Services  
Adoption Program  

Adoption services are provided through CONCERN's Greater Berks, Lehigh Valley, Northeast, and Southeast offices.

Click here if you are considering adoption.

Children’s Services

Child Profile

A Child Profile is developed for use with prospective families and to provide information to the child regarding his life and history. It includes information about the child’s developmental, social, psychological, medical and educational history, her birth family, her current behaviors and relationships and her readiness for adoption. A copy of the Child Profile is given to the family prior to finalization of the adoption.

Child Profiles are developed by reviewing records at the county agency and foster care agency, interviewing various birth relatives and other significant people in the child’s life if possible, and meeting with the child and his foster or foster/adoptive family.

Child Preparation Services

Child Preparation Services have been developed to assist children as they prepare for a permanency option, which may include adoption, permanent legal custodianship, kinship care, a return home or another permanent living arrangement.

Child preparation includes three objectives: clarification – helping the child understand what happened to him; integration – helping the child understand and accept that he is part of more than one family; and actualization – helping the child visualize himself as a member of a permanent placement.

Child Specific Recruitment

Child Specific Recruitment (CSR) is a unique method of finding permanent homes for waiting children.

It’s a great way to let families from other communities learn about the children we serve. Through a special plan that is developed with and for each child with his individual needs in mind, we give waiting children an opportunity to be seen by prospective families.

Selected children will be asked for their input and feelings on publicity.

They will be involved in the development of flyers and brochures that highlight their strengths and the positive things about them.

Placement and Finalization Services

Once a match is made, meetings are set up between the family and the child(ren). A Permanency Support Plan is developed by the permanency specialist and the family to assist the family in identifying the child’s needs and obtaining the appropriate services for the child in their community. Supervision takes place throughout placement until the adoption is finalized. Supervision reports are provided to the county which has legal custody of the child.

As the time for finalization approaches, CONCERN can assist the family in securing the services of a qualified attorney. We prepare the Intent to Adopt, Intermediary Report and Confidential Information to Attorney forms.

We submit these documents along with other required documents to the attorney, who then prepares the petition. The attorney files the documents in the court and acquires a finalization date. The family is accompanied to court by its assigned permanency specialist, who has been working with them throughout the process.

Family Services

The Family Profile

A Family Profile is a confidential document legally required for the finalization of an adoption.

Family Profiles address various family issues to gain an idea of the family as a unit and who the individuals are within the family. In addition to being used as an adoption finalization document, family profiles also can be used as a tool for matching families and children.

The family preparation/study process seeks to get to know the family, how it works, why it works for those included in the family, how the family approaches stress and crises, and how the child fits into this family with his/her unique special needs.

The family preparation/study process includes an orientation to the Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN) and a 21-hour adoption group training on various topics pertinent to the adoption of special needs children.

Click here for a printable brochure if you are considering adoption

Click here for a printable Adoption Brochure

Click here for a printable Foster/Adopt Brochure

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