Foundation Co-Hosts Briefing on Adoption

Adoptive parent Representative Dennis Cardoza from California’s 18th District presents the significant financial issues surrounding foster care adoption at a recent Congressional Briefing.

Voice for Adoption and the Freddie Mac Foundation together with the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute hosted a Congressional Briefing on June 12 to raise awareness of the unique and significant financial issues surrounding foster care adoption in America. The Foundation is committed to opening doors to hope and opportunity for children, youth and their families through, among other initiatives, its campaign to increase adoptions of foster children.

In her welcoming remarks, Freddie Mac Foundation President and CEO Maxine Baker said, "We all know that the security and love of a family is the most precious gift there is in this world. It's what every child needs. Yet every night, 126,000 children go to bed hoping and praying for a family of their own. There are too many roadblocks in the way of helping these children."

Speakers from various adoption organizations and congressional offices presented different financial issues surrounding foster care adoptions. Adoptive parent Representative Dennis Cardoza from California's 18th District, spoke to the many issues children and families face even after adoption, and made a plea for increased support so adoptions do not dissolve and adoptive parents can continue to give children the physical and psychological help they received from the foster care system.

Speaking out on financial policies that keep children from permanent homes by offering larger subsidies for foster care than for adoption, Zena Oglesby, executive director of the Institute for Black Parenting said, "There's an incentive to keep children in foster-care and no incentive to get them out."

Other speakers included Louise Fleischmann, director of the Center for Adoptive Families, Adoptions Together; Karen Spar from the Congressional Research Service; Joe Kroll, Executive Director of the North American Council of Adoptable Children; Addie Williams, Executive Director of Spaulding for Children; and Brooke Roberts, Legislative Director for Senator Larry Craig.