058, according to the U.S. Department of State.
In Minnesota, the plunge in international adoptions has been worse — 85% in 14 years. Last year, there were 135 in the state.
The growing need for safe foster homes
March 25, 2019
Wendylee Raun never planned on being a mother, until she turned 30 and saw a United Way commercial.
Raun’s husband worked at a foster home that was operated by Raun’s parents, so when she mentioned she was considering adoption or fostering, he knew just the child. And when Raun met the sweet 4-year-old girl, she agreed.
“We marched down to Hennepin County and said we want to adopt this girl,” she said.
The county said the odds were against them. It was unlikely they would be a perfect match for this particular child. But after 10 months of waiting, they got the call.
“She asked, ‘Are you ready to be a mom?'” Raun remembers.
The little girl the Rauns fostered, and then adopted, is now 40 and has six children of her own. Wendylee Raun works for MN Adopt, an organization that contracts with the Department of Human Services. The name can be confusing; the agency provides information about adoption as well as foster care…..
Foster homes needed for thousands of Minnesota children
January 7, 2019
(Report by Kare11 NEWS on the growing need for foster homes in Minnesota due to the growing opioid epidemic)
There is a quiet crisis growing in Minnesota — thousands of children across the state are in desperate need of foster homes.
According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the number of children needing a foster home has doubled in just the past five years.
