When he was an attorney and administrator with the Florida Department of Children and Families in Tallahassee, Stephen Pennypacker helped write the new rules used by investigators that include gathering more information from families to assess their children’s safety.

Since returning to Gainesville as president and CEO of the Partnership for Strong Families in April 2014, he is now implementing those changes on the ground level.

If done right, he said the system will remove fewer children who don’t need to be removed from their families, will remove the right children and provide the right services to families “to teach them how to make their kids safe permanently so we can get out of their lives.”

The Partnership for Strong Families is one of 18 nonprofit organizations around the state that contracts with DCF to manage foster care and adoption services through 1998 legislation to privatize the foster care system. The organization — with headquarters in Gainesville — covers the 13 counties in the third and eighth judicial circuits in North Central Florida with 105 employees and another 150 subcontracted case managers. Most of the partnership’s $32 million annual budget comes from state and federal funding.

Pennypacker said the partnership takes over cases referred from DCF and determines what services and counseling families need. In cases where children are removed from the home, most are placed with relatives and family friends. Others are placed in foster care. After about a year, the partnership and courts may decide to terminate parental rights, leading to the potential for adoption.

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SUSTAINED EFFORT NEEDED TO CHANGE CULTURE OF INSTITUTIONALISATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES – MAIREAD MCGUINNESS

cretu

Sustained efforts by the international aid community working with the EU are needed to address persistent problems of institutionalisation of people with disabilities in some European countries, according to Mairead McGuinness, MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament who this week facilitated a discussion on advancing the issue with European Commissioner for Regional Development, Coriana Cretu, and Irish activist John Mulligan of Focus on Romania.

Concern was expressed that ways were being found to circumvent an initiative for which McGuinness was responsible, that is, the revision of EU structural fund rules that preclude the use of structural funds for the construction or renovation of institutions, so that funds can be directed towards projects that support community living.

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

THE INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION DEBATE IS OVER

Despite what some may believe, the intercountry adoption debate is effectively over.

For years, the intercountry adoption (ICA) debate has involved a continuum involving three positions. One side, whom I will label the ICA cheerleaders, sees ICA as the best intervention for millions of children caught in destructive, dead-end situations with no adequate domestic solutions. Under the banner of “every child has a right to a family,” this position prioritizes ICA as often the only means of providing children living outside of parental care with a permanent family. The hope was there would routinely be hundreds of thousands of intercountry adoptions annually, such that there would no longer be “orphans” wasting away in orphanages or on the streets.

On the other side are the ICA opponents, who oppose any systemic practice of ICA as neo-colonialist exploitation which takes children from poor, usually non-white, vulnerable families and communities in developing and transition economies, and sends them to generally white, privileged families in rich nations. This perspectives emphasizes the child’s loss of family, community, culture, language, and nation. Some ICA opponents interpret the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as opposed to any systemic ICA practice, and as incompatible with the Hague Adoption Convention.

The Supreme Court on Monday passed a landmark judgement, permitting unwed mothers to have the guardianship of their child without the consent of the biological father.

According to reports, a bench, led by Justice Vikramjit Sen was adjudicating a plea by a woman challenging the necessity of involving the father in a guardianship petition.

According to the petition, the father of the child does not even know about his existence.

As per the guidelines stated under Guardians and Wards Act and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, a notice has to be sent to the child's father to obtain his consent when a plea for guardianship is moved.

In this case, the woman has said that she does not want to disclose the parentage as the father has nothing to do with the upbringing of the child.

Councils get £30m fund to speed up adoption searches

Money to be announced in budget will cover fees that ministers say discourage local authorities from searching outside their borough for parents

Man and child

Last year it emerged that the number of children being put forward for adoption had nearly halved in 12 months. Photograph: Alamy

Rajeev Syal

America’s national security adviser, Anthony Lake, told Frasure in a memo that he favoured revising the map. The former Dutch defence minister Joris Voorhoeve recalls a meeting with Lake at which the American appeared to be “one of a number of persons – who might not like to be reminded of the fact – who then thought the enclaves were indefensible anyway … They considered the enclaves to be very complicated situations which did not fit into a future map.”

Lake, who is now head of the UN Children’s Fund, Unicef, said last week: “While holding the position of executive director of Unicef, whose humanitarian mission depends on its non-political character, I have had to decline, often regretfully, to speak publicly about events in my previous career as a government official. I apologise and wish it were otherwise, for there is no doubt about the importance of the war in Bosnia. There was no issue about which I cared more deeply.”

President Sirleaf Lifts Moratorium on Child Adoptions in Liberia

Tuesday, 30th June 2015

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Monrovia, Liberia - President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has lifted the moratorium placed on child adoptions in Liberia and has directed that the laws, regulations, and standard operating procedures for adoption be strictly adhered to.

According to an Executive Mansion release, Government has amended the Domestic Relations law, which explicitly includes processes for inter-country adoptions. Government has also put in place Standard Operating Procedures and Accreditation Guidelines with strong safeguard measures for both Domestic and inter-country adoptions. The new Standard Operating Procedures provide for appropriate action and review by the Probate Court and by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization.

n Wake of Engeline’s Death, KPAI Proposes Ban on Foreign Adoption

By Noviani Setuningsih Jun 30, 2015

Tags: Angeline, child adoption, Indonesian Commission for Child Protection (KPAI)

There have been numerous calls for a review of Indonesia’s child protection laws in the wake of Engeline’s murder. (Antara Photo)

Jakarta. Indonesia’s child protection body has proposed a moratorium on adoption by foreigners following the gruesome murder of an 8-year-old girl in Bali.

New contact for tracing in Ethiopia

30/06/2015 / in News / by Esmee

Fiom / ISS Netherlands can now also perform searches in Ethiopia, thanks to the agreements made with a correspondent there. This correspondent has a legal background with a large network and experience in international adoption. She will take adoption-related searches for Fiom / ISS. The first case has since been sent to her.

A search in Ethiopia costs at least € 425 (starting rate). Any costs incurred by the correspondent for the purpose of the search (such as travel and accommodation costs, requesting original documents) will be borne by the seeker. Fiom / ISS asks permission from the seeker before these costs are incurred.

You can start a search by filling in the registration form on the Fiom website.

Roelie Post

16:33 (6 hours ago)

to Catherine.Day, matthias.ruete, christian.dani., irene.souka, Simon.MORDUE, Jean-Eric.Paqu., Dirk, johannes.hahn, gv, alexander.ital.

Dear All,

Since 10 years we have been working like this. I was put outside the Commission's walls to address the trafficking of children for intercountry adoption (ICA) through the NGO Against Child Trafficking (ACT), especially set up for this. Many COM staffers, till today, request, my advice, opinion, expertise because the COM lacks the knowledge. I have provided briefings, advice, etc since 10 years. At the same time, in public, and at work, I am treated by most as persona non grata.