Today we are super excited to announce that we have partnered with the national adoption and infertility organization Creating a Family to provide our prospective adoptive parents with educational resources. We’re even more excited because this partnership means that we can now offer these resources to our New Beginnings adoptive parents absolutely free.
Most adoption agencies require prospective adoptive parents to undergo training in preparation for their adoption. Adoptive parents pursuing international adoption in particular are required to complete a minimum of 10 hours of adoption education. The total number of hours required, however, is specific to each country, with some countries requiring more training and some requiring less. Unfortunately, training can be an additional financial burden to parents (most training programs can cost anywhere from $200-$400), but now parents who have their home study and/or placement done with us will be able to fulfill their adoption education requirement at no cost. Parents who only use New Beginnings as their home study agency will also have access to these resources, but the adoption agency handling their placement may require more or different training.
The Creating a Family website is a very extensive and diverse resource that can be used by domestic and international adopters alike. It offers over 100 one-hour audio courses taught by leading adoption professionals with Certificates of Completion available to users who pass a 10 question quiz after each lesson. They also offer a weekly newsletter and articles on pretty much any adoption-related topic, including such topics as transracial adoption, infertility, grieving, language development, and feeding issues.
The site also has the potential to lessen the anxiety that comes from diving into adoption head first by breaking down the home study process and providing social workers with better education.
In addition to training leading up to an adoption, the website provides post-placement support through articles and videos alike, which means that adoptive parents can find answers to questions and help for post-placement concerns, even during the middle of the night when their social worker is home asleep. (They are human, too, after all.)
All in all, this is an amazing resource, and we are happy to be able to offer it to our parents. If you would like more information about Creating a Family, check out the website here, or give us a call at 662-842-6752 in Mississippi or 651-378-7099 in Tennessee.
