In a recent article from Gallup.com, Sarah Fioroni, and Andrea Malek Ash discuss the fears of discrimination LGBTQ+ adults and families wrestle with when they consider whether to foster and adopt children. The authors report that more than a third of LGBTQ+ adults “say that discrimination they may face due to sexual orientation or gender…
Peter Dobbins, featured in our 2021 Gratitude Report with his parents, is now a Junior at Pasadena High School. Last fall, Peter participated in the school’s production of Dracula.
Thank you to The Rev. Rachael Nyback and her now husband Chad Druten (pictured with family and friends,) whose wedding took place on October 28 of this year. Rachel and Chad designated HFS as one of their wedding gift beneficiaries.
Thank you to Executive Director Julie Brown and her husband Peter, who tabled for HFS at the Episcopal Convention this year at the Riverside Convention Center on November 10th and 11th. Thank, too, to board members John Thies, Marianne Wright and Joseph Zanetta, who also attended.
In a heartwarming partnership that embodies the spirit of National Adoption Month, Closet Factory, a renowned provider of custom-designed organizational solutions, joined hands with HFS Adoption & Foster Care, Southern California’s oldest adoption agency, to help transform the lives of foster youth in Los Angeles.
It doesn’t take long to fall in love. I remember meeting with our social worker in July of 2006 to sign final paperwork just before we would meet our daughter for the first time. William, my husband, asked about health concerns, and what our options were if there were anything inherited. We had been waiting years for this day and his question caught me off-guard. After further discussion and understanding this concern, we concluded the paperwork.
In 1949, something magical took place in downtown Los Angeles. A newborn baby was handed to a couple in a car – an “adoption” in the streets if you can imagine. The miracle was that Dr. George Piness of St. Anne’s Maternity Hospital, and Dolores Hope (yes, Bob’s wife) witnessed it, and felt there had to be a better way to facilitate an adoption. Together, they created the agency now known as HFS Adoption & Foster Care.
In the last 26 years, I have witnessed my share of policy changes and shifts in the dependency system, but one constant remains unchanged: the desperate need for foster homes. The sheer numbers are staggering and disheartening. In Los Angeles County alone, approximately 30,000 children are caught in the intricate web of the foster care…