Families for Orphans Act of 2009 - HISTORY

The Families for Orphans Coalition is a group of nonprofit organizations, adoptive parents and individuals associated with Coalition member organizations working to attract attention and resources to the plight of millions of orphans growing up without permanent families worldwide. By combining forces we hope to have legislation introduced and passed called The Families for Orphans Act. This Act provides for a diplomatic authority and technical and coordinating capacity within the United States Department of State to help countries worldwide develop policies and capacity to keep children in their birth families whenever possible and move orphans and other children without parental care into permanent families.

The Families for Orphans Coalition has united many organizations with experience working in countries to help orphans. Several members grew out of a working group which convened in August 2007 to collaborate on strategies for providing a holistic model for family preservation and permanent family care. As this practice-focused group focused on the task at hand it was clear that for any efforts to be successful, U.S. foreign policy needed to support the efforts. It had become apparent to many that the United States Agency for International Development did not have permanent family care as a priority, nor was it likely to become a priority. Serendipitously, at the same time several other orphan advocates had become vocal on Capitol Hill about the same challenges within the AID community and issues that needed to change for greater support of permanent family-based care for orphans. Seeking clarity, Members of Congress contacted The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, who convened a meeting of the involved organizations to explore collaboration. The organizations agreed to work together and collaboratively drafted the Families for Orphans Act of 2009.

Collaborating Organizations:

The Executive Committee of the Families for Orphans Coalition includes:

Jane Aronson, Worldwide Orphan Foundation, orphandoctor@aol.com

Terry Baugh, Kidsave, terry@kidsave.org

Thomas DiFilipo, Joint Council on International Children’s Services, tdifilipo@jcics.org

Chuck Johnson, National Council for Adoption, cjohnson@adoptioncouncil.org

McLane Layton, EACH -- Equality for Adopted Children, mclane@equalityforadoptedchildren.org

Brian Luwis, The Institute for Orphan Advocacy, brian.luwis@awaa.org

Judith Rycus, The Institute for Human Services/The Institute for Human Services, JSRycus@aol.com

Additional organizations are encouraged to endorse the legislation.