Last fall, Children’s Home shared exciting news about the opening of two new international adoption programs with Jamaica and St. Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG). Since then, the countries of Dominica and Granada have been added to our Caribbean program portfolio. These new country programs came to us through collaborative efforts with Creative Adoptions, Inc., which voluntarily relinquished their Hague accreditation.
Children’s Home assumed responsibility for more than 60 Caribbean transfer cases and has begun accepting new families, primarily serving kinship and relative cases (i.e., when adoptees are known or related to the adoptive family). Children being adopted range from infants to teenagers, including many sibling groups. Thanks to our Adoption Support Fund, we can offer financial assistance to kinship and relative families who often face financial hardships during the lengthy and expensive international adoption process.
It is both challenging and extremely rewarding to play such an integral role in placing vulnerable chilren with their loved ones here in the U.S.
International Program Director, Therese Bartlett, shares, “The new Caribbean countries are a welcome addition to our international program. We’ve been able to learn from our colleagues doing kinship/relative work in foster care and have been able to adapt our practice and process to serve these families in greater numbers on the international side. It is both challenging and extremely rewarding to play such an integral role in placing vulnerable children with their relatives and loved ones here in the U.S.”
The new Caribbean programs have resulted in a boost in clients for both our Minnesota and East Offices. The transition has been greatly facilitated by the intake, application and international staff, as well as Philippa Street, the former Executive Director of Creative Adoptions, who is now a country representative for Children’s Home. Philippa brings decades of experience and a deep understanding of the Caribbean island programs. We greatly appreciate her dedication and expertise and are thankful she’s entrusted our agency to continue the important work of uniting families through international adoption.
