Post-Adoption Services
Statement of Purpose
Because every child deserves a stable, loving, and nurturing home, we respond to the needs of families, youth, and children through a variety of programs.
Post Adoption Services
Catholic Charities has provided counseling services to pregnant woman since the early 1970’s and services to prospective adoptive parents since the 1980’s. Catholic Charities became a state-licensed adoption agency in 1984 and over 400 infants have been placed for adoption through the program.
Although Catholic Charities no longer recruits adoptive families or places children in adoptive homes, we honor our history by providing Post Adoption Services to all adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents who have been involved in an adoption through our agency. Respect for clients and the values of mercy and justice are continuously at the core of all practices of Catholic Charities Post Adoption Services.
What we provide:
Exchange of letters, pictures and gifts between members of the Adoption Triad
Counseling to adoptees seeking to meet their birth parents
Support for birth parents seeking to contact their adoptee
Facilitate meetings between adoptive couples and birth parents
Share information from case files as permitted by state regulations
Counseling and support for birth parents and their family members
Gatherings for members of the adoption triad
Education relating to adoption issues
If you are uncertain of the agency that handled the adoption and/or would like to receive information regarding post adoption services in the State of California, you may contact the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Adoptions Branch. If you are an adult adoptee, birth parent, or sibling and are interested in contact, the State of California has Mutual Consent Programs.
Consent for Contact
http://www.cdss.ca.gov/cdsswebentres/for/ms/English/AD904.PDF
Waiver of Rights to Confidentiality for Siblings http://www.cdss.ca.gov/cdssweb/entres/forms/English/AD904A.PDF
Waiver of Rights to Confidentiality for Siblings Under the Age of 18 http://www.cdss.ca.gov/cdssweb/entres/forms/English/ad904b.pd
Adoption Information Act Statement – Birth Parents
http://www.cdss.ca.gov/cdssweb/entres/forms/English/AD908.PDF
Adoption Information Act Statement – Adult Adoptee
http://www.cdss.ca.gov/cdssweb/entres/forms/English/AD908A.PDF
The Difference You Make
In Fiscal Year 2017-2018 Catholic Charities: facilitated four meetings between birth parents, adoptees and adoptive parents; responded to fifteen phone calls relating to Post Adoption services for Catholic Charities triad members and six calls relating to non-Catholic Charities Post Adoption requests; distributed fifteen letters, pictures and gifts to adoption triad members; and responded to numerous requests for adoption related information.
“We will be forever grateful to Catholic Charities for their role in the adoption process and the creation of our family. Emily joined our lives when she was 2 months old. She is now 13 and is growing to be a fine young woman and a strong member of the Catholic community. The Catholic Charities Post Adoption program is a critical component in ensuring Emily’s journey of understanding continues constructively into adulthood.”