November is recognized as National Adoption Awareness Month. While all adoption-related issues are important, the particular focus of this month is the adoption of children currently in foster care. In California, approximately 60,000 children under age 18 are in foster care.

Children’s Bureau began providing adoption services in the 1940's in response to the increased need of finding homes for World War II refugee children and war orphans. Today, we place 250 at-risk children in caring foster homes and finalize 120 adoptions each year. One of our specialities is helping foster and adoptive children with mental disorders reduce their depression, anxiety, anger and/or withdrawal that frequently accompany abuse.

Foster and adoptive families come in many forms. The Goodwin Family, featured in this newsletter, decided to become foster parents after raising three children. Over the years, they have cared for 30 infants, never considering adoption. Yet, they adopted a toddler boy in 2009 and last month adopted two toddler girls. Vicki Goodwin says that despite a full house, she and her husband, David, plan to continue caring for foster children because there are too many kids out there who just need someone to hold them.

For more information on how you can grow your family through foster care or adoption, click here.

SAVE THE DATE

Toy Boutique
Magnolia Place
Los Angeles
December 10

Annual Toy Shop
Sunrise Center
Lancaster
December 17 & 18

Holiday Party for Families
Anaheim Harbor Family Resource Center
Anaheim
December 20

Toy Event & Santa Visit
Oakwood Family Center
Los Angeles
December 21 & 22

Click here for a full calendar of events



Fall 2011
The League for Children Celebrates Casablanca Style
TLC Event Co-Chair Carol Towne, Humphrey Bogert impersonator and TLC Event Co-Chair Mary Heistand
The League for Children’s 25th annual event, “An Evening in Casablanca at Rick’s Café Americain”, held on October 15th at the Bel Air Country Club in Los Angeles, was a huge success raising an estimated $115,000 for Children’s Bureau's child abuse prevention programs. More than 200 guests attended the evening which honored former Mayor of Los Angeles and philanthropist Richard J. Riordan. Ambassador Glen Holden was the Master of Ceremonies and actress Rhonda Fleming Carlson presented the award to Mr. Riordan. The evening also included a four piece band with "Sam" from Rick's Place and a silent auction filled with one-of-a-kind treasures. Guests were also greeted by Humphrey Bogart impersonator John Tobin. [More]





One Family's Triumph
Amanda, Joseph and Gabriella
Vicki Goodwin just loves being around kids and caring for them. She and her husband, David, have three grown children but there were always little ones in their home as Vicki provided babysitting to her friends who worked. One day, she saw a Children’s Bureau billboard promoting foster care and adoption and was interested in learning more. David was familiar with having foster children in his home as his mom was a foster parent during his middle school years. In 2005, the couple became certified foster parents and since then have cared for 30 infants. [More]





Taiwan Officials Learn from Anaheim Harbor FRC
Diana Torres, program supervisor/coordinator at Anaheim Harbor Family Resource Center (pictured third from the left), was honored recently to give city officials from Taipei City Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault a tour of the Center to learn about the Family Resource Center platform and ways to duplicate programs in Taipei, Taiwan. They had a particular interest in the diverse partner agencies that have joined forces to provide child abuse prevention services and were impressed by the collaborative efforts between government and private non-profit agencies at the Center.